23 April
Petite Ceinture du 16e
The Petite Ceinture du 16e is a nature trail along the edge of the 16th Arondissement, following the path of the former Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture railway, which was built to supply the 1845 Enceinte de Thiers fortified wall of Paris. More specifically, the section in the 16th is part of the Ceinture Rive Gauche of 1867, which joined the 1851 Ceinture Syndicate freight line on the north side of the city and the 1851 Paris-Auteil passenger line in the south to form a complete circle just inside the fortified wall. Passenger service on the combined Petite Ceinture started in 1862 under substantial government pressure and ceased in 1934 as it had been rendered obolescent by the Metro system, but cargo service continued into the 1980s.
Jardin de Ranelagh
The Jardin de Ranelagh is a large (6500 hectare) public park on the west side of the 16th which was created as part of Baron Haussmann's 1860 reconstruction of Paris. It is seperate from the nearby and much larger Bois de Boulogne because at the time both parks were made, the Jardin was inside the city walls of Paris whereas the Bois was outside of them.
Paroisse Notre Dame de l'Assomption de Passy
Notre Dame de l'Assomption is the local Catholic parish church.
24 April
Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmatre
Le Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmatre is a Catholic minor basilica which was built from 1875 to 1914. The basilica was built in the wake of France's loss in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), specifically due to the popular belief that this defeat had been an act of divine punishment for France's moral decay since the Revolution. A massive fundraising effort was initiated around the concept of the construction of a new basilica -- one specifically dedicated to the Cor Jesu Sacratissimum -- as a collective act of national penance.
Paroisse Saint-Pierre de Montmartre
Le Paroisse Saint-Pierre de Montmartre is a Catholic parish church which was built from 1133 to 1147 as the church of the Abbaye de Montmartre, although Catholic lore states that the original church on this site was founded by Saint Denis in the third century. It is the second oldest existing church in the city, having narrowly survived the French Revolution to be restored in 1899-1905. In addition, it is the birthplace of the Society of Jesus, which was founded here in 1541.
Ite, inflammate omnia. Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Place du Tertre
The Place du Tertre is a public square which was once the courtyard of the Abbaye de Montmartre; it served as the central square of the village of Montmartre from 1635 onward, and continued in that role after Montmartre was annexed into Paris as part of the final expansion of the city under Emperor Napoleon III (1860). The square is famous for its cafes, taverns, and for the many artists who paint on-the-spot portraits for passing tourists.
25 April
Musée de L'Air et de L'Espace du Bourget
The Musée de L'Air et de L'Espace du Bourget is France's national aerospace museum. Founded in 1919 and located at Aéroport de Paris-Le Bourget since 1975, it is one of the world's oldest and largest aviation museums.
Hall Pionniers de l'Air
1907 Voisin-Farman No. 1 bis
This is the only replica aircraft in the Hall Pionniers de l'Air, albeit a replica built by the actual Voisin company in 1920. Henri Farman ordered the original version of this aircraft from the Voisin Brothers in July 1907 and first flew it on 30 September 1907. After several modifications to the aircraft design, Farman won the Aéro Club de France's Archdeacon Cup on 23 October 1907 for a recorded flight of 771 metres, and on 13 Janary 1908 he won the Grand Prix d'Aviation (also known as the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize) for the first recorded 1 kilometre closed circuit flight by a heavier-than-air machine.
Hall Grande Guerre
Hall de l'Espace
Pierres Précieuses
The Pierres Précieuses program was a military rocketry program carried out by the Société d'Étude et de Réalisation d'Engins Balistiques (SÉREB). A series of succcessively larger and more capable two-stage sounding rockets were successfully developed as steps towards an indigenous nuclear deterrent capability: the Agate VE 110, Topaze VE 111, Emeraude VE 121, Rubis VE 210, and finally Saphir VE 231.
Diamant
The Diamant expendable launch system was a civilian spinoff of the military Pierres Précieuses rocketry program, managed by France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) space agency. The Dimant A rocket was essentially a Saphir VE 231 fitted with the second stage of a Rubis VE 210 as a third stage, enabling it to boost a payload of 160 kilos to low Earth orbit. On 26 November 1965, this launch vehicle successfully deployed Astérix, France's first artificial satellite.
