Spotting President Hollande

My friend Meredith told me on Saturday she had read that the gardens at the Elysée Palace where the president lives would now be open the last Sunday of the month to the public. Jumping on this opportunity, I went with camera in hand to the palace last Sunday.

I naively thought that I was the only person to get the inside scoop on this tidbit of info and I would whisk in an out of there in a breeze. When I arrived there was a throng of people queuing up. I have an aversion to waiting on line but it looked like it was moving quickly, so I decided to wait. It was a clear, crisp, sunny autumn day and that made the waiting a little more bearable. It took about 30 minutes to get through because of the security.

Beyond the ornate black iron gates smothered in gold leaf were the gardens. Given the entrance gates were so grand, I thought the gardens would be equally as spectacular. It turns out the gardens were nothing to write home about and had nothing special or particularly interesting that stood out. Also, they weren’t all that photogenic but I managed to get some decent shots.

The gardens were not crowded but next to the clearing where the palace was, there was a mob of people taking photographs and pushing each other. I wanted to see what the fuss was about and when I got closer, I saw President Hollande was shaking hands and greeting people. Of course I had to get in on the action, and got within earshot of the president but could only get a photo of him from the nose up. A few moments later after he retreated into the palace, the president stood on the balcony and waved to all us minions. 

Spotting the president was a nice Sunday surprise and made up for the ho-hum gardens.

The Elysée Palace Gardens are open the last Sunday of every month from 12PM to 5PM, from October to March, and 1PM to 7PM from April to September.

http://www.elysee.fr/












Don't you just love a man in uniform?

 

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Comments

[Kiki]

The gardens look quite alright to me... :)
Don't you just love a man in uniform? ..... Not as much as you obviously! ;) I love a man with a beautiful mind AND a beautiful body - no uniform needed. But nice title, Richard.
Tks for this 'inside' to a place we now no longer have to fantasize about (not that I did). And tks for your daily uploads - I not always have time to comment but enjoy visiting you. Kiki

[David]

haha man in uniform, you dont see any of that at Allens Caravans, but you do see old men haha