Search - Various :: Les Grandes Eaux Musicales de Versailles

Waterfalls and cascades, gushing fountains, canals, pools, grottoes and lily ponds, miroirs d'eau calmly reflecting the light: the water displays at Versailles are as varied as the secrets of its groves. They express the genius of the landscape architect Le Nôtre, who wanted water features and sculptures to decorate and animate the gardens he designed. For thirty years, Versailles and its gardens were expressions of the king's power and of his tastes. Louis would go out walking in the park each day, building up his dream, and even before the palace was furnished, the layout of the walks and groves was a constant priority. At Versailles we find Apollo, the sun god, riding his chariot amidst the spray, Neptune, the god of water and the sea, unleashing a storm, Enceladus punished for challenging Jupiter, the king of the gods...ancient mythology is used to express the greatness of Louis XIV. And the visitor today has the extraordinary experience of following an itinerary, punctuated by 'water effects', that was chosen by the sovereign himself. Fouquet, the king's former minister of finance, who spent the last years of his life in prison, was unable to believe that water would ever reach Versailles: 'Comment étaient les grandes eaux à cette fête du roi?' (How were the grandes eaux at the king's celebration?), he asks disparagingly and with resentment in Paul Morand's novel of 1961. The king watned water to be everywhere, and it is still everywhere to this day. The Grandes Eaux - when all the fountains are working - was Louis XIV's dream. Accompanied by music that was heard at Versailles for two hundred years, the event reflects the celebrations of centuries past. Sometimes, on summer evenings, lights, laster systems and fireworks are used to make the magic of the gardens even more bewitching. Entertainments organized in the gardens by Château de Versailles Spectacles take into consideration the original intentions of the Sun King and his artists. The gardens have been extensively restored. The Latona Basin has recovered its original splendor in 2015, when the Bosquet du Théâtre dEau (the Water Theatre grove) is also brought back to life, in a reinterpretation by Louis Benech and Jean-Michel Othoniel. The magic is perpetuated!