Petit Trianon and Petit Hameau

You must take a moment to look at this post about Trianon's English style gardens and Petit Hameau. It is not only very interesting but has beautiful images to accompany it! I highly recommend! :o)

It is agreed Marie felt confined to the strict rituals of court life, and her choice of keeping an English style garden at Trianon (her retreat from Versailles) is visual proof of a separation from the formal bounds of her life. The English gardens represented freedom more so than the French formal gardens* because with the later your eye was bound to only look where the designer directed you. Whereas the former style allows your eye to roam freely across the landscape. In fact it becomes difficult to tell where the 'garden' ends and the landscape begins because it is designed so naturalistic.
Extravagant? Yes.

Also, if you are a fan of WE TV like Ms Heath and I, you might want to check out tonight's episode at 7:00pm Eastern. Yes, it is a Persian theme, but they have the wedding at a location in LA that is modeled after the Petit Trianon in Versailles!

*of course both gardens are designed by a landscape architect and no matter what you are seeing what was intended by said designer. It is all in theory!