The ultimate expression of the “money, manpower, and manure” tradition of gardening must be Versailles. Constructed by thousands of men over a forty-year time-span to the exact specification of Louis XIV and his gardener Andre LeNotre, today the gardens are a vestige of the power, politics, and indescribable wealth from which they were created. Join landscape historian John Phibbs on a grand tour of Versailles’ gardens and a conversation about the particularities of the French style of garden design that extend from the time of kings to today.
