A Marathon Through Versailles Castle: Discovering the Grandeur and Hidden Gems of the King’s Estate, Home to Some of My Students
In this week’s Bilingual Zoom Class - our bilingual class with our French-speaking pen pals - we are going to take a little world tour of the places where my French and English-speaking students live. Google Earth is an excellent tool for discovering the world, easy to use during Zoom classes, and it always fascinates my students. We live all over the planet, we are in different time zones, and yet, we meet every Tuesday at 6 PM for some (France), 9 AM for others (Las Vegas), or 12 PM (in North Carolina) or 9 PM (Réunion Island). It’s a perfect opportunity to learn to tell time in English and French, compare our climates, etc.
Interview with the family of some of our French students
Some of our French students recently moved to Versailles, France. We had the pleasure of speaking with the happy mother of 6 bilingual children. Here, she shares their experiences and insights about living in this historic city.
- What brought you to Versailles?
My husband’s job.
- Where were you before and what were you doing there?
In Jordan, also for my husband’s job, who is in the military.
- How are you adapting to life in Versailles and returning to France?
We had already lived in Versailles for a year and were only away for a year, so we knew what to expect! What changes is the climate (we miss the sun, even though we live in the city of the Sun King!), the school rhythm (school all day and in French, in Jordan it was long mornings in English/Arabic, but there were fewer holidays than in France), the size of our home… but we adapt to all the changes without any problem!
- Have you visited the Palace of Versailles?
Yes, several times, and each time we discover new things! It is vast, and there are exhibitions that change regularly. And then there is the palace but also the Trianon estate, the gardens… we regularly cycle around the Grand Canal.
- What do you prefer at the Palace?
I really like the gardens, which are vast and varied (forest, artistically trimmed boxwood, flowers, fountains, large bodies of water, an orangery,…).
- Do the children visit it with the school?
Yes, Zita visited it once for an exhibition on horses, which we then revisited as a family.
 |
| My students from Versailles, France |
Ready for the virtual tour of Versailles Castle?
In the summer 2022, after 5 days of a cultural and touristic marathon in our magnificent capital, Paris, we concluded our journey with the grand, dizzying Château de Versailles. I expected luxury, grandeur, splendor, and extravagance, and I was not disappointed. Louis XIV, the greatest megalomaniac of all time, did not hold back, to say the least! Sculptures and portraits of Louis XIV are omnipresent in the Château, constantly reminding visitors who is the author of this scandalous luxury.
Although the size of the living rooms that follow one another in the Château is not that impressive, the galleries, corridors, and the King’s private chapel are grandiose on all levels (size, style, luxury). I would have dreamed of being alone in the Hall of Mirrors (or just with my family), dancing in a grand ball gown to period music. Instead, hundreds of people parade through every minute, struggling to take photos or selfies.
Our plan was to visit the Château de Versailles in the morning, then get lost in the gardens in the afternoon. But we had greatly underestimated their size! It would take several days to discover all the nooks and crannies of the French gardens, the work of the famous gardener of the King, Le Nôtre, who also designed the Tuileries gardens and other castle gardens like that of Chantilly (my birthplace).
As soon as we visited the Château de Versailles, without a guide or audio guide (mistake) or taking the time to read everything, oppressed by the crowd and the heat of the scorching summer of 2022, we descended towards the grand canal below the Château, then crossed an immense forest to reach the Grand Trianon. The estate is so large that a small train or carts can save a good half-hour to three-quarters of an hour of walking for 4 to 6€ per person. We felt we had paid enough for the day pass.
Because an immense Château is not enough, the King also had his luxurious country house (crystal chandeliers, marble…) of a much more reasonable size. Equipped with a billiard room, with cozy lounges in bright colors (yellow, pink) and an unobstructed view of pretty gardens.
Because a Grand Trianon is not enough, the Queen (Marie-Antoinette) had her own equally luxurious but even smaller residence: the Petit Trianon.
The more we advanced in our discoveries, the more we appreciated what we discovered. The Petit Trianon is very human-sized, and you can even discover Marie-Antoinette’s bathroom and her wooden dry toilets! A rudimentary kitchen with a large fireplace in the basement is accessible to visitors via an underground stone tunnel.
