Party at the palace.

This article presents the author's experience of visiting the best garden party of his life. It was at Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, just outside St. Petersburg. The author says that it's not often that one gets to enjoy a party in any royal residence, let alone one as blindingly and breathtakingly sumptuous as this one, designed by garden designer Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli in high baroque style with a fortune in gold leaf deployed inside and out. The author says that their arrival was a sensation. A perfect day of blazing sunshine meant that the exterior of the great palace, painted bright blue and white and with gilded onion domes, simply glittered in the light.