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visiter versailles -gb-
A handsomely illustrated book, a souvenir of your visit and a history essay, Visit Versailles is all three at the same time. Available in nine languages, including English, it is essential reading for discovering and understanding the palace and its gardens, the Trianon palaces and Marie-Antoinette's estate. With its clear explanations, its detailed maps, its boxed sections on daily life at the court, its chronology and its spectacular photographs, Visit Versailles gives you all the keys for finding your geographic and historical bearings in this extraordinary place which reflects the magnificence and power of Louis XIV.
186 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 2, 2025
Stunning photography combined with valuable commentary!
VISIT VERSAILLES is an absolutely stunning photographic essay; it's a concise description in text of a world class living museum that will take any visitor's breath away with its splendor; it's a brief time-line history of the French royal families and aristocracy from 1624 until 1837 when Queen Victoria ascended to the British throne; it's a fascinating description of daily private and public life as it would have been conducted by the palace's residents in its heyday; it's a satisfying (albeit somewhat cursory) overview of the enormous quantity of art and frescoes that currently adorn the walls of the Versailles Chateau; and, finally, VISIT VERSAILLES is a room-by-room and path by path walkthrough of the entire palace and its grounds - the State Apartments, the Private Apartments, the Apartments of the Princes, the Chapel and the Opera, the History Galleries, the walks in the gardens and the Trianon Châteaux.
Oh yeah ... of course, it's a fabulous souvenir of a not-to-be-missed tourist attraction of a visit to Paris. Like any other attraction of this magnitude - the Louvre, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tower of London or Buckingham Palace - it really is almost impossible to do the venue any justice with a single visit even if one undertakes to spend an entire day working at it in detail. A comprehensive souvenir book like this is really the only way to allow yourself to go back over and over and over again, enjoying it, savoring it and, indeed, learning about it in greater detail with every return visit.
Béatrix Saule, Versaille's head curator, and Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, its Director General, have prepared a beautiful book that faithfully reproduces Versailles. With the benefit of historical hindsight, I'll add the unsolicited observation that Versailles is an almost overwhelming example of royalty's ostentatious self-indulgence and overpowering sense of personal entitlement. Little wonder the noses of the 18th century French citizens and citizenesses were so badly out of joint!
This book is gorgeous. Highly recommended!
Paul Weiss
VISIT VERSAILLES is an absolutely stunning photographic essay; it's a concise description in text of a world class living museum that will take any visitor's breath away with its splendor; it's a brief time-line history of the French royal families and aristocracy from 1624 until 1837 when Queen Victoria ascended to the British throne; it's a fascinating description of daily private and public life as it would have been conducted by the palace's residents in its heyday; it's a satisfying (albeit somewhat cursory) overview of the enormous quantity of art and frescoes that currently adorn the walls of the Versailles Chateau; and, finally, VISIT VERSAILLES is a room-by-room and path by path walkthrough of the entire palace and its grounds - the State Apartments, the Private Apartments, the Apartments of the Princes, the Chapel and the Opera, the History Galleries, the walks in the gardens and the Trianon Châteaux.
Oh yeah ... of course, it's a fabulous souvenir of a not-to-be-missed tourist attraction of a visit to Paris. Like any other attraction of this magnitude - the Louvre, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tower of London or Buckingham Palace - it really is almost impossible to do the venue any justice with a single visit even if one undertakes to spend an entire day working at it in detail. A comprehensive souvenir book like this is really the only way to allow yourself to go back over and over and over again, enjoying it, savoring it and, indeed, learning about it in greater detail with every return visit.
Béatrix Saule, Versaille's head curator, and Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, its Director General, have prepared a beautiful book that faithfully reproduces Versailles. With the benefit of historical hindsight, I'll add the unsolicited observation that Versailles is an almost overwhelming example of royalty's ostentatious self-indulgence and overpowering sense of personal entitlement. Little wonder the noses of the 18th century French citizens and citizenesses were so badly out of joint!
This book is gorgeous. Highly recommended!
Paul Weiss
September 23, 2022
Every visitor of Louis XIV.: damn bitch you live like this
May 11, 2021
ما به شي بس ما شدني.
كان يقدروا يقدموها بصورة أحلى للقارئ
كان يقدروا يقدموها بصورة أحلى للقارئ
February 23, 2017
I bought this book in 2016 and thought it would be a good read to refresh my memory for my revisit, next week.
It was a quick read. Loved the pictures, and the quality of the pages is really nice. I just found the chapter about the gardens quite boring.
Oh and the smell of this book. There's nothing better than the fresh smell of a new book.
It was a quick read. Loved the pictures, and the quality of the pages is really nice. I just found the chapter about the gardens quite boring.
Oh and the smell of this book. There's nothing better than the fresh smell of a new book.
February 8, 2014
I bought this book during my visit to Versailles last June -- I spent a few wonderful hours wandering the gardens early in the day, a welcome respite from the endless crowds of tourists (of which I was one, of course). So this book was meant to be more of a souvenir than anything. The photography is lovely, but the book is clearly translated from the French as some words escaped the editor. Also, I have a pet peeve about texts that mention paintings or other works of art but then have no accompanying photograph! This is often the case with this book. Still, I have a lovely souvenir.
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December 7, 2016Ah, thanks to this book I got to take a THIRD spin through Versailles in 2016. (FYI if you have to powder your nose in the middle of your tour, be prepared to start over--but that's another story for another day)
No picture can ever really capture the grandeur of Versailles because it is simply incomprehensible. This book, however, serves as a great reminder of what I saw and also filled in some of the gaps about who lived there when and how and why. I also liked its discussion of places we didn't see like the opera house.
No picture can ever really capture the grandeur of Versailles because it is simply incomprehensible. This book, however, serves as a great reminder of what I saw and also filled in some of the gaps about who lived there when and how and why. I also liked its discussion of places we didn't see like the opera house.
September 12, 2014
One of last trip to Paris hunts. I bought it from The Versailles little stores there. I was told it was the best guide book, and indeed it was. Not only filled with great pictures, but also historically entraining and well written! The book starts with how and when and who build the great Versailles, and takes you to a detailed information presentation. Great memories, Paris.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews