7/9: Have you seen my garden?

(Part of) The Great Lawn.

VERSAILLES! Oh, Versailles. What a beautiful, gaudy, gargantuan labyrinth. Personally, I thought the garden was more beautiful, while the castle was more gaudy. Though maybe I was just tired. Wandering through mazes of carefully manicured flowers and hedges lined by statues depicting mythological heroes and gods was just as exhausting as it was amazing (the summer sun did us no good). One only has so much energy afterwards to devote to a tour of how lavish and over-the-top the lives of royals and nobles of the past were. Right now I want to write about how lavish and over-the-top the gardens are!

North Parterre.

“Garden” is hardly the right word. When we hear “garden” we tend to think of a backyard with raised tomato beds, or a few beanstalks wrapping around a trellis, not miles of groves, orchards, and hedges dotted with fountains, clearings, and countless statues. What a statement. The castle’s high, beautifully painted ceilings, ornate walls, and even the hall of mirrors paled in comparison, especially (I think) at the time of the Louis XIV and XV. Imagine being a visitor from a foreign nation, already impressed by the gilded everything of the castle, the murals, the marble, suddenly being whisked away to one of the most majestic, decadent assertions of wealth there is. The thing is—the gardens are entirely artificial. Someone needs to prune every bush, water every flower, maintain every fountain, and keep everything just as pristine as the king wanted. The cost of it must have been insane, not just to create, but to maintain. That’s the statement. “Look what I can do,” the French monarchy boasts to every onlooker. The gardens weren’t really built to be enjoyed by the monarchs, but to be gawked at by anyone they wanted to impress (a pattern of behavior common to all the super-rich, oddly enough).

Le Sanguin. This guy gets it.

And dammit, he impressed me. I probably saw only half of the gardens after wandering around for three hours. It wasn’t until I had already left and looked at the map and pictures friends had taken that I realized how much I missed. Did you know there was an orange orchard in the gardens? I missed it. What I did see included the Mirror Pool (complete with a musical fountain show), the King’s Garden, several groves (Queen’s, Dauphin’s, Girandole, and Obelisk), what felt like a million fountains (likely half of them), and a billion statues (likely less than a quarter). These are scientific measurements! Like Dr. Smith warned us: one moment you are surrounded by fellow tourists, the next you turn a corner and are completely alone.

Path to the Obelisk Grove. Whoa.

The day before I saw the Paris Botanical Gardens—which were wonderful—but they pale in comparison to the sheer size and density of Versailles. Versailles is publicly funded now, but it’s a little telling how much more impressive the gardens of the king is compared to those built for the public. But who am I to complain? We live in a society.

As much of an “overview” picture as I could take of the Paris Botanical Gardens.

Almost half of the Orangery Parterre and the pool beyond it—it was too big to fit in one picture!