“Considered the most famous garden in the world, Versailles is a classic French garden that boasts more than 200,000 trees and 210,000 flowers planted annually.” TBG
What an exciting and informative evening I shared with Jennifer (another Landscape Designer with EDGE) who treated me to a lecture at the Toronto Botanical Gardens with guest speaker David Wistow, a renowned art historian. We had a wonderful evening trying to keep up as David captivated us with his gorgeous photographs of The Gardens of Versailles over the years, and his interpretation of the stages and growth of the garden throughout the ages. A historian no doubt there, as he could recall a variety of minute fascinating details and figures – like quantities of tress ordered for a particular garden– he lost me at the astonishing count of 2 million something something something … I truly am a visual person, I say, “I make things pretty – I don’t do numbers!”
David highlighted the life and times of the seventeenth-century with the focus on the extraordinary lives of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette and his 1st mistress. A fasinating story, and to be brought back in time with such vivid detail and imagery, was truly a treat, a night not soon forgoten.
In 1661 Louis XIV asked André Le Nôtre to design and lay out the gardens of Versailles. I can’t recall the numbers, but the amount of physical manpower that went into building the gardens that cover 800 hectares of land (that’s 8,000 acres) was incredible. Mind-boggling. All I could think about was the pyramids in Egypt. Humans have acomplished some pretty great things! There are immaculate parterres, a 1.8 km cruciform canal, great basins, an orangery, a vast collection of outdoor sculpture and some of the grandest fountains which have ever been made. Think about it – no electricity…
I was reminded of some of the key elements of landscape design, as David had brilliant photo examples to illustrate the concept and execution. My favourite walk away example was the fabulous use of foreshortening, or should I say the trickery used in the design. So clever. With a renewed vision, I’m excited to apply some of these principles this season!
Let’s just say that with a show of hands, over half of the filled TBG lecture hall had “been” to Versailles – one word – Jealous. This is now on my bucket list, pack my walking shoes and camera, and prepare to spend a full day taking it all in. Ready for a real adventure Jenn?
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