In the Yvelines, the Château de Versailles - like its parks and gardens - was built and designed to meet the dreams of Louis XIV. The Sun King boldly and creatively transformed the small hunting lodge of his father Louis XIII into a grandiose house classified today as the World Heritage of UNESCO. He lived there fifty-three years, surrounded by his court and his government. A castle of 63,154 m ² divided into 2,300 pieces, exemplary gardens, an area of 850 hectares enchanted by the fountain game, everything is object of curiosity and wonder.
And if Versailles didn't build in one day, he wouldn't visit either day. A "Passport two days" is a sesame that opens the door to the à la carte visits to enjoy all the spaces in the area as well as temporary exhibitions and great musical waters in gardens, and enjoy preferential rates on many shows such as those at the Versailles Festival. In the framework of a patronage with Vinci the Dufour pavilion and the old wing of the Castle have been rearranged while retaining the architecture of buildings in volumetric, proportions and dimensions. This work has brought together all visitor and service functions, optimize flow management and create a single point of exit for all site tours.
His Majesty the King
If there was only one room to see in the castle it would be the ice gallery. A masterpiece of 73 meters long, 10.50 meters wide and 12.30 meters high under ceiling. Seventeen mirrored arcades mirror as many windows open on the garden, inviting light to reveal the smallest details of ceilings. The decorative painter Charles Le Brun, who led the realization, wanted to give them an Italian elegance with vaults, atlanta and decors in the eye. This hall will be the scene of great political episodes such as the sacral of Napoleon I by Pope Pio VII or the signing of the First World War Peace Treaty.
The visit goes on in the Great Apartments of the King, and passes through numerous salons as fabulous as the other. We come into his room, dazzling gilding of gildings where the royal layer of heavy brokered brokpots stands in the center. White and paved with marble mosaics, the royal chapel is clear enough to appear in multiple sculptures, carabulous genius. It rises to the level of the royal apartments from which the King attended offices. A tiny window betrays the ghost presence of Madame de Pompadour, the favorite of Louis XIV, who followed by Mass without offending the Queen…
Behind the walls of the Great Apartments are the private apartments of kings. Thanks to a guided tour, you enter the intimate atmosphere and refined décor of the living rooms: the dining room, the Pendule firm, the corner cabinet with Louis XV's cylinder office, one of the world's most famous furniture… The Opera is a small jewel of golden woodworks whose acoustics are, according to some experts, better than that of the Opera-Bastille.
Of the bucolic Trianons
The Grand Trianon is probably the most refined set of buildings in all Versailles. This small palace, built by Jules Hardouin Mansart in 1687, between courtyard and garden is a delicate resort: floral floral woodwork, sheeting and paintings. The apartments preserved their decor at the time but some of the furniture was provided under Napoleon 1 st.
Marie-Antoinette marked Versailles Castle strongly. A guided tour leads to the intimacy of this loving queen of freedom. At the castle, she had domestic cabinets in which she often fled to escape the gravity of the official life. In 1782, she arranged a small apartment on the ground floor overlooking the marble courtyard. It has several parts including a delicious bath room. The precious furniture, paintings and art objects that adorn these places allow to evoke Marie Antoinette's personality and lifestyle, his passion for decoration, the arts and fashion.
Domaine de Marie-Antoinette
The Domaine de Marie-Antoinette offers a refined and innovative course. The Petit Trianon, built by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Madame de Pompadour, was offered to Marie-Antoinette by Louis XVI as a wedding gift…
This building is therefore above all a matter of women and inseparable from the memory of the Queen who was the only one who imposed his taste in Versailles. The Petit Trianon, surrounded by gardens, has four different facades. Facing the French Garden, this facade, the richest of columns, is inspired by ancient temples. The one of the north, much simpler, corresponds to the back of the Castle which originally gave on the greenhouses of the Botanical Garden, replaced under Louis XVI by the English Garden. The exterior sobriety contrasts with the interior decor made of elegant woodworks. On the first floor, these are the Queen's reception and flats. The King's apartments are located on the top floor, in the crowned attic of a balustrade opening on a courtyard bordered by a chapel.
This Little Trianon will forever remain the Queen's remains as well as the field that encircles it. The latter is marked by construction: the house of Switzerland which provides access to the estate, the octogonal Belvegonal adorned with bas-reliefs, the Temple of Love, a small white marble rotonde flanked by twelve Corinthian columns, the French Pavilion closed to the visit, the hamlet of the Queen which is a charming small village with its own farm, its bats, its garden or even its dairy, and the Petit Théâtre. The latter is a pure wonder with its carved-cardboard decor, its curtain of taffetas of gold embroidered silk and its larger scene than the room…
The park, a vegetable and aquatic jewel
The gardens, groves and forests deploy around the Grand Canal, a 23-hectare piece of water and 5.5 kilometers from the periphery. To seize the masterpiece of André Le Nôtre, the first gardener of Louis XIV, we must win the terrace below the ice gallery and imagine that it was once only wood, swamps and meadows. Le Nôtre orchestrated a monumental vegetal and fairy-tale painting that mixes basins, groves and canals as a star, marked with hundreds of sculptures. Versailles is the ambassador of the so-called French-style gardens with an ordained geometric route from a main axis that gives the impression of an infinite perspective.
The Sun King demanded the most incredible ballet of fountains. Even more than plant architecture and groves, water is everywhere and in all its forms. Landscapers, composers, sculptors, and choreographers combined their know-how to create a unique spectacle that required enormous resources for the time. The Great Waters came for the first time in 1666 and centuries after the fountain craftsmen revived the old-fashioned fairy-tale by reconstituting the same show at night. Unmissable!
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When is it? Spring is the perfect time to enjoy the gardens. You must visit the Castle from the beginning at 9 a. m. to enjoy the Great Apartments and the Ice Gallery quietly. From noon, we leave for the castles of Trianon and the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette.
Go there. By train from Paris, RER C, direction Versailles-Rive Gauche-Château. From Montparnasse train station, train SNCF direction Versailles-Chantiers. From Saint-Lazare railway station, direction Versailles-Rive right. By car, A 13 direction Rouen, exit Versailles-Château.
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