24 hours in Versailles

Paris - Île-de-France/2023

Forget the pompous luxury of the château and its sumptuous gardens! Take time to stroll through the Notre-Dame and Saint-Louis districts, with notes of the French Touch in your ears.

"Along with the 16th arrondissement of Paris, Versailles is one of the least well-known places in France," says a smiling Versailles resident. A paradox, since for centuries, the name of Versailles has radiated around the world, across oceans and mountains. A feast of grandeur and excess, the Château du Roi-Soleil has established itself as a showcase for power and the French art of living. In 2022, almost 6.9 million visitors walked its corridors and gardens - compared with 8.2 million before the health crisis. But most tourists pass through the city at a snail's pace or by bus. And wrongly so. The royal city is much more than just a passageway to the palace. The historic districts of Notre-Dame and Saint-Louis have a joyfully provincial feel. They exude a forgotten gentleness, where time likes to take its time. The architecture, rigorous and symmetrical, imposes its majesty. Nothing protrudes, nothing is too high. The sky embraces everything. You walk through history, breathing in the old stones and green spaces. Versailles smells of hay and lime trees," says Claire Marin, founder of the bookshop-café La Suite. The many parks attract Parisians, who are increasingly moving here. In fact, they're helping to change the face of the city. And they're helping to dispel the caricature of the Versaillais as traditional, even a little uptight. Between the shelves of books, the thirty-something organizes literary dinners with authors and publishers. Just one chapter in the city's rich cultural program. These include the Mois Molière, a festival of theater, dance and circus, and, of course, the magical shows put on by the Académie Équestre, founded by Bartabas twenty years ago. And then there's the winding alleyways of the antique district, home to some forty enthusiasts. Ludovic Pellat de Villedon has chosen to move away from this area. In 2021, he moved his eponymous gallery to the Hôtel de Bouillon, a private mansion. Reviving the art of living of the 17th and 18th centuries, he presents rare ebony and mahogany furniture, unique paintings and sculptures from the period. It even organizes "furniture shows" and exclusive dinners. These exceptional premises would almost make the Musée Lambinet, the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Versailles, pale in comparison, despite the recent reorganization of its collections. So much for the Notre-Dame district, teeming with bars, restaurants and major fashion labels. On the Saint-Louis side, the atmosphere is more reserved. It's also said to be conservative. Small stalls here and there, and one street, Satory, which concentrates the majority of culinary delights. Yet these two districts are almost mirrors: both have a market, a center and a place of worship. The royal church for one, the cathedral for the other. On the outskirts of the square, a sweet fragrance from the parking lot replaces the smell of incense. Versailles smells clean and looks clean. Its recent skatepark is probably the only one in France not to be tagged. A symbolic boundary separates the two areas: the 93-metre-wide Avenue de Paris - the Champs-Élysées is only 70! A joy for cyclists, like the mayor, François de Mazières, who exercises his calves whenever he travels. On the other side of the mirror, then, a key to the fields opens the king's kitchen garden, a listed historic monument. Created as early as 1678, it was intended to provide tables for 100 to 200 guests. Today, this large garden is home to the École nationale supérieure de paysage, but is also open to visitors. You can stroll among the elegant fruit and vegetables, before going to the market at the weekend. "It's a living, historic heritage. We cultivate the past and the present in the different varieties," stresses Antoine Jacobsohn, assistant to the school principal and in charge of the kitchen garden. It's also a place for fine cuisine, blending nourishing crops with other, more artistic ones: garden festivals, concerts, shows...". The kitchen garden was created according to a Hippodamian grid, which was later used to plan the then new town of Saint-Louis. In fact, a few steps away from the travelers' tomato plants, squares form a group of huts around squares. Originally, they housed shops, before being converted to residential use. These homes, like all the others here, are now in high demand, judging by the city's hundred or so real estate agencies, and will no doubt be even more so after the 2024 Olympic Games. Between 15,000 and 40,000 visitors are expected each day for the equestrian and modern pentathlon events. Versailles will be in the spotlight once again, following in the footsteps of the French Touch, a worldwide musical phenomenon. Remember the years 1990-2000: Air, Phoenix, Super Discount, Nouvelle Vague or Alex Gopher made you dance to electronic sounds. Marc Collin's documentary-fiction Why Versailles? (2022) attempts to understand why. Perhaps the answer is simple: beauty is always inspiring, even unconsciously. B.D.