The Day I saw Versailles

This past November, while on our honeymoon in Paris & Italy, I made sure that we spent our last full day in Paris at Versailles. Ever since I saw the movie, "Marie Antoinette" with Kirsten Dunst..I fell in love with Versailles and the story of Marie. I never thought I'd actually get the chance to visit Paris, much less Versailles..but when we planned our {amazing} honeymoon, it was a 'for sure' stop on our list!!

Bonjour from Versailles!

Now, the actual palace itself is amazing..its beautiful and elegant and full of baroque charm. Walking thru the bedrooms and hallways made me feel as though I had walked through a time warp and kind of wanted to wear one of those massive white wigs with a dress that is 3 times wider than my body. But, alas, it was still 2011 ;)

The famous Hall of Mirrors

I must say though, that as amazing as the palace was {and it was} my absolute favorite part of the entire palace grounds was the Queens Hamlet. It was featured in the movie {the "village" that the King built for her} and in real life it was...breathtaking! It was as though we had walked on a movie set, it was whimsical, cottagey and right up my alley!

Isn't it magical? This was the bridge that crosses over the pond and gets you in to the village. The weather that day was cloudy, misty..almost eery, but gave a dreamy effect to our visit as well!

I loved how all of the gardens had these wooden gates and fences that you could enter through to see the vegetable gardens and flowers. So quaint! I could have stayed there all day!

This was a house! Can you believe it? For a girl from Canada, this was pretty awesome to see

Another house...straight from the pages of UK Country Living, I swear! *sigh* it was magical..

Anyone who has seen the movie would recognize this house/garden for sure! This is the place where Marie had her girlfriends over for tea..there were chickens in the garden and veggies/flowers everywhere!

And, of course, the dairy/farm portion of the village...LOVED that they still kept animals there {even if it was just for atmosphere..didn't matter, I totally bought in to it}

And that's my version of the perfect Versailles!! If I was going back to Paris tomorrow, the Queens Hamlet would definitely be on my 'must see again' list. But since I doubt that is going to happen any time soon, I have these photos and memories as great reminders of the wonders I have already seen. Have a great weekend everyone!

love,

 dawn