Life lived amongst gold

There has always been one place in France I never really put much stock in seeing. Not that I didn't think Versailles was of importance, but I never really had this huge overwhelming desire to see the chateau. There were others I found much more interesting, like Vaux le Vicomte. You might remember Vaux as being the place that some celebrity had a wedding that lasted a hot minute, but I prefer to think of this place as the testing grounds for the likes of Charles le Brun before being roped into working on Versailles.                        

It's a busy place!

Plans changed though and we ended up on the train to Versailles after discovering getting to Giverny wasn't going to happen. (Think the first Spiderman movie where he said to get to the neighborhood he had to take a train, two buses and a taxi. It's tricky from Paris to Giverny.) I can't say much about the train ride to Versailles as I slept the entire time, both ways. :/ Fail on my part, it was the countryside which according to my dad was beautiful. Fail.

Recently recovered in gold leaf.

 As you can see it was another one of those steely gray days. Nice and overcast with some humidity going on that wasn't great. And the chateau isn't air conditioned so that wasn't so much awesome either. You'd get hot then cold then hot then... you get the drift. You can also see it's a busy place. Even in September when we went it was still busy. The queue to get the tickets wasn't too bad and I will say they had a free public facility so that was nice at least. 

Front courtyard where you entered.

 There are some interesting nooks and crannies of the chateau. I spent much of my time inside wandering through. I figured I was there I might as well enjoy it and see as much as possible. Big mistake. I needed about a month or two to really see everything. I have so many pictures from here. And there are some really surprising details, like an entire chapel being inside. It's massive too. You can barely make out all the detail on the organ in the back. You don't get to go inside the chapel, which was a bummer because the ceiling was beautiful.

Chapel inside Versailles. Yes an entire chapel. 

 There were two courtyards on the backside you can see from some of the windows. They actually opened the windows on the second floor (or maybe the third floor) to allow for some air flow. We were there in September so there were still some flowers blooming.

Gardens from inside the house.

Say what you will but Louis XIV had a healthy ego. No worries about self esteem issues here. His likeness is all over the place. Hard to escape him.

He had a healthy ego.

Everything was dripping in gold. Seriously all the ceilings were like the ones above. And the walls were just as ornate. Obviously you can't really touch them, but to stand so close to them was incredible. The amount of money put into Versailles is astounding and when you see it in person you really know where it all went- gold.

Ceiling in one of the rooms. I'm thinking of doing this to my apartment.

 There are a few interior courtyards. To think people used to walk to and fro here is kind of mind boggling. I couldn't quite wrap my head around living in a place this big. Although when you're fighting with someone it would be handy because well you don't have to leave to not see them!

One of the several interior courtyards.

I finally made my way outside. We had separated since we all had different interests. You can rent a golf cart to drive around the grounds. I was tempted, but alas I wasn't going to spend the euros on a golf cart and miss something. Hind sight I should had because I missed seeing the gardens.

Backside of the chateau leading to the gardens.

This is the view from the top of the stairs. I was bowled over by the sheer size of this place. You think you understand it when you read about Versailles and when you see some pictures, but it is astounding to stand at the top of the stairs and look out and still not see half of the place. It's amazing. I was only able to cover a small portion. If you walk down towards the first fountain and turn right you go into an entirely different section. It was incredible.

That's all water out there and leads to the more extensive gardens.

After seeing Versailles my opinions changed. I would go back again in a heartbeat to see some of the places I missed. There are so many different facets to the entire place and the town is equally interesting. If you ever find yourself in France it's worth the visit to see Versailles.

Historical Nauvoo

       

No trip to Nauvoo would be complete without a trip down to see the historical sites. Or I should say no trip in my family is complete without a trip to see the historical sites. With two degree holding historians we are a little bit obsessed with our history. And of course we were excited to see some of the sites. Now I will admit that the pictures are not in order so You'll just have to forgive me. Blogspot is not being my friend today. We took the tour that was offered in the gift shop that belongs to the RLDS church (I'm sorry I don't recall their new name) and it was quite interesting to see some of these buildings. All save the one of the tabernacle are not owned by the church. Unfortunately, we were short on time and ended up having to leave without seeing much of the other end of the sites, which is okay since they were the "shopping" sites and I was already short on money and didn't need to spend anymore!

      

Overall, the trip here was amazing. I've had the great fortune of seeing the Sacred Grove and a few other church sites, but never Nauvoo before this time. I can see why the Saints were so reluctant to leave. Their hard work was only finally paying off in their building of this city. After their struggling to adapt to the changing climate and finally feeling like they had found a place of refuge, they were then being turned out of their homes again. Thankfully it was a peaceful morning so we all ended up lost in our own individual thoughts of the place. And as this is our family we ended up talking about them the entire ride home. Seriously we would drift back to our thoughts of this place during the next 9 hours in our tiny little car.

