Château de Versailles - Come along to the garden: Les jardins des Lumières

From Tuesday 05 May to Sunday 27 September 2026

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

12:00 to 18:30

Location : Château de Versailles

Destination

Château de Versailles

Place d'armes

78000

Versailles

GPS coordinates

Latitude : 48.804328

Longitude : 2.120936

Event Organizer

Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles

Phone : +33 1 30 83 78 00

"Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles"

Location

Château de Versailles

Place d'armes

78000

Versailles

Réservation

Presentation

From 5 May to 27 September 2026, the Palace of Versailles is hosting an exhibition focusing on the early days of the English-style garden (landscape garden, pleasure garden or picturesque garden). This exhibition, featuring 160 works, will take place at the Grand Trianon.

Presented at the Grand Trianon from May 5 to September 27, 2026, the exhibition Gardens of Enlightenment, 1700–1800 explores the emergence of the landscape garden in 18th-century England. From the 1730s onward, a new way of designing gardens appeared, breaking away from the geometric style of French formal gardens. Garden designers and architects created winding, natural-looking landscapes made up of hills, water features, caves, and decorative structures, forming miniature worlds.

These “English” or “Anglo-Chinese” gardens drew inspiration from many cultures, from Antiquity to the East, blending European references with distant influences. They reflect a vision of the garden as a space of discovery, travel, and imagination, supported by a rich variety of objects, drawings, and plans.

The exhibition also shows how these gardens express Enlightenment ideas and a new relationship with nature. Influenced by Rousseau, this vision values walking, contemplation, and reflection. The landscape becomes a form of language, both an emotional and intellectual space, extending even into interior design, as illustrated by works by Hubert Robert.