Paris1972-Versailles2003

And back again to my beloved Versailles, never to forget the wonderful family times we had there while living in the city for almost 9 years. One of the emblematic places of course was the palace but there are many things in it and around the city to see. One place that was renovated and back open is the galerie des Carrosses where the coaches that carry the nobility of Versailles is kept just across from the palace. Let me bring you and me back to this beautiful monument.

This is part of the Chateau de Versailles but apart in a separate building across the street so maybe you go for the nice horse show and by pass this beauty just back open to the public not far back. I was here before they renovated it as Versailles has so much more than the palace. I told you so!  The new galerie des Carrosses or Gallery of Coaches/carriages is a wonderful place indeed. One place on my list to be back when possible ,and to take more pictures as like i said living and visiting are two different things. The galerie des carrosses is in the Grande Ecurie or Great stables of the king across from the palace.

The galerie des Carrosses or Gallery of coaches-formerly Museum of Carriages (until 2006) is done as a museum which presents a collection of coaches mainly from the 19C.  It is attached to the public establishment of the palace, the museum and the Domaine de Versailles and housed in the Grand Ecurie across from the palace.

A bit of history I like

After the carriages were dispersed during the revolutionary period, and selling at the end of the French revolution, this museum was created by King Louis-Philippe I in 1833 when he decided to transform Versailles into a museum of All the glories of France (and therefore saving the palace and dependencies from demolition!!!). It is then installed in the Grand Trianon, in a small building. The first museum of the Trianon opened its doors to the public in 1851.

Both Museum of the history of France and Salon of Automobile of the 18-19C, the gallery of coaches presents the most beautiful prototypes and the latest advances of the French bodywork in terms of comfort, performance and technique as well as traction, suspension, and first cut convertible.  The collection consists mainly as said of 19C vehicles with sedan and gala cars of the imperial Court of Napoleon I, the funeral chariot of Louis XVIII; and the carriage of the coronation of Charles X. The museum has only a few vehicles dating from the old regime (monarchy) with the sedan of the Dauphin Louis de France chairs with carriers and six sleds. The coaches of the gallery are the creations of the best artists and artisans of luxury of the court: architects, carpenter, saddler-bodywork, shimmerer, locksmith, bronzier, chaser, gilder, melter, painter, plasterer, trimmers, and knitters.etc.

In 1978, the collection at the Museum of the Carriages or wagons of Trianon, built in 1851, was moved to the Grande Ecurie. In 1985, the Museum of Carriages was opened to the public. In 2007, the Museum of Carriages closed its doors for the expansion work. In 2016, the museum is open again to the public. the Gallery of Coaches or La Galerie des Carrosses in the Grande Ecurie is the new name.

Some webpages to help you plan your trip here are:

The official Château de Versailles on the galerie des Carrosses: https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/royal-stables/gallery-coaches

The Versailles tourist office on the galerie des Carrosses: https://en.versailles-tourisme.com/the-coach-gallery.html

Hope you enjoy it with the family lots of nice wagon/coaches and even more history in them.  The galerie des Carrosses is worth the detour in Versailles, one more reason it takes more than one day to see it all!!

And Remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

So this was one of favorite walks in Versailles from the time living there to when I later visited. Walking give you a different dimension seeing a city and get to know it up close and personal. This Versailles is personal to me more so than a tourist spot. I like to walk you again thru the streets of Versailles, and this time take you to the Rue de la Paroisse!!

A bit on some of the more personal and remarkable streets of the city of Versailles. A genuine effort to bring you out of the palace to the off the beaten paths, and fully enjoy this royal magnificent city.  I will tell you a bit on my main street where I drove/walked and spent most of my time in the city, this is the rue de la Paroisse. Other than been a hugely commercial street with all commodities walking distance from me and near the marvelous Notre Dame market; well there is the hugely historical ,royal and magnificent district church, Notre Dame Collegiate Church of Versailles (see post).

Notre-Dame is my old district of Versailles, department 78 of Yvelines, in the Ïle de France region of France. The district is located north of the axis of the palace by the Avenue de Paris, and takes its name from the Church of Notre-Dame the old parish of the palace. This is the first district, built during the creation of the new city under Louis XIV. It includes the theater Montansier opened in 1777, the museum Lambinet, the hotel of the Bailif which housed the local court under the old regime-today the heart of the picturesque district of antique dealers-and still has the most commercial streets in Versailles; like the Rue de la Paroisse.   Really, here I got all my living needs with the market Notre Dame (see post but one for the memories) nearby so it was very sedentary life in the beautiful city.

