At the end of our trip to Paris a couple of years ago, we went out to Versailles. We were both too tired to tackle the full palace but walked down the back steps and along the pathway bordering the reflecting pools. I wanted to see Marie Antoinette‘s Petit Trianon more than anything else. The 2006 film, Marie Antoinette directed by Sofia Coppola, had captured my fantasy and fancy. I could understand wanting to run away from Versailles to a more simple spot although the Petit Trianon, while much simpler than Versailles, is hardly our camper up on the farm.
So here are three “beyond” photos from our journey.
The first is a small bridge, easily overlooked, on the walk from Versailles’ reflecting pools to Petit Trianon. I stared beyond the stone bridge into the surrounded wooded area and wondered who took this path – servants? Lovers? Couriers? Marie’s small carriage rushing to escape echoing, grand halls? Sunlight poured into the glade, hiding footsteps and stories.
Petit Trianon is not petite and I don’t know how we came upon this next passageway. I wondered what lay beyond the end of the corridor and around the corner. I could have gone to see, but I felt caught up in mystery, as if we were walking through ghosts and whispers, as if I would disturb some delicate balance if I were to enter this stone corridor.
And then, at last we found what is said to be her bedroom and a window looking out over rose gardens and her Temple of Love, there, beyond the roses. The glass old, wavery and watery, with shifting images depending on the angle where you stood. And just at the edge of the wooden sash, a figure, or partial figure, beyond what I could see or know.
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