Paris - Bassin d’Apollo - Versailles

Plate CXIII -The Bassin of Apollo…

Searching for cover from the now raging storm, the rain driving at an almost horizontal ‘angle’ I found some refuge beside one of the many statues (actually it was an urn) placed around the fountain. Not that this was much help or comfort, as the light continued to flash across the sky and I was by now truly drenched from blazer to the skin. All I could wonder was how good a conductor of electricity a wet clothed human body could be?

Situated on the east to west axis of the gardens, the Apollo Fountain was constructed in 1670, and depicts the horse drawn chariot of the sun god driving to the sky. How ironical it was to find myself in this place with kings and deities named for the Sun, the one star that was failing to deliver on the promise of its name! The water of the fountains had been stopped – there was enough of that commodity falling from the sky to make it superfluous.

With waves you could almost surf, and an eerie light forcing its way through the clouds behind the trees it made a memorable picture - which still takes me back to that dark and stormy day!