The Gardens at Versailles

 The gardens at Versailles are overwhelming, they are so huge!  If the Boboli Gardens were the start of making gardens bigger and better, the gardens at Versailles were the pinnacle of that trend.  Extending over 2000 acres, these gardens featured very few flowers but dozens of fountains, as well of course, as the Palace of Versailles.  Everything was to be bigger and better for the Sun King, Louis XIV!

These are the extent of flowers in the garden, a formal design of the Fleur de Lis on the parterre immediately behind the palace with its Hall of Mirrors.

Beyond this is a spectacular view over the distant lake, a huge fountain in the foreground under renovation when we visited.  The view faces west so the king could watch the sun set.

If one were to wander to the left and look over the edge, you see a very formal arrangement of trees and shrubs in pots known as Versailles Boxes.  In fact many of these are orange trees and they will be moved to the Orangery, a huge room under your feet for the winter.

Looking the other way is a formal walkway with fountains to the sides.  My primary impression after walking through the garden was of the fountains, dozens of them.

We walked down the main hill and discovered the maze of 'bosquets', smaller garden rooms enclosed by trees, each bosquet having a specific theme.  This one was obviously a dance of fountains.  These jets of water danced up and down in time to music, a popular feature for visitors.

Another fountain, the Apollo Fountain, one of the more spectacular ones.  Water was a challenge here, so it was piped from a distance.  It was said the fountains were turned on and off as the king progressed around the park.

Another view of the Apollo Fountain.  I was surprised by the number of visitors, 16,000,000 per year!  That works out to 44,000 a day!  It's one of the most popular attractions in the world.

The lake, known as the Grand Canal, is just under a mile long, and provided a place for gondolas gifted by kings of Italy.  It also provided a basin where the water from all the fountains eventually ended up.  The gardens at Versailles were an enormous influence on the development of English landscape gardens and other gardens around the world.