Sol-Sol Balistique Stratégique S3
The SSBS S3 was France's third generation intermediate range ballistic missile, succeeding the SSBS S2 and forming the land-based component of France's Force de Frappe strategic triad from 1980 to 1996. Forty of these missiles were built and eighteen were operationally deployed, in two batteries of nine S3D hardened underground silos containing one missile each. Each battery had a single launch control post, but the two batteries were redundantly cross-linked so that each post could take over for the other if needed. The missiles were maintained on 24-7 active alert, and could fire within 30 seconds of a verified order.
The S3 missile itself was a two-stage design which combined the first stage from the S2 missile with a new upper stage based on that of the M20 sea-launched ballistic missile. The single hardened re-entry vehicle and 1.2 megaton TN 61 thermonuclear warhead were the same as on the M20, with fusing for airburst or contact detonation. The lighter weight of the TN 61 compared to the TN 60 for which they were originally both designed enabled the addition of penetration aid decoys to the S3 and M20 missiles. The S3 had a maximum range of 3,700 kilometres with a CEP of 0.7 kilometers.
Hall Entre-deux-guerres
Hall des Hélicoptères
Older maps of the Musée show that this was previously called the Hall des Voilures tournantes, which is a much more accurate name since it contains not only helicopters but also numerous gyrocopters. The Alouette II is of particular note, as it is the original prototype of this widely produced early helicopter.
Helicopters
Gyrocopters
Hall de la Cocarde
The Hall de la Cocarde houses French military aircraft of the Cold War and modern period.
Mirage F1 Cristal
The Mirage F1 Cristal is a unique showpiece consisting of a life size transparent polycarbonate mock-up of a Dassault Mirage F1 strike fighter containing all of the internal components of an actual aircraft, plus light circuits enabling the visual highlighting of specific subsystems. It was built for the 1977 Salon international de l'Aéronautique de Paris-Le Bourget, and subsequently displayed in the Musée.
Hall des Prototypes
Nord Exocet AM-39
This is a developmental prototype of the air launched version of the Exocet antiship missile.
Sud Aviation SA 3210-1 Super Frelon (F-ZWWE)
F-ZWWE is one of two original prototypes of the Super Frelon helicopter, configured for the Armee de l'Air and first flying in December 1962. It was subsequently stripped down for performance testing and set a new FAI absolute helicopter world speed record of 350.4 km/h (217.7 mph) in July 1963.
SNCASO SO 6000 Triton
The Triton was the very first French jet aircraft, with the initial version fitted with a German Jumo 004 turbojet and a second one with a Rolls-Royce Nène 100 turbojet.
SNCASO SO 9000 Trident I
The Trident I was a high speed experimental aircraft which first flew in 1953. The Trident II with improved engines on the same airframe set international speed and altitude records in 1958.
Payen Pa 49B "Katy"
The Pa 49B was an extremely small tailless delta experimental aircraft powered by a Turbomeca Palas mini turbojet engine. It first flew in 1954, and was donated to the Musée in 1958.
Leduc 0.10 ⁄ 0.11
The Leduc 0.10 is the sole survivor of three experimental ramjet-powered aircraft designed by René Leduc and built in secret by Breguet. It was originally built as an improved "Leduc 0.11" with additional Turbomeca Marbore I turbojet engines mounted on the wingtips, but was redesignated as the third 0.10 after the auxiliary engines proved impractical and were replaced by inert mass balances.
Leduc 022
The Leduc 022 was the final Leduc aircraft and the only one intended as an actual combat aircraft, utilizing a combined coaxial turbojet-ramjet propulsion system to enable unassisted takeoff and (theoretically) armed with a pair of Nord AA.20 guided missiles. The Armee de L'Air ordered two prototypes, but due to budget shortfalls cancelled the program after only one had been fully built (and unfortunately destroyed by a fire during testing). The second prototype was privately completed by Leduc despite its cancellation and donated to the Musée by his family in 1979.
