There’s a certain magic that appears when the gardens of Versailles are completely empty at sunset. The silence, the open air, the astounding beauty of the aesthetics… it is truly a gift to be able to experience it. When the light hits the palace at the westward angle, turning everything to gold, one feels undoubtedly a part of something greater. Like a piece of art, as if you’re submerged into the very living canvas of a masterpiece painting.
Sunset at Versailles
Even when I spent multiple days exploring the gardens of Versailles, it never felt like enough. I honestly say it could take a week to discover every part of the gardens, not including the palaces and the Queen’s Hamlet!
We spent the day riding bicycles around the huge cross-shaped lake, venturing down some sunny tree-lined lanes that were alive with vibrant yellow flowers. The breeze blew through my hair and I was utterly happy to be there. Of course we were shooting a lot of content for the entire day, so when golden hour hit, we had made our way back to the end of the promenade for ice cream.
By sunset, we walked back to the palace, and that’s where we found we were completely alone in the massive gardens. I won’t deny feeling like a queen myself, with all of it there just for us. I can’t truly describe the otherworldliness of it- one must imagine as if they are the king/queen and freely wandering through their own heavenly property.
For me to have experienced just a sliver of that feeling, to have stopped and breathed in the silence and watched the sun bathe everything around me in a soft gold… to have wandered the empty paths and listened to the birds sing, it was my personal heaven. Pure bliss. I’ll never forget it.