jardin du luxembourg

a gorgeous garden in the heart of paris, le jardin du luxembourg is full of lush green grass (that you can't sit on), carved stone vases cradling vibrant pink flowers, dramatic marble statues ..& it has actual street n names within the park.

i love all the little floating boats that bob along in the lake in front of le palais du luxembourg (the impressive palace that overlooks the gardens - home to a museum, i think??). these "luxembourg boats" are in all colours of the rainbow, and each has a little theme. whether it be the colours & flag of a certain country, a skull & cross-bones, or 'MP' with a little silhouette of mary poppins...they've thought of everything. 

you can hire the boats just next to the lake, where they also give you a long wooden stick to....well, i'm not really sure what you do with the stick... poke the boat to push it further out into the water?? i'll pay more attention next time ;-)

we came on a hot day, so we located a few of the little chairs that are dotted across the garden (which, surprisingly, you don't have to pay to sit in. this is unheard of in paris!), dragged them over to the lake's edge and sank into them. admittedly not as comfortable as lounging around on grass, but still as lovely & enjoyable as ever to relax by the water, chatting & watching the luxembourg boats sail by...

à la prochaine,

S.

so many gardeners..no wonder the gardens are flawless!

forbidden grass! nooooo

crêperie in the luxembourg gardens

luxembourg palace

château de versailles

as if it needs any explanation...but, for those sad souls who've never heard of versailles - here's the much simplified lowdown on louis XVI's phenom château...

the palace was originally built for louis XIV in the mid 1600s, where (after about 10 years of building) he finally kicked back & lived out his royal days until his grandson louis XVI came along and decided that the extensive gardens weren't quite up to scratch, so he commissioned a complete replanting. his wife marie-antoinette, being austrian, decided that the château de versailles was 'too french', so louis built & gave her her own estate nestled out in the palace gardens...but in the long run it would be he who spent most of the time there, to get away from the palace.

they both lived here until the late 18th century, when they were arrested and guillotined for getting in the way of the french carrying out their revolution. fin!

and so we arrived bright & early (or so we thought) at versailles, only to find a ridiculously long line full of super-keen tourists who apparently thought the same as us. lucky susi managed to get in for free thanks to being an eu citizen. for us unlucky people who make up the rest of the world, we had to buy a 25€ ticket to get in - but don't worry, the audio guide was included...

buuut, after complaining for over half an hour in the queue to get in - all was forgiven when we saw the palace. it is incredible. the palace's interior is decadent to the final marble-carved bust, intricately-painted fresco & gold-tassled seat. a funny story we heard via our audio guides was that there is a room in the palace called the "public dining room", where 'citizens' (lords & ladies, dukes & duchesses) could come to the palace and watch the king & queen eat. this was to 'connect on a more intimate level' with 'his people'. oh, louis.

the gardens are so grand - with water fountains every which way you look, sculpted hedges & a vast 2km man-made lake stretching out into the distance.

wow, versailles...c'est tout!

S.

happy times lining up

mini marie-antoinette for susi

the 'complimentary' audio guide that came with the 25€ ticket

versailles for dummies?

petit louis xvi

the gardens even have street names. what??

marie-antionette's estate