Nord 1500 Griffon II
The Nord 1500 Griffon II was a successor to the Nord Gerfault research aircraft, intended to achieve Mach 2+ speeds utilizing the same turbo-ramjet as the Leduc 022. Two of these experimental aircraft were built; the Griffon I with a conventional turbojet powerplant to validate the airframe, and the Griffon II with the turbo-ramjet. Griffon test pilot André Turcat was awarded the Harmon Trophy for setting a new world record speed of 1,643 kmh (1,021 MPH) in a 100-kilometre closed circuit using this aircraft, and later also reached a stright-line speed record of Mach 2.19.
SNECMA Atar Volant C.400 P2
The C.400 P2 was one of a series of four experimental aircraft (Atar Volant C.400 P.1, P.2, P.3, and C.450-01) designed to investigate "tail sitting" VTOL flight.
Sud Aviation SA-610 Ludion
The Sud Aviation SA-610 Ludion was a rocket powered VTOL research aircraft demonstrated at the 1967 Paris Air Show.
Dassault MD.454 Mystère IVA (No. 1)
The Mystère MD.454 IVA was the Armée de L'Air's first transonic aircraft, a swept-wing fighter-bomber broadly equivalent to the F-84D Sabre and MiG-17.
Dassault Mirage G8-01
The Mirage G8-01 was one of a pair of prototype twin engine multi-role naval fighters developed from the single-engine Mirage G nuclear strike bomber, which was itself a more advanced carrier-capable swing-wing evolution of the Mirage F2.
Dassault Mirage IIIV
The Mirage IIIV is the sole survivor of two prototype V⁄STOL fighters derived from the Mirage III, fitted with a Pratt & Whitney TF30 turbofan engine plus eight small Rolls-Royce RB162-1 turbojet engines for vertical lift. Built to fulfill NATO Basic Military Requirement 3 (NBMR-3) for a supersonic VTOL strike fighter, the IIIV was rejected in favor of the Hawker Siddeley P.1154.
Tarmac
The tarmac display of the Musée was substantially abbreviated due to preparations for the upcoming Paris Air Show in late June.
Boeing 747-128 (F-BPVJ)
F-BPVJ is an original generation 747-100 (sn 20541), built for Air France (customer code 28) and accruing 97,271 flight hours in active passenger service from 14 March 1973 to 10 February 2000. She was transferred to the Musée two weeks after retirement and opened to visitors in June 2003.
Dassault Avion de Combat Experimental (ACX)
The ACX is a unique technology demonstrator which was built in 1984 as a proof of concept for next-generation French fighter aircraft. After France's withdrawal from the "Future European Fighter Aircraft" joint development program, the ACX project was revised into the lead-in prototype for full scale production, with the ACX being redesignated "Rafale A" and the production aircraft evolved from her being "Rafale B" (two seat land-based version), "Rafale C" (single seat land-based version), and "Rafale M" (single-seat naval version). The term "Rafale D" was also extensively used by Dassault to emphasize the Rafale's "discrète" semi-stealth characteristics, but this was only a marketing name and not an official designation.
The ACX conducted extensive flight testing from 1986 to 1994, powered initially by two General Electric F404 turbofan engines and later having a Snecma M88-2 turbofan substituted on the port side. This mixed configuration provided sufficient thrust to demonstrate a Mach 1.4 supercruise capability. After retirement, this sole example was donated to the Musée.
Dassault Super Mirage 4000
The Dassault Super Mirage 4000 is a unique aircraft built by Dassault in the late 1970s as a privately financed prototype for a twin-engine multirole heavy fighter derived from the existing single-engine Mirage 2000 light fighter. While performance was superb, the aircraft was unable to secure any customers. This sole example was donated to the Musée in 1992.
Hall Concorde
Concorde 001 (F-WTSS)
001 was the very first Concorde supersonic passenger jet. She is configured as she was for her special scientific mission on 30 June 1973, during which she served as a supersonic airborne observatory for the total solar eclipse of 1973. With a peak totality of 7 minutes, 3.55 seconds, the eclipse of 1973 was the longest eclipse since 1098 and there will not be a longer one until 2150. However, by flying at full speed in the path of the eclipse, 001 was able to observe totality for over 74 continous minutes.
