Djurdjevic - Personal Photos

January 23, 2011

Personal photos, September 2005

France 2005

Bastille, Versailles...

Paris, France, Sep 19, 2005 - Today was the day for me to try out various Paris public transportation modes. At first, I took the Metro (subway) from L'Etoile to Place de la Bastille; the a city bus from there to Champs de Mars (close to the Eiffel Tower). That's where I caught a train to Versailles, and I returned to the city the same way. At Versailles, I tried their three-car mini-train to get around the enormous estate. Finally, I returned to L'Etoile from Champs de Mars again by Metro. My tired feet and achy knees provided the private transit in between. :-)

I have never been to Place de la Bastille before, and evidently did not miss much.

The only evidence of the place where the French revolution started with the storming of the hated royal prison was this mural on the wall of the Metro station. Guess they must have hated Bastille enough to have torn it down. In its place, one can see today an Opera house. Not a bad substitute for a prison, I suppose.

The weather was again perfect... I was neither too hot nor too cold at any point of the day (I wore a jean shirt over a T-shirt).

When Versailles was built in the 17th century as a "summer home" of the French kings, the estate encompassed 15,600 acres. That's about the area of today's city of Paris. Now, it is "only" 1,600 acres (see the map). No wonder they need a train to get around...

Here's the first glimpse of the Versailles Chateau a visitor gets from the entrance gates.

This is what the French royals called their Petite Jardin (Small Garden). This photo was taken from right in front of the palace, providing a view of the garden that Louis XIV, for example, might have enjoyed as he walked out of his quarters (he had the palace built).

And this... is the central part of the royal palace as seen from the bottom of the Little Garden. If one had to guess where the word "ostentatious" originated, I would bet it was born here. No wonder the king's poor subjects finally rebelled... The canopy visible in the middle and to the left side of the palace is where the current renovations are taking place. Based on my experience this time as compared to several earlier visits, I'd say 2005 and 2006 would be good years to miss Versailles...

Although horses were the preferred way of transportation when Versailles was built, I was frankly surprised to see this herd grazing happily on probably a private pasture that adjoins the royal estate, now a museum.

I had my coffee break at this charming cafe at the start of a huge pond. Their cappuccino was probably the best I have ever had anywhere in the world. It was the highlight of my visit here...

This is a view of the Versailles palace from that point - the start of the pond, or the Grand Canal as it is called.

And some "pond" that is (left). Story has it that Louis XIV kept nine warships here (!) after the Grand Canal was built in 1668, including one with 32 canons on board! Back to being ostentatious... As for the picture on the right, it is one of many alleyways with perfectly aligned trees. The French architects, and their patrons, loved symmetry. God evidently does not. Raw natural beauty is typically a picture of chaos. Guess God is not French - Logic 101 would suggest... :-)

I want to end this report where we started - in Paris - with this shot of the Eiffel Tower taken last night when the entire structure was sparkling like a Christmas tree. I have never seen anything like it before...