I was very disappointed not to be able to visit Marie-Antoinette’s theater and its hand-painted decorations, closed to visitors. It was what I most dreamed of seeing!
Le Grand Trianon, Le Petit Trianon
The highlight of the show, in my opinion, is at the exit of the Petit Trianon when immense gardens appear on the horizon and call you. On a map, you discover that there is the Temple of Love, English gardens, parks… that lead you to the Queen’s Hamlet.
You check the time. Your children have given up at the Grand Trianon, where they are waiting for your return in the shade of a tree, sheltered from the scorching sun. And there, you start a race against time to see the famous Queen’s Hamlet at all costs, for which you also paid by taking the Passport that opens all the doors! You regret choosing “style” by wearing your Nike Air sneakers instead of your good old hiking shoes, and you start an ultimate walk, with your feet giving out and seeming completely flattened under the weight of your tired and sweaty body. You follow a turquoise stream that leads you to the Temple of Love, a magnificent romantic kiosk where lovers take photos. The gardens are splendid, no longer ‘à la française’ (cold, geometric, and bare) but ‘à l’anglaise’ with many hiding places, groves, and tall grasses that invite biodiversity.
You want to explore everything, you explode inside because the place is heavenly, magnificent, calm, restful, magical, poetic, and inspiring, in every way conforming to Alain Baraton’s explanations in his book Le Jardinier de Versailles, devoured in a few days a few weeks earlier. You dream of meeting Alain, the chief gardener of Versailles, around a path leading to the Queen’s Hamlet or under one of the remarkable trees on the site and having him sign his book that you loved! But alas, first, you forgot the book, and second, you have no chance of meeting him in such a vast estate, especially in the middle of summer with so many visitors!
Finally, the Queen’s Hamlet appears on the horizon. You immediately feel sympathy for this Queen who fled the King’s Court, and you think you would have done the same. The Hamlet is a real charming little village with small vegetable gardens around the gardener’s house, a farm, and several other typical half-timbered houses made of stone and wooden beams. You are struck by the beauty of the place, the cleanliness of the vegetable gardens where old vegetables and flowers coexist in harmony, inviting beneficial insects and butterflies to feast. There is even a small plot of giant sunflowers!
On the balconies of the half-timbered houses, you observe terracotta pots decorated with blue patterns, with pretty flowers inside. This hamlet seems inhabited and frozen in time. It surrounds a large turquoise pond bordered by tall grasses where birds and insects coexist.
You no longer feel your feet, but you want to go even further into the Queen’s gardens. You come across remarkable trees, some of which were planted during the time of Louis XIV. Unfortunately, few remain, as the park was devastated during the terrible storm of 1999. You are inevitably disappointed not to be able to meet Marie-Antoinette’s tree, the oldest in the park, “which must be earned,” according to Alain Baraton. I thought I really deserved it, but I didn’t have time to look for it further. Moreover, it is not deliberately marked (a good gardener’s joke), and I did not meet any gardener.
Our children had an artisanal Tiramisu ice cream, “the best Tiramisu ice cream of their lives,” and headed towards the Château and the Grandes Eaux, for which our Passport also gave us access on this Saturday afternoon in July. I must admit I was very disappointed by the “Grandes” Eaux Musicales, no more impressive than the fountains of the Tuileries or those of the Trocadéro, free, and in which we had even bathed fully clothed a few days earlier during the heatwave.
Do not make the same mistake as me in imagining that Versailles can be visited in 1 day! Versailles can be rushed through in 1 day, certainly, but it is visited and appreciated in at least 2 days. Our fatigue is also probably explained by the fact that Versailles was the conclusion of a real cultural marathon of 5 days in Paris, the 5th day (the day before) ending at the Louvre Museum with 10km on our legs and still in Nike Air (for style!)
We will return to Versailles, that’s for sure, but this time we will be modest and only take the ticket for the Petit Trianon, which will open access to the Queen’s Hamlet, where we plan to explore every corner of the sublime and grandiose park in its simplicity and biodiversity. I share the feelings of Alain Baraton, who much prefers his park to the château and who prefers to be among the common folk like the gardeners rather than in the nobility and the ‘circus’ of the King’s Court. The Château still receives, with great pomp, the “greats” of this world (politicians, stars…).
And you, what do you like about Versailles?
Comments
Post a Comment