It was in 1688, after more than a quarter of a century’s labor, the sacrifice of hundreds of lives, and the expenditure of over fifty million francs, that the splendid parks and gardens with their buildings and fountains were finally achieved.  Le Notre’s successors rearranged some of the fountains and groves; others were renamed.  In 1739-1740 there were placed near the Basin of Neptune three groups that still lend adornment to this spot.  This was the final attempt to decorate the gardens during the reign of the House of the Bourbons.  Strangers from every clime marveled at the beauty of the fountains.  The ambassadors from the Court of Siam were astounded “that so much of bronze, marble and gilded metal could find place in a single garden.”  A member of the train of the Ambassador from England described the park, in 1698, as “a whole province traced by avenues, paths, canals, and ornamented in all ways possible by masterpieces of ancient and modern art.”

The avenues were of white sand, with grassy by-ways on either side bordered by elms and iron railings six or seven feet high.  Beyond these were thickets and niches where statues, sculptured urns and benches of white carved stone were placed.  Occasional archways of green led down dim arbors to new enchantments.  Here and there were round or star-shaped retreats whose carpets of grass were sprayed by murmuring fountains.  In each recess were marble pedestals, busts, a long bench that invited repose.

Trees of mature growth were brought in great numbers from distant parts of France and Flanders.  Despite difficulties of transportation, twenty-five thousand trees were carried on wagons from Artois alone.  The forests of Normandy were denuded of yew-trees; from the mountains of Dauphine the King’s emissaries brought epicea trees, and India sent chestnut trees for the adornment of Versailles.

Among these groves Louis delighted to promenade in the evening, sometimes, in the belle saison, until midnight.  Often he went on foot, but oftener in a light carriage drawn by a team of small black horses that had been given him by the Duke of Tuscany.

THE GRAND TRIANON

This palace decorated with pilasters of pink marble was not the first building chosen by the Grand Monarch to occupy the site at the end of the north arm of the canal of Versailles.  Ambitious to extend his domain, the King had purchased and razed a shabby little village named Trianon, and on its somewhat dreary site erected for Madame de Montespan a villa so unpretentious as to arouse the comment of courtiers accustomed to the ruler’s profligacy at Versailles.  The vases of faience that shone among the figures of gilded lead, the walk ornamented with Dutch tiles, the cornices of blue and white stucco, in the Chinese fashion, gave the little house the name, the Porcelain Trianon.  Poets called it the Palace of Flora because of the wondrous gardens where rare flowers perfumed the pleasaunce in summer.  Built in 1670, probably on designs of Francois Le Vau, the Porcelain Trianon was demolished toward the end of the year 1686.