If you are planning on visiting Paris, and have a limited amount of time in the city, visiting Versailles can seem like a daunting day trip. It is an RER ride, or about a 45 minute drive from the city, and it really does mean abandoning any hope of visiting anything else that day. Once you get there, however, you realise you would have been crazy to pass it up.
This weekend, I made my third and favourite trip to Versailles. I have yet to even enter the building, instead satisfying myself with walking the 2000 acres of land, rowing boats on the lake and pretty much marvelling at the epic scale and precision with which Versailles was designed. Everything in the gardens is aimed at making the grounds more imposing, more fit for a king. The avenues taper ever so slightly, as does the lake itself, enhancing the perspective, making the land seemingly endless. The land is not only a hill, it is formed so that the Chateau itself sits on the top of a perfectly formed arc, giving it an awe-inspiring sense of balance. The trees, identically trimmed with giant wooden stencils, all draw your eye towards the centre of the Chateau. Versailles is a lesson in perspective drawing, except it isn’t a drawing, it’s really there.
My last visit exposed me to a whole new dimension of this fact. On Saturday, I attended the ‘Grands Eaux Nocturne’ and got to experience the gardens, and the Chateau, by night.
The experience is meant to be magical, and with such a setting, how could it not be? But tasteful extras presented at the ‘Grands Eaux Nocturne’ really turned the experience from beautiful to fantastical. The main attraction is, of course, the fountains. Add to the fountains the beautiful music which is played throughout the garden, and the scented bubbles appearing from nowhere, and the feeling that you are experiencing a taste of the long-gone French Royals’ nightly escapades is unavoidable.
What blew me away the most? The famous fountain of Neptune rising out of the water in a horse-pulled chariot. The beauty of the design is accessible when dry, but the gorgeous effect running water has on the movement of the sculpture is beyond compare.
A very close second was the little grotto to the right (when facing the Chateau) where a simple but breathtaking scene was set up. At the centre of the grotto is a lovely statue of the three muses, one reaching her hand skyward. The statue is bathed in green light from a laser, into which mist was being blown, creating a layer of green, marbled cloud at the muses’ outstretched fingertips.
The fireworks finale is also very fun, and closes the evening with a thrill. The explosions take place over the lake, and are set in time to music, as well as fire balls, which shoot from the lawn that runs the entire length of the Promenade Royale. Don’t forget to look back at the chateau during the show, where you will see all the light reflected in the fountains leading up to it, as well as in it’s thousand’s of windows.
The only shame about going to Versailles at night is that you cannot experience the grandeur of the place in quite the same way; what you can see is a little bit limited. Luckily, the fountains and music are turned on during the day time too- every Saturday and Sunday until the end of October. Paying a bit extra to visit the gardens in this lively state is absolutely worth it.
If you want something a little more unique from your Versailles experience, look out for shows being performed, there; what a venue! The Autumn season will feature the Bartabas Academy of Equestrian Arts. For it’s third show at Versailles, the troupe will invoke Shakespeare’s Macbeth through a tribute to Japanese filmmaker Kurosawa. The show feature’s 70 horses and 40 artists/acrobats. An interesting fusion, no doubt, and something that will probably get me out the Chateau for one last time!
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