Garden in le domaine de Marie-Antoinette - Château de Versailles

One of my new favorite places these days is the gardens in le domaine de Marie-Antoinette in Château de Versailles. We've been lucky enough to have visited the grounds a couple of times now.

 All of the gardens of Versailles are beautiful. We've been several times and it is always enjoyable to walk around with our children.

The last couple of times though, we've made it a point to visit the Hamlet area of Marie Antoinette's domaine and have loved it.

Walking out of the Queen's château, you first see the English Garden with the Temple of Love. It was built in 1778 entirely out of marble. Marie Antoinette could see it from her room in the Petit Trianon.

 We continued walking past this in order to find the actual Hamlet and farm. I was excited for London and Adeline to see all the animals and was interested in seeing how Marie Antoinette's little village was laid out.

 We saw a few other interesting things along the way: the Rock, the Belvedere, a cute little bridge crossing the stream- all part of the English Garden.

 After a 10 minute walk or so, we came to the Hamlet.

I've always been curious to learn more about Marie Antoinette and now that we live in France and so close to Versailles, I am especially interested in learning more about her.

 The Hamlet was constructed between 1783 and 1787. Marie Antoinette was enchanted by the idea of rustic peasant life and would come here to escape the court of Versailles. No one could enter without her permission.

The village included eleven houses spread around the lake and also a working farm.

This tower was the departure point for boat rides or fishing outings.

 It's a very charming little village and we've enjoyed walking through it on both occasions.

Probably our favorite part though, is the farm.

Walking up to the farm, there is a small vineyard and beautiful little wildflowers. I actually took London's birthday pictures here. It's such a beautiful little area!

The first animals we saw were the chicken and rabbits. Both the girls loved peeking through the fence at them!

 There was also a bunch of goats and sheeps in the field. Of course we had to stop and watch them for awhile too.

 In another area there were different large birds (geese, ducks, etc.). I had to remind our girls not to put their fingers through the fence, but we continued to enjoy seeing all of the animals.

 Unfortunately, after the Revolution, the Hamlet was left in disrepair and wasn't restored until very recently. I'm so glad it has been restored! It was a great place to visit and not very crowded. It's located near the back of Versailles and is a bit of a walk from the actual palace. Luckily, there is parking closer to the Petit Trianon if you only want to visit that area.

We've enjoyed our visits to le domaine de Marie Antoinette and will definitely be visiting again soon!

For more information, please check out:
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/marie-antoinettes-estate

It's a Boy! | Izabella's Pregnancy Session

Last week I had the opportunity to meet Izabella, her gorgeous little girl, Henley, and also their adorable pup, Hiccup.

I love this Mommy-Daughter photo!

Izabella is pregnant with their second child and is due this Spring. She asked me if we could do some announcement photos so we headed out to the Gardens in Versailles for a photo session.

Seriously, such a cute girl. And that crown!

I had so much fun getting to know Izabella and Henley. And my goodness, was Hiccup so well-behaved! I've never seen a dog pose so perfectly for a picture before. :)

This was such a great session and I hope you enjoy some of my favorites below.

It's a boy!

Totally rocking that whole Pregnancy thing!

As soon as I saw this picture, I couldn't resist having a little fun with it ;)

One of my favorites!

I had an amazing time getting to know Izabella and her daughter. They are so cute and photogenic - They made my job pretty easy. :) Best of luck on the rest of your pregnancy, Izabella! That baby boy is going to be one cutie-pie!

Gardens of Versailles

Bonjour!

After a 10 hour red eye flight, we finally made it to Paris, France. The airline, XL, was fantastic. I highly recommend them, especially if you have children. They provided us with a bassinet for Adeline to sleep in and helped us strap in London's car seat. All the attendants were very nice and frequently checked to see how we were doing. Adeline slept just about the entire time and London dozed through out but was a bit grumpy most of the time unfortunately.

Once we arrived, we got a taxi through Skippy Company which was great as well. He drove us to our vacation rental in Jouy en Josas. We got our rental through AirBNB (click here to see the exact place we rented. It is a great place to stay with small children) and our host was gracious enough to leave some food and notes for us. Which was perfect since everything in town was closed for the night!

King Loius XIV (The Sun King)

The Chateau of Versailles 

We stayed in Jouy en Josas for about a week before moving into our permanent rental in one of the small towns outside of Jouy en Josas. After spending several days unpacking and making multiple trips to IKEA, we decided to take the girls to Versailles.

We figured that we would just walk around the grounds a bit. Originally I thought that this would be a quick trip, but it turns out, I was very wrong!

The backside of the Chateau 

View of just part of the gardens

The gardens are huge. We were there for several hours and still did not see everything. They're also absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect when we went.

We started off by going straight back from the chateau and going down into the walls of greenery. They're almost like outside hallways. It was so peaceful and quiet. Both girls were able to take pretty good naps while we explored.

We popped out at the lake where one could rent boats or just relax on the grass.

Then we made our way back up towards the chateau and found a flower garden. Definitely a favorite of London's!

The view at the end of the flower garden. We didn't even make it down there this trip

By now, we had already been in Versailles for several hours so we headed back towards the exit.

That sky!

We saw several food stands near the exit and decided to get a little snack. We got a fruit cup and a macaroon. London was so excited to eat her pink macaroon. :) We ended up taking our snack down to another flower garden and sat on the grass near a fountain.

Overall, it was a great little first outing for our family. I highly recommend spending time in the beautiful gardens of Versailles!