FRANCE 



The North ff^ing of the Palace from the 

 Parterre d^Eau, Versailles 



/CASTLES in the air are drawn to earth for 

 V-^ later generations, the dreams of the past 

 becoming the possessions of the present. None 

 of those who planned Versailles saw it as we 

 have inherited it. 



Louis XIII, resting from a day's hard hunting 

 in a crumbling manor, dreamed of a new chateau 

 on its site, surrounded by those desolate forests 

 and marshes through which, a little lad of six, 

 he had followed his first chase. But the master- 

 piece built for him by Lemercier of white stone 

 and red bricks, with stately chimneys and steep 

 richly gilded roofs, moat-encircled and set in 

 formal gardens, served only to suggest Louis 

 XIV's superber dreams. So Levau incorporated 

 the old chateau in a spacious structure befitting 



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