- Lily Radziemski
- BBC travel
9 hours ago
Credit, Getty Images
The palace looks like a mirage.
The water in the canal glitters in the sunlight and catches my eye. The opulent building dominates the landscape, which appears to have been created for it.
I get on the bike. Rays of light filter through the narrow gaps between the trees as I step across the gravel. As I walk down a hidden path, the leaves of the trees form a sort of tent over my head and I make out an open space stretching out in the distance.
There’s nobody in sight. But close by, thousands of people crowd the luxurious halls of the Palace of Versailles.
I’m in the Park of Versailles, the 800hectare garden dedicated to the kings, queens and political leaders who once made up the French ruling class. Versailles was the center of power and the material embodiment of the absolutist monarchy that reigned until the French Revolution (17881799).
The palace has been the site of strategic weddings and state visits. But the property was actually built for a different reason: fun. With extensive parkland and smaller ornate gardens, it was all about pleasure and lust.
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Annex of the Petit Trianon in the Palace of Versailles, used by Marie Antoinette
In the centuries since its construction, Versailles has become one of the most famous and visited palaces in the world. Every day it welcomes 27,000 visitors who trample themselves with their selfie sticks in the palace’s Hall of Mirrors.
But outside the palace it’s a different story. The park stretches for several kilometers and it is almost impossible to cover it on foot in a single day. This is where the bike lanes come in, giving way to fresh air, solitude and a facet of Louis XIV’s remarkable vision that few visitors get to see.
“When you visit the gardens, you’ll ride a bike…and learn about the history of Louis 14th, 15th and 16th,” says Parisian tour guide Mara Alfaro Prias.
“It’s not just what’s behind the paintings or the chandeliers.”
the architect king
It all began in 1623 when Louis 13th established a hunting lodge in the countryside around the small town of Versailles, about 20km southwest of central Paris. But his son, Louis XIV, had bigger plans for the country.
“Louis 14 was a kind of architect,” explains Mathieu da Vinha, scientific director of the research center of the Palace of Versailles.
“In Paris he really could not expand the palaces because the urban fabric was too dense… At Versailles it was the other way around.”
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The “bachelor’s dwelling” of Louis XIV is depicted in this work by Pierre Patel from 1668
But the king didn’t just want more space.
“Louis XIV needed what we would now call a ‘bachelor’s apartment’ a little house of pleasure… for parties and fun with friends,” explains Michel VergéFranceschi, one of the authors of Une Histoire Érotique de Versailles (An erotic history of Versailles, in free translation).
“So he created Versailles, part for his pleasure, part for his sexuality, with fantastic gardens.”
Near the Grand Canal the main part of the park, surrounded by cafes and restaurants there is a place where visitors can rent bikes.
In recent years, cycling in Versailles has become the main escape route from my home in Paris in search of fresh air. A friend used to cycle from Paris to Versailles and ended up inspiring me. But I had never ventured far beyond the English Channel.
So last fall I decided to walk through the gardens to the bike rack, past Fonte Latona, and kick up the fallen orange leaves from the trees. I wanted to know more about these flowery gardens and romantic groves.
That was the vision of the king’s gardener, André Le Nôtre.
Credit, Lily Radziemski
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One of the best ways to explore the park is by bike.
“Nothing is left to chance in this garden,” says the château’s communications director, Hélène Dalifard.
“The vision is always oriented towards a certain effect… The idea is to really envision the garden as a museum, where the visitor thinks he is taking a random walk, but is in fact completely guided by the effects of perspective. ”
The dimensions of Versailles and its park have been carefully calculated to mirror the Louvre. The Etoile Royale (the strategic point at the end of the canal) and the Fountain of Apollo are exactly the same distance separating the Place de l’Etoile (now Place Charles de Gaulle) from the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
And the distance between the Apollo Fountain and the Palace of Versailles is the same as between the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre Museum.
Sign of the Sun King
Throughout the park there are optical illusions, hidden forests and subliminal messages alluding to the sun.
When Louis XIV ascended the throne, he chose the sun as his personal symbol and eventually became known as the Sun King. To reinforce this connection, the image of Apollo the Greek sun god appears in fountains, groves and statues throughout the park. Symbolically, Versailles would revolve around the king, and the gardens were the stage on which he would stand.
“Versailles was the theater of the king,” says VergéFranceschi.
He says Luís 14 even wrote a book on how to properly visit the gardens. The route starts from the upper steps of the garden and the book is practically a handbook with precise directions on where to walk, where to stop and what to see along the way.
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Detail of the Fountain of Apollo at Versailles
The bike paths are surrounded by trees that tower over our heads. As you approach the Apollo Fountain, dirt paths open up to a network of lawns.
As I pedal, I feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere, despite knowing that the palace next door is one of the most visited places in the world.
In 1661 Louis XIV married Maria Theresa of Austria. There he met Louise de La Vallière, the woman who would become his first official mistress.
“She rode a horse in the park…she could stand on a horse and hold the animal’s reins with silk ropes, and she could shoot a wild boar with sticks in the forest of Versailles,” says VergéFranceschi.
They hid in the hunting lodge of Louis XIII. in the park. The celebration of the Delights of the Enchanted Isle a legendary event that lasted several days in the park and gardens was officially meant to honor the mother and wife of Louis XIV, but unofficially it was dedicated to Louise de La Vallière. The event included carousels, fireworks and performances by renowned French playwright Molière.
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The palace has always been open to the public.
“Because the palace was too small before Luís XIV expanded it, most of the parties took place in the gardens,” says da Vinha.
The park has an air of exaggeration and exclusivity, but the gardens have traditionally never been closed to the public, which is surprising. The whole complex remained open, from the king’s bedroom (when he was away) to the park and gardens.
For now, Versailles remains open to the public and access to the park and gardens is free except on certain days.
“The tradition of the French monarchy was that the king should be accessible to his subjects, so that everyone could freely enter the palace as long as they were well dressed,” explains da Vinha.
The lack of privacy may have been one of the factors that led to the country’s expansion. At Versailles, one palace just wasn’t enough.
Louis XIV wanted a refuge from his sanctuary. In 1670 he commissioned the construction of the Grand Trianon at the northern end of the Grand Canal. There he spent some time with Madame de Montespan, the mistress who succeeded Louise de La Vallière.
The Trianon is a 30minute walk from the castle, but a cycle path leads directly there in five minutes from the bike rental. A gravel path connects the Grand Trianon to the canal and surrounds the watercourse.
The structure sits on a hill and its salmoncolored marble walls form arches that open onto the landscape. It’s nice and airy, like a little jewelry box that appears out of nowhere. When I went there later in the day, very few people visited their rooms.
A short drive from the Grand Trianon is the Petit Trianon, a palace built by Louis XV in 1758. was commissioned for the Countess du Barry, his mistress at the time. It was thought to be for Madame de Pompadour, but she died before opening.
The palace was finally offered to Marie Antoinette as a gift from Louis 16 in 1774. She spent most of her time there.
The isolation of the monarchy at Versailles played a role in the French Revolution. While the French population was starving, the kings continued to live in opulence until hundreds of citizens stormed the palace in 1789.
“Versailles helped [Luís 16 e Maria Antonieta] detached from reality,” says VergéFranceschi.
credit, alamy
A few years after the revolution, the palace and its gardens were appropriated by the Republic to keep them open to the public.
I get off the bike and leave the park at sunset. There are no lights illuminating the streets and paths, only dark patches. The palace lights can barely be seen in the distance.
When the sun goes down, the complex closes its gates, leaving the Sun King’s labyrinth of fountains, groves and bike paths in solitude but only until the next day.