Today at Facebook there were some beautiful photos of the Grand Trianon and the Hamlet of Queen Marie Antoinette's domain. I really enjoyed studying these photos as the photographer used a special time of day to get the right effects that he wanted to reveal and expose.
When I first returned to the time of Louis XIV one of the most important things that I saw from memory within (as I had never seen even pictures of it at that time) was a retaining wall, and the look of the chateau from the terrace and stairs that lead to the Latona Fountain. That impressed my mind so much as I saw it as it had looked when it was first being built, not as it looks today, and it is still imprinted in my mind.
The Grand Trianon was not built then either.
The wall is what woke me to the fact that I had been in that century (17th) and that is because there were no shrubs or hedges at the time of its being built, and it dawned on me finally that I had lapsed into a time period in which only engravings exist today to show how it appeared.
The engravings are the reason I wanted to go to France to see that wall myself, as the gravings show stone upon stone walls, and I could see that the walls were made of a different medium than that. I realized I was seeing the real walls and so that made me determined to see them up close and personal for myself. As I say this, I cannow go back to when I was there last October and see them as I saw them there. I am seeing once again a bird that kept sitting atop the current statue at the Fountain of Latona and the gray day that had brought rain to the region. One must carry and umbrella to France as it rains periodically so much.
I knew before I went that the match would be made as by the time I flew to Paris, I had already relived so many different memories and moments that I had become very well self assured that all this is within myself to know that I had been the king then. That is very sad to realize that one's position from one time period to another can change so dramatically but it is a fact that we come to live with when we realize that in fact it is so.
But the king's joy and pleasure had been the decision to build a chateau at his father's old hunting lodge.
There are many books about the chateau and its development, the number of kings who lived there, and the problems that have beset it since the change in government and residency.
In America we do not have chateaux or castles to impress our citizens with, but we do have presidential libraries, the closest thing to approximate a residence of a king.
I was disappointed in the chateau when I first spied it from the street in Versailles.
I had stayed at a hotel in LeChesnay, France, a mile or so away from Versailles. So I had to take a look at the chateaux as soon as I could and it is so near the streets of the city that is easy to find and to visit. I recommend a visit to the Versailles and the Chateaux that are situated there. But it is a tourist attraction now that has had a city grow up directly next to its entrance so that it does not fully impress one as a great showcase until one gets into the gates and beyond its doors.
The exterior is actually a huge parking lot for buses now, but once inside the entry gate, the palace is securely free from vehicles except for those that are a part of the maintenance program.
One can order tickets to the Versailles through the internet and can choose to pick them up at a small unit which is up front as soon as you walk into the entry gate. I was to meet Gary and his wife there, but I inched up towards the entrance area where people stand in line to go through electronic screening just as at the airports. Everything is screened to prevent problems.
There is an area at that spot to check your baggage, umbrellas, tripods, heavy garments, etc.
On the day that I was there, there was an artistic sculpture display and we were all greeted with a sculpture of the royal coach and horses.
The exhibition was held in the rooms that were in the wing which lies directly across from the entry area that has the screening device.
However, on the first day that I went to see the Chateau, I chose not to enter the Chateau but to tour the gardens since it was late in the afternoon and I had just arrived, and wanted to see the wall before I did anything else. I had to see if that memory would be much the same in person in the actual spot as it is now that I can remember from my spiritual records.
So I went out the gates that are on the same side as the entrance and it is free so that all I did was to learn how the chateau looks from the outside in the garden area.
I admit that it is so much larger than I had anticipated that I was a bit astonished. I really have to impress you that this chateau is immense, that the gardens are excessively large, and that there is much ground to cover if you intend to walk there as I did.
It is truly so beautiful as to be indescribable. The vista of that view from the terrace alone is astounding. It takes a long time to walk from the top of the hill down to the great canal which is directly below. It is mindboggling to consider how the King must have sat in his father's hunting lodge, and envisioned a chateau of this proportion and size to celebrate his reign as King.
I did walk down the stairs to the wall which I had seen in my memory, stood there, and studied it, and looked at the chateau to see how much it resembled my first memory. I then went to the Fountain of Latona and realized the differences and similarities to the fountain where I had first seen the image of the King standing there with a twinkle in his eye.
I contemplated all that when I was there. The fountain that I saw is the original which did not have the tiers as it has now. The water sprays were working and I could see an image of the king there, and I am wondering always if that was a reflection or what.
I even looked when I was there to attempt to see how this had been.
The king was not heavyset at all then, but rather slight. He gained weight as he aged.
Looking at this now from my perspective today I realize that the King has a mind that is as large as his imagination and the chateau alone proves that. His vision is matched by his accomplishment of building that complex government site.
I often wonder at how much Persepolis may have influenced him in his desire to possibly recreate its counterpart here in France. Many compare the gardens of Versaille to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Hanging Gardens were made to satisfy the King's wife then, and while I do not believe that Louis had Louise la Valliere in mind as a cause to build his gardens, the visual image of some of the garden structure would remind one of the Hanging Gardens. In both cases, problems of carrying water to the fountains had to be considered.
However, in a book I have of the Chateau I do see arches that remind me a lot of the arches that still stand in the ruins of the great city of Persepolis so I am convinced that there is a similarity there. I am suggesting that life spent as Alexander somehow or other is being drawn upon in the creation of this chateau.
It is true that Louis XIV compared himself to Alexander, and I am not proposing that he ever thought of reincarnation at all, but rather the natural tendency to do as Caesar and that is to equal Alexander in some manner.
It is probable that Louis XIV did think himself an Alexander as there is evidence of that, but the chateau itself does make me think that he has the same largesse that Alexander had had, and also had the means, will power, and men to bring his dream to fruition.
Both think grande, both think magnificence.
When Alexander designed cities, he did not think small at all, especially with the design of Alexandria in Egypt.
Louis, likewise, thinks large. His impact is to rule with stature and grandeur.
So to understand and to appreciate the chateau and its grounds is to finally be able to appreciate the depth and breadth of the king. Others could not follow in his footsteps sadly to say.
France had reached its zenith in Louis XIV.
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