Concorde 213 "Sierra Delta" (F-BTSD)
Sierra Delta was the second-to-last Concorde delivered to Air France and performed Air France's final commercial Concorde flight on 31 May 2003. She set and still holds the world records for both westbound and eastbound around-the-world commercial flights. She is the only Concorde which has not been fully decomissioned, instead being maintained with segments of her internal hydraulic and electrical systems still functional.
Dassault Mirage IVA "9 AH"
This Mirage IVA is the exact aircraft which dropped a live AN-11 60-kiloton nuclear bomb for the Tamouré nuclear weapons test. It is on display with twelve takeoff assist rockets and an AN-22 60-kiloton nuclear gravity bomb.
Hall Seconde Guerre mondiale
This hall contains a variety of WWII aircraft, primarily single-engine fighters and all actual war veterans (although the Skyraider served in the Algerian War, not WWII). The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 is of particular note because this very airport was the home airfield of the very first operational unit of this fighter type, II Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 26 "Schlageter" (II.JG⁄26).
Espace Normandie-Niemen
This space contains a single Yakevlov Yak-3 fighter of the Régiment de Chasse 2⁄30 Normandie-Niémen, one of only three Western Allied units that fought alongside the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front of the Second World War. At the end of the war, the Normandie-Niémen pilots were awarded the unique honor of returning home under arms, parading triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées with all 38 of their Yakevlovs. The Yak-3s subsequently remained in French service as training aircraft until they could no longer be maintained for lack of spare parts; the aircraft here is the final survivor of the group, and one of exactly two original Yak-3s left in the world.
26 April
Place Denfert-Rocheueau
The Place Denfert-Rochereau is a public square in the Montparnasse district of Paris, formerly known as the Place d’Enfer because it houses the Barrière d'Enfer, a pair of neo-classical tollhouses built in 1787 to collect the octroi (municipal tax) on goods passing through the Mur des Fermiers Généraux. The wall was demolished as part of the 1853-1870 public reconstruction of Paris by Baron Haussmann, Emperor Napoleon III's prefect of Seine, although the tollhouses are preserved to this day.
Lion de Belfort
The Lion de Belfort statue is a roughly one-third-size copy of the monumental 22-metre long red sandstone sculpture carved in Belfort, France by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of Liberty Enlightening the World. It symbolizes the heroic resistance of the French garrison during the three month long Siege of Belfort, under the command of Colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau. The model statue was presented in Paris as part of an 1878 sculpture exibition, and was subsequently purchased by the municipal council of Paris and placed at the Place Denfert-Rocheueau.
We are aware of our duty towards France and the Republic, and are resolved to respect it.
Colonel Pierre Philippe Marie Aristide Denfert-Rochereau
Les Catacombes de Paris
Les Catacombes de Paris are a massive underground ossuary built into the former Tombe-Issoire limestone mines underneath the Montrouge district of Paris. In response to a critical shortage of cemetery space in Paris, the city authorities spent two years (1785-1787) exhuming an estimated two million corpses from the Cimetière des Saints-Innocents and moving them into suitably reinforced portions of the old mines. A second round of exhumations followed from the Revolution to 1814, emptying the other parochial cemeteries in Paris, and a third round from 1840 to 1860. It is estimated that there are approximately six million remains within the Ossuaire Municipal.
From 1809 onwards, Vicomte Louis-Étienne François Héricart-Ferrand de Thury directed large-scale renovations with the intent of making the catacombs presentable and accessible, and subsequently began holding public tours by appointment. In 2002, the Catacombs were designated as one of the municipal museums of Paris and placed under the management of the Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris. Public access is currently permitted along a self-guided tour route of 1.5 kilometres, or a more extensive guided tour.
Tombe-Issoire Quarries
The first portion of the tour route descends a tight spiral stair and then passses a considerable distance through the old mine tunnels. These mines utilied the early 18th century "hagues et bourrages" technique, in which miners would dig a vertical well downwards until they reached the underground stone layer, then extract stone along radiating tunnels from that point until it became necessary to support the roof with a line of piliers à bras. The mined-out spaces along the line of supporting pillars would then be backfilled with partial-height stone walls (hagues) and packed rubble (bourrage) to prevent collapse as the miners moved further away from the access well.
