Geometrical Planning of Garden: French Gardens

The entertainments were admirable, but the guests' gratitude was diminished by their discomfort. Louis wanted an audience, but had neglected to provide accommodation for it. His gardens were the most magnificent stage in the world, but if there was to be an audience there must be an auditorium. So the chateau grew. By 1682 twenty thousand people had been gathered to Versailles, five thousand of them dwelling in the principal palace itself; the town was built for the remainder. The stables accommodated two hundred coaches and two thousand five hundred horses. The audience was at last provided for. The main plan of the garden was as it still is. The area occupied by it was roughly rectangular, but the impression to the eye was of an enormous vista stretching from the facade for three-quarters of a mile to the beginning of the Grand Canal, which in turn diminished to the horizon, oppressing any desire to explore its remote distances. In the immediate neighbourhood of the palace the home terrace gave laterally on to parterres, so that to right and to left impressive pictures appear, one downward to the famous fountain of Neptune, the other across the enormous orangery to the lake that was dug by the Swiss Guards. To ensure that the effect of distance was not dissipated Le Notre repeated the device of flanking the central axis with groves as at Richelieu and Vaux, although here it was done on an even vaster scale with even more triumphant effect. Although he was trained as a painter and his gardens remain in the mind as a series of set pictures, Le Notre's close association with architects (as well as the garden tradition to which he was heir) gives to them a cohesion of plan so strong that we can never forget that all began not with earth and water and light but with rulers, compasses and dividers. Geometrical planning can be very monotonous. Although the principal fountains and features in the great axis vista were changed from time to time he sought to avoid monotony by numerous secret gardens hidden amongst the groves on either wing; these were in a constant state of flux.