Le Château de Versailles, Part 2: The Gardens and Trianons

If you thought the interior of the chateau at Versailles was impressive, wait until you see the outside. Originally, the estate included lots of woods for the king in which he could go hunting in addition to the palaces and gardens. The  was so large its area was roughly the size of what the city of Paris is today. Today everything covers about 2,000 acres, or a little over 3 square miles.

If you go out to the back of the chateau, there are gardens immediately on either side. Directly behind the chateau is what is essentially the world's largest stone patio, with two matching fountains in large ponds. At the edge of the patio lie stairs as wide as the patio is that will lead you down to the Grand Canal. If you so desire, you can actually rent a rowboat and go out on the canal, which is in the shape of a geometrically perfect cross and its main stretch is a mile long. The view from the top of those stairs looks like this:

Some of the gardens and the view of the chateau from the back:

I should note that there are also a number of counter service places to eat, which is what we did, or you can go to the fancy expensive restaurant inside the chateau, and there are also places to ride ponies, rent a bicycle, take a segway tour of the grounds, or rent golf carts to get around. We took the little tram called "Le Petit Train" to the Grand Trianon (almost a mile from the main chateau).

The Grand Trianon is a kind of miniature palace that was originally built as the "Porcelain Trianon," completed in 1672 under Louis XIV as a place to escape from his court at the main chateau (and have a private place to have time alone with his mistress). Louis then found out the hard way that porcelain is, in fact, not the most ideal and durable material out of which to build your secondary palace, and had the Grand Trianon built in the same spot (completed in 1688) out of a distinctive pink marble. A number of members of the royal family lived at one time or another in the Grand Trianon, and Napoleon even made it one of his residences and lived there with his second wife.

The front courtyard 

Close-up of one of the paintings in the hallway

View of the gardens from the back portico

We ventured out into these gardens beyond the Grand Trianon just a little ways. There was a little icon on the map I picked up that read "water sideboard" and I, having never heard of such a thing, wanted to investigate. It turns out a water sideboard looks like this:

Which I think is pretty neat. This thing is just hidden in the maze of hedgerows and trees and gardens back there. Unfortunately, this elaborate fountain, like all of the other dozens upon dozens of fountains at Versailles, wasn't turned on while we were there. The amount of water it takes to supply all of these fountains is so great that they only turn the fountains on on certain days of the week during certain times of the year. It's kind of a big deal, especially during the summer they do a sort of light and music show, sometimes with fireworks and such. (And on the days when the fountains are on, the gardens, which on all other days are free to wander in, will cost you an extra 8 euros. See what they did there?) In order to assage your palpable disappointment, have some more photos of the gardens and the Petit Trianon, a smaller version of the Grand Trianon that was a favorite hangout of MArie-Antoinette back in the day:

There's also this cool Roman gazebo-type place out back:

Cause, you know, why not?

Given the length of this post already with all of these pictures, I think I will give the final bit of Versailles, Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet, its own post so I can post a lot of pictures. Trust me, you'll be glad I did.

Until then, grosses bises! xoxo