                           

The two pictures above are some of the different homes in which Joseph  and Emma lived during the time in Nauvoo. I am consistently in awe of Emma. She suffered so much during their short time together and yet in her heart she remained true and faithful. There is a song on the Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith that is all about Emma. It is an achingly beautiful song about her faith and perseverance in the face of great trial. She is referred to in the song as having endure her trials with a "queen's grace" and truly this is the perfect description of her endurance. I can scarcely imagine the pain and anguish she felt throughout her time with Joseph and can only imagine the joy she felt upon their return to one another. 

  

After wandering through town we eventually had to bid Nauvoo farewell. It was in slightly less dramatic fashion as this depicts, but it did leave within us all a desire to return. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards for this summer, but soon. Very soon. 

Nauvoo Temple

The final part of our short journey led us to Nauvoo. We had never been before and honestly by the time we arrived we were so hungry and tired that we didn't enjoy that first night at all. We ended up in our hotel room eating greasy pizza with muscles bunched up after the six hour drive from Missouri. 

The next morning we were dragging, exhausted from the previous day and from the pending 8 hour drive home. Our hotel came with a coupon for the restaurant down the street to we trudged through getting ourselves ready and really rethought the whole thing when we realized how hot it was outside. But alas we had only paid for one night so down the street we went.

This view reminded us though that the trip was worth it. As you can see the morning was little cloudy, but it lent well to the somber feeling we all had as we walked across the street to see the temple. It is stunning in all of it's beautiful morning glory. Standing as a resolute reminder of what once was and what has become. 

We do not have any pioneer ancestors so I cannot say that we lost family then, but as converts to the church I am ever so grateful for their sacrifice. I'm in love with this temples. I've had the great fortune to see a number of temples, but none with the detail work of this temple. The Nauvoo temple is one of a kind and is full of symbolism. 

I'm in awe of this temple and knowing that the design was very much similar to the original. We were all a little reluctant to leave temple grounds. Then again who isn't reluctant to leave the one place you can find peace in a crazy world of insanity.

One thing we did not realize was the temple runs special Monday sessions, but alas we had no church clothing and for us entering those doors in street clothes is not really an option. Just one more thing that will give us an excuse to return one day and do a session there. 

The sun was starting to make an appearance around the time we made our way across the street to see the beautiful flowers. The flowers were beautiful but unfortunately they were being eaten alive by the june bugs. This was shortly after the terrible flooding so I am sure the bugs were a little bit in heaven from all the ripe breeding conditions.

I realize now this looks a little crooked, but I love this picture. The sun slighting peeking through, the image of Joseph and Hyrum on horseback with the temple in the foreground. Some have misconstrued our perception of Joseph, and this is not the time nor place for the discussion of those thoughts, but I for one hold him in high esteem. In the end he gave all for his belief and at the end of the day you cannot argue with his steadfastness.

Our time with the temple came to a close far too soon, but we knew if we wanted to see more we would have to leave. I snapped this as we were leaving temple grounds. I love the reminder each of the temples bear of the sacred nature of the temple and to whom the temple truly belongs. 

The Valley

The Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahmen is a beautiful wide open space that during the summer was beautiful but extremely hot. Now I'm from NOLA and we do heat down there, but for some reason this particular heat was just more. The day was slightly overcast at this point of the morning so the sun wasn't a full strength and for that I am glad. As it was we were seriously soaked with sweat making our way around this small area. I'm not a cold weather person at all ( I blame being in the south for over 15 years now) but at this moment I wished for cold weather. Then we made it back to the car and I was good again with just the AC.

The Valley is a bit off the beaten path, I wondered if we were even going in the right direction more than once, but it was worth the drive. There was only one other couple walking around and they left shortly thereafter leaving the four of us alone. We wandered around for about an hour at the top of the hill and then made our way to the lower portion of the site. (See where the pictures of the bees are and that is from the lower site.) After about an hour, which in that heat felt like two, we climbed back into the car and made our way the hour back to Kansas City. If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you will be familiar with the valley and the importance of this beautiful location. I for one cannot wait myself!

The Bees Knees

These pictures were all taken at the Valley of Adam-Ondi-Ahman in Missouri summer 2011. We were picking up the sis and figured why not turn it into a mini-vacation. 

I am obsessed with bees. I don't know why and honestly it's really just these huge bumble bees. They are fuzzy and really an anomaly in my mind. Somehow those tiny gossamer thin wings heft their bodies off the ground and off they fly. 

He's a cute little guy and really he gave me some great opportunities to catch him.

I have another set of pictures of a bumble bee from the gardens at Versaille from last fall. My obsession went global. 

There really were only a few flowers that were not wilting under the heat and this guy really had a feast as this was a huge clump of flowers.  

As I said I have an obsession. But it's okay because they are just too darn cute not to like.