A bit of architecture and history I like

The rue de la Paroisse is an old street from the east to the west. It takes its name from the Notre-Dame parish from 1686 to 1793, then again from 1806. Filled with the sandy terrains of the hill of Montbauron under king Louis XIV.

The remarkable buildings on the odd numbers side are at no 1 the location of the trough removed with the drying of the Clagny pond from 1770, then land acquired by Soufflot architect of the Pantheon. At no 7a the house of the lawyer Albert Joly in 1869. at no 11 the Hôtel Pièche from the beginning of the 18C with facade ornaments of the late 19C (Jean-Joseph Pièche was a musician from the King’s chamber. See the dogs seated and the garlands of flowers carved between the windows. He would have seen Rameau and Boucher passed). It was restored between the two wars. At nos 3-5-7-7 bis-11-21 are facades of houses established in the 18C. At no 15 there is a house with the sign of the royal mark in the 18C; at no 32 there is a 19C cast-iron balcony guardrail, at no 35, this is it the Notre-Dame Collegiale Church created in 1686. at no 37-39-41 lies the former house of the mission of Notre-Dame from 1686; Order founded by Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. At no 43 the house of Dionis surgeon of king Louis XIV, at no 49 the house of Félix de Tassy, surgeon of king Louis XIV ; at no 53 the Hôtel de Bretagne, house of Guy Fagon, surgeon of king Louis XIV , at no 63 the House of the Grande Fontaine, by the name of Fontaine the public works contractor who lived there under king Louis XIV, at no 79 the building at the sign of the Rising Sun, the birth house of the poet Jean-François Ducis.

On the even numbers side the remarkable buildings are at no 2 and 4 the House of the Caretakers built under king Louis XVI. At no. 4 lived Joseph-Adrien Le Roi, head of Clinic at the hospice and historian of the Streets of Versailles in 1860. At no 6-6 bis 8-10, the Hôtel de Soissons stable of the Dauphine mother of Louis XVI, then Hôtel de Berry belonging to the Count of Provence. At no 28 the Restaurant of the Count of Toulouse. At no 32 by 1811, owned by the wife of Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , zoologist at the Natural History Museum. At no 14 or 15 the charitable home of Madame de Maintenon, rebuilt in 1772. At no 108 ,the former property of Jean-Baptiste Faugeron, geographer of the Ministry of War who had the two balconies built in 1783, bearing his initials and the motto “Fidem Fortuna Coronat” or fortune rewards loyalty . At no 110, a 19C cast iron balcony guardrail. At no 112 it was in 1734 the Auberge Au Roi Charlemagne; a cabaret.

The Versailles tourist office on the Notre Dame district which inclus the rue de la Paroisse: https://en.versailles-tourisme.com/notre-dame-area.html

If you are curious to know more of this district and the streets in it visit the maison de quartier at 7, rue Sainte Sophie. Easy walk out of palace by the Chapel into Rue des Réservoirs continue until Bd de la Reine, take a right here, continue until rue Sainte Sophie take a right here until the house at about 150 meters on your left hand side.

Really a lovely street not to lived on it but just side of it was a wonderful experience indeed, and great memories. I hope you enjoy the post on the rue de la Paroisse as much as I reliving it, and provide some curiosity to come over and walk it when possible again, the beautiful Versailles.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

So this was one of favorite walks in Versailles from the time living there to when I later visited. Walking give you a different dimension seeing a city and get to know it up close and personal. This Versailles is personal to me more so than a tourist spot. I like to walk you again thru the streets of Versailles, and this time take you to the Rue des Réservoirs!! 

I take you to one very near the palace/museum, but still in my old Notre Dame district. This is a very historical street, famous for its aqueducts which you can still see today if now all is underground. I am talking about the street of Rue des Réservoirs.

Notre-Dame was my old district of Versailles, department 78 of Yvelines, in the Ïle de France region. The district is located north of the axis of the palace by the Avenue de Paris, and takes its name from the Church of Notre-Dame the old parish of the palace. This is the first district, built during the creation of the new city under Louis XIV. It includes the theater Montansier opened in 1777, the museum Lambinet, the hotel of the Bailif which housed the local court under the old regime-today the heart of the picturesque district of antique dealers-and still has the most commercial streets in Versailles; like the Rue des Réservoirs. Really, here I got all my living needs with the market Notre Dame nearby so it was very sedentary life in the beautiful city. Of course, the sights above have their post in my blog.

