Versailles

The Chateau and Gardens of Versailles is one of the most prestigious monuments of the world’s artistic heritage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Versailles is the finest and most complete achievement of 17th century French art and symbolizes the absolute power of the Bourbon monarchs of France and the magnificence of the reigns of Louis XIV, the “Sun King”, (1643-1715), Louis XV (1715-1774) and Louis XVI (1774-1792).

Louis XIV’s childhood had been spent in the fear and disorder of a civil war between rival bands of aristocrats, the ‘Fronde’, and associated Paris with intrigue and violence. He wanted a Palace outside, but near, Paris, and chose to build at Versailles, where his father, Louis XIII (1601-1643), had built a simple hunting lodge. Louis XIV wanted to organize and completely control a government of France centered upon his person, an absolute monarchy.

Visiting his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, who had built the finest chateau and garden in France at Vaux-le-Vicomte, he was entertained with a fete which was one of the most magnificent in French history, Louis decided to build a chateau which was even grander and finer. Fouquet’s achievement was his undoing as together with his mismanagement of funds and Louis made jealous by the magnificent chateau and fete, he was arrested in 1661, banished and then sentenced to life imprisonment.

Using the same ‘design team’ as Fouquet – architect Louis Le Vau, decorator Charles Le Brun, and garden designer Andre Le Notre - Versailles was designed to be the most glorious palace in Europe. It is still dazzling in its opulence. Louis IV took up residence in May 1682 before construction was completed and while Mansart, the architect who took over from Le Vau, was still overseeing 36,000 laborers and soldiers. Versailles would become the official residence of the Court of France, supplanting the Louvre palaces, and at its height 20,000 courtiers lived there. The Chateau was added to in the 18th century, during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The royal family and the court were forced to leave Versailles on October 6, 1789, after the first days of the French Revolution.

Monet and Giverny

Claude Monet, leader of the Impressionists, lived in the small village of Giverny, near Vernon, from 1883 until his death in 1926. They have been restored and maintained as they were during his lifetime with the house decorated in its original color schemes. Monet’s home, a pink and green cottage whose entrance is framed by two large yew trees, leads into the visitor’s center, which was his studio. The yellow dining room and the blue country kitchen, with its tiled walls, have an charming intimacy where you can imagine him getting together for large family meals or entertaining his fellow artists.. The house contains reproductions of his works and his collection of 18th-19th century Japanese prints. The huge studio where he painted the famous ‘Water Lilies’ is not far from the house and now houses the Claude Monet Foundation’s shop.

He loved flowers and the magnificent gardens slope gently down to the River Epte. The gardens also comprise the walled garden, planted according to Monet’s own design, and the Water Garden, shaded by weeping willows, with its famous Japanese Bridge, its wisterias, azaleas and its pond with water-lilies

Monet's garden is incredibly beautiful from April to October. Flower varieties bloom one after another so that the garden changes gradually with the seasons while keeping its colors and brightness. The peak period is May-June. In summer you can enjoy the beauty of all the annual flowers and of the famous Nympheas (Water-lilies). In September and October the gardens is a feast of giant flowers of splendid colors.

The house and garden which inspired him were left to the Academie des Beaux Arts in 1966 by his son. It is only 75 kms. Paris and is closed on Mondays