​This week I had my lovely littlest sister here visiting me. It was her half term week (unfortunately the week after mine) and I had quite a busy week at uni so she did a lot of entertaining herself but it was still so nice having her here. 
On Thursday I had an interview with a digital communications agency (will do a post on my search for internships soon) near Versailles so I decided it would be a great opportunity to visit the Chateau. I have been to the gardens before but never into the palace and I have always wanted so that I can see the splendour for itself. 

Versailles is just so imposing when you approach it. The gates are so gold that they don't even look like they are real. I still don't know if they are actually real gold (?) It's great because if you're under 26 and an EU citizen then entry is free which I think is an amazing way to get young people seeing art and culture and it's obviously great for me as a student on a budget. (I'm sorry that this photo is ever so slightly not straight, I wasn't quite on centre and it's really annoying)

The architecture of Versailles is amazing. Everything is so luxurious and splendid and extravagant and oh the symmetry..! There is not enough symmetry in modern buildings. I know that sounds stupid but I just think when you can look directly down the middle or up at something it's so impressive that they were able to build it so precisely and perfectly without any technology or machinery. Modern day building all have flat ceilings and flat walls (probably a huge generalisation) and they just don't have all this intricate detailing and lines that you find in older architecture. 

Versailles is so ridiculously gold and luxe that you can understand why the starving people of 1700s France got a bit wound up and decided to overthrow the monarchy. That said, it makes for great viewing for tourists of the 2010s so I am grateful to the people of France for having suffered so that I can filter the life out my photos and exploit their instapotential using hashtags like #luxe #architecture #interior to get to more than 12 likes. 

Having been inside of Versailles, I am even more glad that they didn't let Kim Kardashian and Kanye West get married there. It has enough history of its own and it would have ceased to be the palace of France if they had married there and would have become 'the place where Kim and Kanye got married'. Although it would be a stunning wedding venue so I can't blame Kim for wanting to get married there. 

The gardens are just as stunning as the Chateau, to be honest. I think they look nicer in the summer because all the flowers are out but the trees are all gorgeous red-heads at the moment so that was equally beautiful. I don't remember appreciating the colours of autumn as much as this last year but this year every time I go outside I'm like 'wow I want to instagram that tree'. See here for the Tuileries in Autumn. The one problem with instagramming autumn photos is knowing whether to #autumn or #fall. You have to be considering the american audience but then also considering the time difference. So for example if you #fall in the morning, Americans will be asleep and you won't get 12 likes. It's a real art. (I'm sure my sister who somehow gets at least 70 likes on each post with no hashtags is laughing/cringing at me right now). 

There is even symmetry in literally the entire grounds of Versailles. Stunning. They must have some seriously great gardeners. 

It was actually quite nice to escape Paris for a day. I recently decided I really quite fancy a trip outside of Paris to a random provincial town. Paris is beautiful but its also nice to see some large open spaces and some air. I plan to go to Bois de Boulogne Park this weekend to take advantage of some open space and the beauty of autumn before all the leaves disappear. 

The exhibition itself literally encouraged you to wander and observe. It started in a white room with light projections all around and then you go through a giant wardrobe, whilst secretly reliving your childhood dream and hoping Narnia is on the other side. Then you wander along dark corridors with plastic horse heads in glass cabinets displays, sticking their tongues out whilst surrounded by gorgeous Hermès bags. You encounter solitary lamposts, a mix of dark silhouettes and light accents causing you to question the way you see and perceive even everyday objects.

The whole way round the exhibition offers your mind the chance to explore and form its own paths of thought of what you are seeing, and where it is taking you, all whilst giving an insight into the mind of Hermès, their strong heritage and history and the very essence of the maison. 

You round a corner and encouter a brasserie/bar (which I think should have served actual drinks), but its not just a "bar". It showcases jewellery so that they look like captured and preserved specimens in scientific experiments. It utilises tiny digital screens within ordinary, everyday objects such as the paint palette to really give the scene another dimension and a kind of 'out-of-this-world' feeling whilst being completely rooted in an 'everyday' surrouding. 

You leave the brasserie and round the corner and find you've wandered into downtown Manhattan, and all the walls have been emblazoned with bright graffiti and colour, with a real raw and undone edge, before following the next corner and finding yourself in an Alice in Wonderland enchanted, victorian/edwardian living room where the tea set lifts itself off the table and the chandelier makes you thirsty. 

I kind of want to describe the whole exhibition as bonkers but brilliant. It made use of modern digital technology to really encapsulate your mind and senses and to transport you a own little journey through not only your own mind but the mind of Hermès, through different places and periods, be they artistic, fashion, everyday life. Hermès has always retained a strong sense of its heritage and roots, and a particular 'savoir-faire' in terms of the quality of its products and I think this was a really great opportunity to not only see this displayed up close but to also have a better insight in to the more abstract side of how Hermès thinks and the notions of really exploring, wandering and discovering. 

I would thoroughly have recommended you check this exhibition out but since it has already finished I hope that this post can give you some insight or inspire some of your own thinking and i'll be looking out for any other Hermès popups in the near future. 

​http://lesailes.hermes.com/fr/fr/dansloeilduflaneur