It was our third visit to Versailles.  This time, instead of broiling inside the main palace along with all the other tourists pressed together without air conditioning, we chose to focus outside on the gardens, the fountains, and the Petit Trianon.  Marie Antionette’s hamlet was under renovation and I was so excited I could hardly stand it!  I never thought they would open it!  The past two times I had gazed up with admiration at the wooden outdoor curved staircase and balcony, whose boards had intermittently rotted like aged piano keys long ago.  All we had ever been able to do was peek through the glass on the lower levels and stare in awe at the floor to ceiling marble.  Outside there were giant clusters of huge calla lilies, one of my favorite flowers.  The wheel of a mill stood eerily quiet close to a curved bridge over a pond with ducks swimming languidly.  And, sadly, there were vacant places where buildings once stood before the Revolution.  This was her retreat from the rigors of the Royal Court, where she was forced to give birth in front of an audience, people fought over the privilege of dressing her daily, and she was stared at as she ate.  Here she pretended to be a shepherdess to escape the confines of the chateau and all the vicious gossip, plotting, and backstabbing that accompanied it.  I went through all my pictures and I could not find one that even came close to doing any part of Versailles justice.  As the world’s largest royal domain, the grounds cover over 2,000 acres, with 230 of them being devoted to the gardens.  Water features of all kinds are an important part of French gardens and at Versailles they include waterfalls in groves, spurts of water from fountains, and the calm surface of water reflecting the sky and sun in the Grand Canal, formed in the shape of a Latin cross.  Venetian gondolas were once housed on the grounds and even today row boats are available for rent to traverse the great waterway.  My favorite is Apollo’s fountain but, since I posted that from our honeymoon, the picture I ultimately chose was my quick shot of Latona’s Fountain, commissioned by the Sun King.  The first stage of construction lasted twenty years and resulted in the installation of pipes under the basin to supply the water, while twenty jets were placed, in the year 1666.  It was a feat nothing short of amazing.  Having previously been under renovation and seeing it working now in all of its gilt splendor was absolutely spectacular.  Our guide this visit said that at one time there were liveried, royal servants wearing whistles stationed at all the fountains.  As the king approached, they would sound a whistle and it would turn the water’s massive hydraulic system to that particular fountain.  So, as the king walked, majestic fountains rose with his footsteps.  Royal musicians were stationed in the groves to accompany the grand spectacle.  Incredible!  At the tender age of four, Louis XIV began his reign as the King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715, making the Sun King the longest recorded monarch of a sovereign country in European history.  Aside from Paris herself, this place alone endlessly fascinates me.  From the holy grandeur of the Royal Chapel to the Hall of Mirrors and to all of her grounds, Versailles speaks to me like no other site.  It cannot possibly be seen in one day.  The Italian polymath of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, said, “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”  On our first visit we toured the palace itself; the second we tried to see both the chateau as well as the grounds; and on this trip we barely set foot inside the main palace since we tried to concentrate on the vast gardens.  A decade ago I tasted flight with my first footstep upon the cobblestones.  Since then I have ascended exquisite marble stairways and walked over incredibly intricate wooden parquet floors.  My feet have crossed into her formal parterres as well as her lush, shadowed alleys.  With each step I find myself looking skywards, and it is there I long to return:  to the incomparable Versailles.