ABSENCE OF WATER SHOULD HAVE MADE THE CHOICE OF SITE IMPOSSIBLE
As well, a swamp brings malaria, dysentery and pleurisy: "It was forbidden to speak of the dead, that the heavy labor and, still more, the miasma killed."
-- The Duke of Saint-Simon, memorialist, Louis XIV and his Court
Translation mine, here and below slightly shortened and adapted.
The painting shows no water, not even the barrels in which it was brought.
It was "the saddest and most graceless of places, without a view, without woods, without water, without land, because all was quicksand or swamp. One cannot come to the end of the monstrous defects of a palace that was so immense and so immensely expensive."
-- Saint-Simon
* *
After wells are dug, marsh waters drained and a small river diverted, Versailles uses more water than does all Paris.* But there is still too little for fountains and the Grand Canal, essential to prestige.
*Water per Parisian, for all uses: one liter a day (Mon canal Saint-Martin by Pascal Payen- Appenzeller, 1984)
The need for water brought scientific and technical advance.
 |
Video / zoom |
Windmills bring water from the swamp.
The small river is diverted.
 |
| Video continued / zoom Experimentation: the next page says more. |
* *
Eventually there was enough water for special occasions.
The Apollo Bassin in the Park of the Château of Versailles by Adam Perelle, end 17th century / zoom
But even today,
the full waterworks are reserved for weekends
during the tourist season
and for special occasions.
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