
The Grand Perspective as seen from Latona’s fountain

The south parterre

One of the flower parterres

Another parterre filled with flowers

The orangery at the south parterre
André actually invented the four sided wooden planters with removable panels in order to lessen the stress on the citrus trees when they were being transplanted. The containers are known today as Versailles style planters and are a must in a traditional or formal garden.
Andrés’ Versailles planters
Along the Royal Way or Great Lawn that leads down to Swan lake

One of the many statues from Greek mythology that adorn the garden

Marvelous marble urn and topiary

A Versailles resident

Apollo’s fountain

Swans on Swan Lake
Moving deeper into the garden to Le Grand Trianon, a pink marble and porphyry romantic retreat built in 1687 for King Louis XIV and his mistress Mme de Montespan.
Le Grand Trianon

Gardens at Le Grand Trianon

Billowing beds of salvia
Le Petit Trianon was completed in 1768 by Louis XV who continued to build at Versailles. Built in the neoclassical style it complemented the Sun King’s style.
Gaura lindheimeri in front of Le Petit Trianon
After King Louis XV died, Versailles passed on to its most famous couple, Louis the XVI and his bride Marie Antoinette. Louis gave Marie the estate of Le Petit Trianon as a wedding present and she of course went on to build her own folly, the rustic milkmaid village. Not the wisest choice seeing as the actual peasantry did not take kindly to her view of them. She also redid the gardens in an anglo/oriental style
Bamboo pergola

Pleached hornbeam with the pergola in the background

The Love Momument in the gardens of Le Petit Trianon

And of course you need a grotto for all that frolicking!

A “rustic farmhouse”

Gotta have a veggie patch!

The mill pond

And the mill
Moving back towards Versailles…
Past Apollos fountain in full spray

Into the King’s garden grove
More dancing fountains
Along the four seasons fountain walkway you can access various groves.
Four seasons fountains walkway as seen from the upper flower parterre balconnade

The Spring fountain

The Autumn fountain

The Colonnade grotto

The Ballroom grotto

Lovely stonework at one of the entrances to the Ballroom grotto, featured in the movie “A Little Chaos”

A walk back along any of the side allées or the Royal Way takes you back to the palace
Most of the highlights of the gardens can be walked. It will take a few hours or most of the day 🙂 and wear good walking shoes. There are little trams that will ferry you about if you get tired. I hope you enjoyed my view of Versailles and that it will entice you to visit for yourself the next time you are in the romantic city of Paris Au revoir and happy gardening 🙂
2 thoughts on “Garden of Versailles”
Marvelous article, thanks so much for taking us on a little tour of these incredible gardens. Historic gardens are my thing, but I haven’t visited any of the European gardens yet – must do. Have you ever watched Monty Don’s French Gardens on TV? it’s a series that aired on British television, and public TV here. I just love him, and he visited Versailles, among many other formal French gardens, in the episode “Gardens of Power and Passion”. He is really knowledgeable about garden history, and I really appreciate his commentary as he strolls about these incredible sites. He mentions that gardeners would bring in as man as 150,000 plants in the dark of night so that Louis could be surprised by them when he woke up the next morning!
You’re very welcome 🙂 Yes I have seen Monty Don’s French gardens. They are currently running on our local public tv channel. There are advantages to being an all powerful ruler…or extremely rich!