Potager du Roi
Just a short walk from the palace gates but almost entirely off the tourist radar, the Potager du Roi is a magnificent 9-hectare kitchen garden that has been supplying fruit and vegetables to French tables since Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie designed it for Louis XIV in 1683. It is one of the most quietly beautiful places in Versailles.
The Garden Itself
Sixteen square plots, each enclosed by ancient stone walls trained with espaliered pear and apple trees, radiate out from a central pool. In spring the blossom is extraordinary; in summer the beds overflow with heirloom tomatoes, artichokes, lettuces and herbs in colours you rarely see in supermarkets.
The garden is still a working agricultural site managed by the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage, France's leading landscape architecture school. Students tend the beds alongside professional gardeners, and the sense of living continuity with the 17th century is palpable.
Visiting Practically
The Potager is entirely separate from the palace ticket and charges its own modest entry fee. Guided tours in French and English run on weekend mornings and are highly recommended — the guides explain La Quintinie's revolutionary growing techniques, including forcing figs and strawberries out of season for the royal table.
A small shop near the entrance sells seasonal produce and jams made from the garden's harvest. Buying a jar of Potager peach jam is one of the most pleasingly obscure souvenirs you can take home from Versailles.
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