January 05, 2017, - Versailles, Part 2:

If you hang a 45 degree right at the grand canal and walk for another 15 mins you will end up at the Trianon Palaces and Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. Versailles began as an escape from the pressure of kingship in Paris. But after a short time it also became as busy as Paris ever was. So Louis the XIV needed an escape from his escape and built a smaller palace out in the boonies here. His later successors retreated still further from the Chateau and the French political life, so even with the outside world was crumbling down, they expanded this area to include a fantasy world of palaces and pleasure gardens. As you can see these were not one bedroom bungalows, these were actual palace size palaces - well that sounded good in my head. In the main Palace out here, known as the Grand Trianon, the king had three bedrooms, check out this billiard table, no real forgiveness in getting these balls down. Let's see, what else out here, yes a grotto, with an octagon palace where musicians played while the elite frolicked. There was the Marie-Antoinette Theatre with its soft blue decor and upholstered walls and benches gave it a doll house feel. Though small, it had everything you’d find in a major opera house: stage, orchestra pit, balconies, gold ceiling and seating for 100. You see Marie-Antoinette adored the theatre and was an aspiring performer and this was the perfect venue for her, safe amongst friends. French Pavilion where she played cards and other games with her friends. The kicker was that she had a Hamlet built, you see Marie Antoinette longed for a simpler life so in short she created a little village - incredible. She had built a complex of 12 thatched-roof buildings fronting a lake. The main building, under refurbishing at our visit, was the Queen’s house, actually two building connected by a wooden skywalk. Oh, and like a typical peasant farmhouse, it had a billiard room, library, elegant dining room as well as two living rooms.   At the end of our stroll of this area we came across the Temple of Love, well of course this had to be here, what an amazing playground, no wonder there was a revolution, hence the large rat that now wonder in these fields. We thought this was a hedgehog but we were told by the groundskeeper that this was indeed a rat. Can anyone say, let them eat cake... a few more pics of this once again amazing day.