While hagues et bourrages mining left sufficient structural support for ongoing mining operations, there were several catastrophic collapses when the city expanded outwards over the mines (many of which were undocumented). The Inspection Générale des Carrières (IGC) was created by order of King Louis XVI in 1777 to administer and maintain the mines of Paris, a duty which it still fulfills to this day. The work of the IGC is evident throughout the tunnel route, as there are numerous additional brick and stone reinforcing walls marked by dates and the initials of quarry inspectors.
Ossuaire Municipal
The entrance to the Catacombs proper is marked by double archways, with the outside archway bearing the famous inscription, "Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort" and the inner archway, "Memorae Majorum".
The post-1809 layout of the Catacombs is actively maintained to this day, with hague walls made from collected femurs and skulls and the remaining bones filling in behind them as bourrage. Some surviving decorations from the defunct graveyards, which had been warehoused in the surface portions of the mine property, have been recovered and reused, along with engraved tablets recording the origins of the remains.
Paris Riots
These small "corner" stacks of bones originate from the little-known Paris food riots of 1788 and 1789, which preceded the larger-scale French Revolution. They are one of the relative handful of exceptional cases where "new" burials were made directly into the catacombs, as opposed to reburials from existing cemeteries.
Observatoire de Paris
The Observatoire de Paris is the oldest and most established astronomical observatory in France, founded in 1667 as one of the first major projects of the new Académie des Sciences and now operated under the umbrella of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University. The building of the Observatoire is arranged such that it is precisely bisected by a north-south meridian line, which is defined as the Paris meridian and which was used as the prime meridian in French cartography for the following two centuries.
Hôpital Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
The Hôspice des Enfants-Assistés was a shelter for abandoned and orphaned children founded in 1796 as a new location for the original Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés which had been founded in 1638 by Vincent de Paul. The Enfants-Trouvés had operated under the royal charter of the Hôpital Général de Paris from 1670 onward, but both the old and new shelters were primarily staffed by the Filles de la Charité de Saint Vincent de Paul, a Catholic religious order. Over time, the scope of the institution was expanded to include actual medical care as well as shelter, with a formal maternity hospital added in 1937. The facility was renamed the Hôpital Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in 1942, but was closed down in 2012 with services being moved to the Hôpital Cochin and the Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades.
Le Jardin de Luxembourg
The Jardin de Luxembourg is a large 23-hectare public park in the 6th arondissement.
Fontaine de l'Observatoire
The Fontaine de l'Observatoire, also known as the Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde, was built in 1874 with sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The four women holding the globe represent Africa, America, Europe, and Asia.
Palais du Luxembourg
The Palais du Luxembourg was built from 1615 to 1645 as the residence of Marie de Médicis, then the former Queen and current Regent of France. After the French Revolution, the Palais was remodeled into a legislative building for the Séenat, a role it still plays to this day
La Fontaine Médicis
Located "beside" the Palais du Luxembourg, La Fontaine Médicis was commissioned by Marie de Médicis around 1630 and moved to its present location (approximately 30 metres away from its original site) in 1864 to accomodate the construction of one of Hausmann's boulevards, the rue de Medicis.
27 April
Versailles
The commune of Versailles was created by King Louis XIV as a planned community to provide infrastructure support for his expansion of King Louis XIII's forest hunting lodge into the grandest of palaces. Prior to this, Versailles had been an obscure and unimportant village of fewer than a thousand inhabitants. It had grown to over 30,000 residents by the end of Louis XIV's reign and 60,000 by the end of Louis XV's reign, falling back to 27,000 after the French Revolution and then slowly growing to its modern-day population of 85,000.
The explosive growth of Versailles under Louis XIV was achieved by a clever royal decree granting any Frenchman free ownership of one of the surveyed lots of the planned city in exchange for the payment of the nominal property tax of 5 sols per arpent of land per year and a commitment to build a house on the land which was in keeping with the established plans.
During our visit, there was an ongoing labor protest by utility workers of Enedis SA, the public service company which manages about 95% of the French electrical grid. This protest was an element of the larger scale protests over French pension reforms; despite the reputation of Parisian protests as being violent riots, it was observed to be entirely peaceful.
