Our Blog - Versailles (the town)

When people think of Versailles, the only thing they think about (normally) is the Palace. If you Google "Versailles", the first 3 things that come up are the Palace, and in fact, while we have been to the Palace 3 or 4 times, we have never actually stayed in the city of Versailles itself. This year, on the other hand, we spent time in the city of Versailles without actually going to the Palace! As you may have read in the previous blog, we were volunteers at the Ryder Cup this year, which was held at a golf course near Versailles and so we decided to stay at a very small B&B in Versailles itself. It actually is a quite nice little city of about 90,000 people, with lots of restaurants. While there isn't a lot of industry here (Renault has a big location here), it is considered a "wealthy suburb of Paris", is within easy commuting distance to Paris, and home prices are much lower here than in Paris.

Historically speaking, the town is quite old, first being mentioned in a medieval document dated 1038. After being invited to hunt in the large forests around Versailles, King Louis XIII bought a parcel of land in 1622 and had a small hunting lodge built there. In 1643, when Louis XIII died, there were 1,000 people living in Versailles. That hunting lodge was expanded several times and morphed into what is now the Palace of Versailles. The city built up around the Palace for the mansions of the aristocracy within the court. By the time the court returned in 1722 under King Louis XV, the city had grown to 24,000 people.

Versailles has been the "capital of France" several times ....

• Between May 1682, when Louis XIV moved the court and government to Versailles, until his death in September 1715
• Between June 1722, when Louis XV returned to Versailles, until October 1789, when a Parisian mob forced Louis XVI and the royal family to move to Paris.
• Between March 1871, when Adolphe Thiers's government took refuge in Versailles, fleeing the insurrection of the Paris Commune, until November 1879, when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris.

The tourist office has a bit of information around the city at a set of tourist sights, mainly in the historical center and the Saint Louis area. Probably some of the best signage we've seen ... French, English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese!

There are two districts or neighborhoods that were created by Louis XIV: Notre-Dame and Saint-Louis. They are both built in a checkerboard style around a central square and go North and South (respectively) from the axis of the Chateau.

We started with the Saint Louis area and our first stop was the "small" stables of the king (as opposed to the Grand Stables that we will get to later), which was constructed between 1679 and 1682. Originally, it was designed to house the carriages and carriage-horses for the King. We've said that it was good to be the King ... but it would seem it was also pretty good to be one of the horses of the King!

The Hôtel de la Chancellerie was, as the name would imply, a mansion built for the Chancellor of France, which was completed in 1674.

Around the corner is what is called the Grand Commun, built between 1682 and 1684. It was originally designed to house the kitchens and tables of the officers who served the court of the King. You can admire the front portal, which has amazing stonework around the large cloud over the gateway.

The Hôtel de la Guerre, a bit older having been built between 1759 and 1760 to house the archives of the War Ministry, which were scattered through various locations in Paris. The outer gate (although a bit dirty) has a royal crown on a sun, framed by warrior trophies.

The Hôtel des Affaires étrangères et de la Marine was built by Jean-Baptiste Berthier in 1762 at the request of the Duke of Choiseul, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and was intended to house the services and archives of Foreign Affairs and Marine. Since 1804, it has been a municipal library and today, has a collection of around 700,000 documents.

In 1686, the King had a recreation area created Salle du Jeu de Paume (Paume game room) created as it was a popular game at the time. It is a bit like tennis and is considered the ancestor of tennis. It was also the setting for the famous oath, made by the 461 delegates of the States-General, in June 1789. This marked the beginning of the French Revolution, as it was a commitment to create a constitution. In fact, it isn't that great-looking of a building, huh?

The Saint Louis Cathedral is the main church in the Saint Louis neighborhood. Dating back to the mid-18th century, it is a good example of a Neoclassical building with a bit of Baroque. The Doric columns on the lower level and the Corinthian columns on the upper level give it a sense of height, which points the way to God. A trivia note: the procession of the States-General, which lead to the French Revolution, ended at this church. You'll see where it started in a little bit.