Close to the Palace of Versailles, and having a south-north axis from it, the Rue des Réservoirs is located north of the palace and is on a section of the road RN 186, from the crossing of rue Carnot to the place Gambetta. It takes its name from the large reservoirs built to power the basins and water games of the Domaine de Versailles, reservoirs now extinct. The current reservoirs of the opera that were along the street were built after the creation of the Rue des Réservoirs.

On the apparent wall of these réservoirs were backed by 3 houses (at no 3, 5 and 7) which were demolished in the first half of the 19C. At no 11, where the Hotel du Garde-Meuble was then built, were initially wells which communicated by aqueducts with the Clagny pond located at the bottom of the rue des Réservoirs. Four covered pumps then lifted the water from the sumps to the reservoirs and fed the basins of the domaine. Later, a bit higher on the street, at the location of the Hôtel des Réservoirs was built a hexagonal tower to house a new sump surmounted by a strong hydraulic pump called the water tower. This was intended to feed the reservoir of the Tethys Cave built above it and thus higher than the 3 initial reservoirs fed by the other 4 sumps. The cave was destroyed a few years later, in 1686 to give way to the new Chapel of the palace.

Later, in 1752 , king Louis XV built for Madame de Pompadour on this site a particular hotel, called Hôtel de Pompadour or Hôtel des Réservoirs, connected to the castle by a covered corridor along the wall of the reservoir beside the park. In 1765, it was to house the Governor of Versailles. During the 19C this hotel became a luxury hotel that will house one of the most famous restaurants in the city. It saw itself adding two floors at the beginning of the 20C. Now extinct. In 1774, the land located at present No. 11, formerly occupied by the 4 pumps and houses of caretakers, was given by Monsieur, (Louis XVIII) the brother of King Louis XVI, to Thierry de D’Avray, Commissioner-General of the House of the King responsible for the storage/stocks of the Crown. This was then Hôtel de Conti, judged too far from the palace and too narrow (today the City/town Hall of Versailles); the works began in 1780 and the hotel of the storage was completed in 1783. It also had the advantage of being able to use the covered corridor connecting the castle to the Hôtel de Pompadour, located just next door. In 1778, it was built, at present No 2, the large buildings that surround the body of the middle. At this location was under king Louis XIV, the Hôtel de Louvois, a hotel occupied under king Louis XV by the Governor of Versailles which earned him his name as a government hotel. Under the Empire, the military staff of Versailles and the engineering administration settled there, in 1816, the building became a dependency of the palace before being re-used by the army in 1830. In 1855, the town built sidewalks and planted two rows of trees in what was then, off avenues, one of the widest streets of Versailles, between 32 and 38 meters. It then had a length of 481 meters.

In the Rue des Réservoirs, the numbering starts south of the street, the pairs number are to the East, the odd numbers to the West. The remarkable buildings here are

Reservoirs of the castle, at no 2-4, Hotel du government, former hotel of Louvois built in 1672, renovated by Heurtier in 1778; At no 6, hotel Ecquevilly; at no. 7-9, Hotel des Reservoirs or Hôtel de Pompadour; at no 8, Hotel de Serent, at no 11, Hotel du Garde-meuble which served as a storage of the castle and then housed the prefecture of Seine-et-Oise (current Yvelines) from 1800 to 186. At no 15, Théâter of Montansier, present Municipal Theater of Versailles. At no 19 (at the intersection with the rue de la Paroisse ),the building where Ferdinand de Lesseps was born in 1805. At no 21, the house where Blaise de Jouvencel lived , former mayor of Versailles. At no 22, Hôtel de Condé, built in 1679 and raised in the 19C, where lived and died Jean de La Bruyère, and was born the General Gaspard Gourgaud , Napoléon’s biographer, and lived a few years from 1950 the writer Maurice Martin du Gard. And at no 27 (at the intersection with the Boulevard de la Reine), a building where the painter Henri-Eugène le Sidaner lived.

The Versailles tourist office on the Notre Dame district includes the Rue des Réservoirs: https://en.versailles-tourisme.com/notre-dame-area.html

If you are curious to know more of this district and the streets in it visit the maison de quartier at 7, rue Sainte Sophie. Easy walk out of palace by the Chapel into Rue des Réservoirs continue until Bd de la Reine, take a right here, continue until rue Sainte Sophie take a right here until the house at about 150 meters on your left hand side.

There you go something to spent your good times in marvelous Versailles, a must I say to get a picture of France, Paris is not enough, and Versailles is a must. Hope you enjoy it as I.

And remember, happy travels , good health, and many cheers to all!!!