Domaine Royal de Versailles
The historic Domaine Royal de Versailles encompassed not only the famous palace and formal gardens, but also a very substantial woodland belt surrounding them. The complete demesne originally totalled around 15,000 hectares for the Grand Parc, with the inner Petit Parc covering 1,700 hectares. In contrast, the modern "domain" of Versailles occupies only the innermost 800 hectares, of which 432 hectares are parkland and 77 hectares are the gardens.
Le Château de Versailles
Le Château de Versailles is the famed palace of Versailles, located at the east end of the Domaine Royal and facing east towards Paris. The layout of the palace and its grounds is arranged around the "Grande Perspective", a central axis running east-west through the entire property (and extending into the arrangement of the city of Versailles as well).
Grande Écurie du Roi & Petite Écurie du Roi
The Grande Écurie du Roi and the Petite Écurie du Roi are a pair of nearly identical buildings which face the Palace proper across the Place d’Armes. The Grande Écurie to the north was managed by the Grand Equerry of France and housed the royal riding stables and equestrian academy, while the Petite Écurie to the south was managed by the First Equerry of France and housed all other mounts plus the coaches and other horse-drawn vehicles. In the modern day, the Great Stable houses La Galerie des Carrosses, while the Petite Écurie houses La Galerie des Sculptures et des Moulages.
Place d’Armes
The Place d'Armes is the fan-shaped "front yard" of Versailles, divided by three roads: l'Avenue de Saint-Cloud to the north, l'Avenue de Paris directly along the center axis, and l'Avenue de Sceaux to the south. It was established as a parking area for visiting carriages in 1660 when King Louis XIV made the decision to expand Versailles and use it as his royal court, and performs the same function to this day.
Cour d'Honneur
The Cour d'Honneur is the outer courtyard of the palace, open to the east and surrounded along the three other sides by the palace proper and the detached north and south ministers' wings. These wings were built in 1679 along the north and south sides of the Cour d'Honneur to house government administrative offices. The north Minister's Wing now houses the offices of La Société des Amis de Versailles and the kiosks for guided tours and subscriptions, while the south Minister's Wing houses the Librairie des Princes bookshop, the ticket office and the information desk.
Cour Royale
The Cour Royale is the inner courtyard of the palace, seperated from the Cour d'Honneur by the Royal Gate and surrounded by the outer pavilions which extend forward from the bases of the palace's outer wings, effectively hyper-extending the stepped U shape of the central palace.
Cour Marble
The Cour Marble is the courtyard of the "Old Palace", the (relatively) small royal hunting lodge which was built for King Louis XIII in 1624 and subsequently expanded in 1631-1634 with outer wings housing stables and servants. It is seperated from the Cour Royale by terraced steps and made distinct by its black-and-white marble flooring, as opposed to the stone flooring of the Cour Royale and Cour d'Honneur.
L'Enveloppe de Le Vau
Also known as the "New Palace", Le Vau's Envelope was built around the original hunting lodge in keeping with Louis XIV's desire to expand Versailles into a full-scale palace without demolishing his father's beloved lodge. The New Palace seamlessly duplicates and extends the brick-and-stone style of the Old Palace on its eastern face, but adopts a new Italian-style white stone facade on the western face. Given the predominance of the western gardens in popular culture, this west facade has become the iconic image of Versailles even though the east facade is the actual front.
Gabriel (North) Wing And Pavilion
The final renovation of the north wing of the palace occurred from 1760 to 1775 as the first phase of the "Grand Project" of royal architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, an effort to renovate the entire east face of the palace to match the style of the 18th century western face. The original north wing of Le Vau was entirely demolished, and a new north wing was built entirely in the Italian style, featuring a large pavilion at its root extending forward (east) to flank the right side of the Honor Gate and a large royal chapel spanning its entire height and breadth just beyond the pavilion. However, the "Grand Project" was cancelled in 1775, leaving the south wing and central core of the palace in their original configuration.
In the modern day, the Gabriel Pavilion serves as the entrance and security check area for tour groups.
Dufour Pavilion
The Dufour Pavilion is the south wing's mirror-image of the Gabriel Pavilion. It was built starting in 1814 as part of a larger project to finally rebuild the south wing to match the north and restore the symmetry lost by the halting of the "Grand Project", but was itself halted in 1821 leaving only the pavilion built.