The Latin-cross interior initially looks a little plain, but you can see the nice carvings above each of the archways. The original high windows (which are clear) allows a lot of natural light to come in. The shell-shaped basins as you come in containing holy water were carved in 1780.

The stained glass here (for me) was really impressive, although they only date back to the 19th century.

The white marble Virgin with Child dates back to 1837 (somewhat in a Baroque design), and of course, no church in France would be complete without a statue of Joan of Arc.

This little corner is called the Squares of Saint-Louis and were built in 1737. They are called squares because the small houses (or huts) were one arranged in a rectangle around 4 squares and were originally designed to be a market in the Saint Louis area. It is somewhat similar to the design of the market square in the Notre Dame section of town (the other side of the Chateau). For whatever reason, it didn't take off and they were converted into homes starting in 1755. If you look around, they have now been converted back to mostly businesses.

While we didn't go into the Chateau, we did walk by it while heading to see other things. It looks much like what it did last time, even with the Chapel still under renovation.

Grande Écurie du Roi, or the King's Stables, were built between 1679 and 1682. This building housed the King's saddle-horses. During the Revolution, the stables were turned into barracks, and it is now the home of a few things, including a Carriage Museum (which we didn't have time to see).

While it was good to be the King's horses, it wasn't too bad to be the horses of the Queen, either. This was the Écurie de la Reine, or Queen's stables, built in 1672. During the Revolution, the stables were turned into a prison, then a barracks, and then the headquarters of the Court of Appeal.

Église Notre Dame was built between 1684 and 1686 at the request of King Louis XIV in a very pure Neoclassical style. It is the oldest church in Versailles and was the official church of the Royal Court, and therefore, baptisms, marriages and burials of the French royal family were held there. Somewhat ironic, but the procession for the opening of the Estates General, which would become the starting point of the French Revolution, started here in 1789.

The interior was nicely kept although somewhat sparsely decorated. It did have some really nice stained glass!

The Musée Lambinet is the museum of the town of Versailles, telling the history of the town itself. It is in the Hôtel Lambinet, built in the second half of the 18th century. The façade has a sculpted pediment representing an allegorical figure of architecture.

Started in 1781, under the direction of architect Charles-François Darnaudin, the construction of the Royal Hospital of Versailles (l’Hôpital Royal de Versailles) was spread over nearly 80 years, ending only in 1859. Additional buildings were added in the 1900's but unfortunately, there was no overall plan and so the new buildings just confused the organization. It was abandoned for a time and then rehabilitated from 2009 to 2015. The 28,000 square meters now has three public gardens, various housing options including a student residence, a new cultural space, a nursery, and shops.

In the Notre-Dame area of town, which runs North of the Chateau, is the Notre-Dame Market. In 1634, Louis XIII started the market on this location and then it was enlarged in 1671 by Louis XIV. It was abandoned at the time of the French Revolution and fell into ruin. It was destroyed in 1841 and replaced by the current covered hall structures. It is actually a "market square" with 4 different sections (forming a square) with permanent food shops (Meat Square, Flour Square, Herb Square, and Tide Square). Mind you, the names do not indicate what products are sold there.

Hiding behind the trees is the Palais de Justice. The current building was constructed in 1888 but the site has been used to house courts since the 1800's.

The current Hôtel de Ville isn't all that old, only dating back to 1900.

Originally built in 1863 to be the Hôtel de Ville, this mansion is in the Napoleon III style. It was the home of the King of Prussia from 1870 to 1871 before becoming the home of the Presidents of the 3rd Republic until 1879.

Domaine de Madame Elisabeth is the former residence of Elisabeth, sister of King Louis XVI. The house was originally built in the 1772 by the Prince of Rohan-Guéméné and his wife, known as Madame de Guéméné. After a scandal and bankruptcy of Guéméné, the king bought it and gave it to Elisabeth in 1783. She stayed there until 1789 when the French Revolution began and left to accompany the royal family to Paris. Things didn't go well for her, although she lived longer than her brother and sister-in-law. She was executed shortly after her 30th birthday in 1794. Her house is still there and the grounds are now a public park. I must say ... her house was nothing like that of the King!