Palace of Versailles: Visiting the Gardens


versailles

I have posted a few images from Versailles that you can see here and here.  From those posts, you can tell my opinion on Versailles was not that favorable.  Given the hours we spent waiting in the cold weather just to get inside, my opinion may be a little unfair.  This is probably especially true when it comes to the gardens, which were pretty awesome, but I saw them in the middle of winter and was ready to get back to the hotel rather than explore the gardens by the time I got outside the Palace.

Because of that, I wanted to bring you a different view of Versailles from Kyle Iain Dunn.  Kyle is Clinical Psychologist in the UK, though he originally studied architecture at university, and remains passionate about architecture and landscapes.

Kyle shot the above image with his iPhone 5S and edited in Instagram.  The image shows the back side of the palace.  I really liked the composition on this image.  The statute is an interesting foreground.  The palace is an interesting background, and the water feature brings them both together.

story of the image

As I said above, I mainly wanted to share Kyle’s image because I wanted to share a different experience of Versailles.  You can find more from Kyle on Instagram, @kidunn1987. Kyle’s story about this image, in his own words, is below:

This image of the Palace of Versailles was captured on a cold winter’s day in late November from one of the water parterres in the palace gardens. I was visiting here with my friend from Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. This is the third time I have visited Versailles, and it never ceases to amaze me. It combines my love of both architecture and history; you really feel like you are stepping back in time into pre-revolutionary France, it is as if time has stood still here.

“I think the image that I have captured is testament to the scale and grandeur of the palace and gardens. In the foreground you can see a larger than life-size bronze sculpture representing one of the great rivers of France, which I think demonstrates this desire for bold statements that is seen throughout the estate. One of the things that I liked most about this image were the contrasts between the strong hues of blue, yellow, and green which we also see in nature. The water reflects the sun’s rays and lights up the golden facade of the palace, and this reflection seems to bring the whole image together by bridging the background image of the palace with the sculpture.”

versailles gardens

Below is another image of a quick snapshot I took last winter showing the gardens.

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