Here We Go: Le Potager du Roi

Life thus far in France has been pretty remarkable. Based at the Potager du Roi in Versailles, I've had some time to recoup from day-to-day travel and settle into a semblance of a routine. Of course, the routine is defined by a job that has me working in the fields 8-hours a day, but they're old fields and the payoffs are damn good.

So here's the low-down. The Potager du Roi, or 'King's Kitchen Garden,' is just that, the vegetable and fruit garden for Louis XIV. The Potager is located next to the Versailles Palace to the East of the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses and covers 22 acres. It was built to, you guessed it, feed the king and other occupants of the Palace. The garden was designed by a lawyer by training and was finished in 1683. The garden is still remains relatively the same, using innovative practices to produce food.

From the people I've talked to, Versailles has the reputation for being a bougie kind of place. Many people are catholic and have lots of wealth by way of property. The month of June is the Mois de Molière and there's always music, a festival or parties going on. There are also, of course many tourists. Thankfully they tend to be in predictable places and it's easy to avoid the large groups.

The streets of Versailles

Versailles Palace and it's abstract frame

The Usual Before our Train to Paris

As part of our internship with the small organization, the French Heritage Society, Melissa and I share an apartment in the Potager. The apartment's lies up a windy staircase in the attic of the old garden barracks. The fact that we only have to walk downstairs makes our 8am work-day less intimidating. Our kitchens quaint but it's not the sort of place 'The Art of French Cooking' is not about to go down.

Our Front Yard - After Entering from the Road

Plus Petit

View from our kitchen (Credit to Mel P)

In our free time after work's done at 5pm, we've been keeping ourselves occupied with trips to Paris, shopping food markets and the amazing clothing 'soldes,' and get-togethers with new friends in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage (ENSP). Yesterday for example, Melissa and I spent the day doing watercolors and picnicking in the Palace of Versailles gardens with a small group of Formation Continue folks and a teacher from the ENSP. The experience included a very talented teacher who's primary comment was 'plus de bleu,' informal wine and food (of course), and pissing in the palace gardens. When in France...