In the modern day, the Dufour Pavilion serves as the entrance and security check area for individual visitors.
Les Jardins de Versailles
Les Jardins de Versailles lie west of the palace, developed from 1661 onwards as a massive formal garden filled with numerous parterres, sculptures, and fountains. The gardens are arranged primarily around the east-west central axis of Versailles (the "Grande Perspective"), and secondarily around a north-south axis that runs directly in front of the palace's west facade. This second axis is called the "Water Walk".
Water Parterre
The Water Parterre is the first element of the formal gardens, located directly west of the palace at the intersection of the Royal Walk and the Water Walk. Its centerpiece is a pair of large rectangular reflecting pools flanking the Royal Walk, with statues along their perimeters.
South Parterre
North Parterre
L'orangerie du Château de Versailles
The Orangerie is located underneath the terrace that houses the Water, South, and Nouth Parterres, and also extends into its own decorative garden parterre which lies on the Water Walk south of said terrace. Four times the size of the preceding orangerie which Louis XIV had ordered in 1663 to supply the royal hunting lodge, it was built from 1684 to 1668, after the formal gardens but before the great expansion of the palace.
Dragon Fountain
The Dragon Fountain marks the north end of the Water Walk.
Bassin de Neptune
The Bassin de Neptune is the largest and most elaborate of the numerous fountains of Versailles, located past the Water Walk. The foundain was constructed from 1679 to 1682, but the intended Neptune-themed statue groups were never actually made. In 1736 the fountain's pool recieved minor alterations and in 1740 three sets of scupltures were finally installed: Neptune and Amphitrite by the Lambert brothers, Proteus by Edme Bouchardon, and Oceanus by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
Le Parc De Versailles
The modern-day park of Versailles is the remaining portion of the former Petit Parc. Although a massive loss of territory compared to the original Grand Parc, the 800 hectare parkland still extends beyond the horizon as viewed from the palace, thus fully preserving the visual effect of the "Grande Perspective".
Bassin d'Apollon
The Bassin d'Apollon is located directly on the Grande Perspective axis of Versailles, providing a visual transition from the Royal Walk to the Grand Canal that anchors the border between the structured inner gardens and the "wild" outer park.
Grand Canal
The Grand Canal is the central feature of the outer park, running directly along the Grande Perspective axis for a distance of 1670 metres. Sixty metres wide except where it expands into an even wider pool at its far end, it is large enough to accomodate a small fleet of rowboats.
Le Bras de Trianon ⁄ Le Bras de la Ménagerie
Le Bras de Trianon and Le Bras de la Ménagerie form a north-south arm which intersects the Grand Canal. They are slightly asymmetric, with the Bras de Trianon being 400 meters long and the Bras de la Ménagerie being 600 meters long.
Le Grand Trianon
Le Grand Trianon is a Baroque chateau and grounds which served as the King's personal retreat within Versailles. While very much a palace in its own right and in no way modest, the Grand Trianon was designed to be completely distinct from Versailles in both design and interior decoration. The Trianon sub-estate is concealed from view in the wooded park on the northwest side of the Versailles domain and has its own surrounding formal gardens totalling approximately 96 hectares.
Le Petit Trianon
Le Petit Trianon is a Neoclassical chateau and grounds within the grounds of the Grand Trianon, built from 1762-1768 for King Louis XV's Maîtresse-en-titre. After ascending to the throne, King Louis XVI granted it to Marie Antoinette as a private domain; while the king's suite in the attic remained nominally his, he never used it.
Le Temple de l'Amour
The Temple de l'Amour is a neoclassical stone gazebo within the informal English gardens of the Petit Trianon, built in 1777-1778 for Queen Marie Antoinette.
Hameu de la Reine
The Hameau de la Reine is a small rustic retreat and ferme ornée at the rear of the grounds of the Petit Trianon. It was built for Marie Antoinette in 1783 as her own informal estate in contrast to the more formal Petit Trianon, functionally mirroring the roles of the palace proper and the Grand Trianon for the king. While there is a certain absurdity to the Hameau being an estate within an estate within an estate within an estate, it is undeniably the only part of the entire Versailles complex which is free from grandiosity.
