Peterhof's fountains get the attention, but the coast road west of it, running along the Gulf of Finland toward Oranienbaum, is the better introduction to the landscape. The Mordvinov estate, named for a family of Russian statesmen and naval officers, belongs to the string of country houses that nobles built along this shore in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Peter the Great's new capital pulled the whole aristocracy to the Baltic.
The setting is flat and wooded, a low coastal plain with sandy soil, birch and pine, and a shoreline of reeds and shallow water. The roads are straight and well maintained, with heavy traffic near the city and in summer, and the surface is generally good, though the edges can break up after winter. Riding in the early morning or evening, when the light slants through the trees and the gulf glows pale, is far better than at midday, when the roads fill with day trippers. The white nights of late May to July, when it never gets fully dark, give this region a distinctive, dreamy atmosphere.
Petrodvorets, the modern name of Peterhof, has about sixty-two thousand people and Lomonosov, the old Oranienbaum, over forty thousand, so fuel and food are easy. Petrodvorets has the Grand Cascade and the palace that Peter intended as a Russian Versailles. Lomonosov has Menshikov's palace, a gaudy, handsome relic of Peter's favourite, and a park along the sea. Both were badly damaged in the Second World War and painstakingly restored.
Conditions can change quickly in the gulf, with fog or sudden rain. Winter is long and cold, and the snow season runs from November to March or April. If you stop by the water, notice how shallow the gulf is, and how far the reeds reach, and how the whole coast seems to be waiting for the next season.