Versailles: following the path of the Sun King
Monday, 14th June 2010
Cactus French teacher Irina gives us the background on one of Paris' most famous and prestigious areas - Versailles.
Magnificent dances, splendid costumes, baroque music, breathtaking fountains and spacious parks with a hidden sense of intrigue...the development of the Versailles Palace, where birth, position and favour defined lives of the nobility, started when Louis XIV decided to transform the country village like so many others into a new flourishing capital.
From 1682 to 1789 the royal court was at the heart of noble festivities and entertainment in this green and blue area. The King invited architects and landscape gardeners such as Le Vau and Le Nôtre to transform the castle and the park of his father into a royal residence of world scale significance representing power and splendour, the sense of cérémonie and hierarchy as well as mask culture. The restored Galérie des Glaces in the Palace, le Hâmeau de la Reine, pleasure gardens, Les Grandes Eaux Musicales in the middle of the geometrically perfect luxurious park attract millions of visitors every year.
But Versailles is not only this. Its university is happy to welcome students from abroad, Erasmus or not, with its range of faculties including science, the humanities, languages. By the way, fees are much lower than in the equivalent UK universities. You just have to speak French!
The aristocratic Château de Versailles, the primary attraction of the wealthy Parisian suburb of 90,000 inhabitants, competes nowadays with the sites of the university of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. The UVSQ established in 1991 has become truly a hub of science and research. It allows students to obtain academic degrees in a wide variety of domains excelling in both science and the humanities. Research labs and libraries are located at faculties of medicine, biology, physics, history, geography, literature, languages while more than 16,000 students belong to the Versailles University community. The university has international partnerships and exchange programmes, including Erasmus, with a significant number of universities and research centres all over the world. Knowledge has no borders since it serves the continuous cause of the Enlightenment ! Foreign students are offered French classes at the beginning of their stay as exchange or other student programmes to boost their command of the French language to help them integrate into the welcoming and open-minded francophonie family.
At the same time, Versailles is also one of the favourite attractions for weekenders in the region Ile-de-France with its fresh air, magnificent views and an environmentally friendly touch already enjoyed by French kings on royal hunt. A picnic in some remote corner of the beautiful Versailles park equals the weekend joy of the Londoners out in the green landscape of St James’ Park or Greenwich, somewhat different, though, from the geometrically arranged alleys of the parks of Versailles.
A few visual illustrations would be also a plus for French learners discovering the Parisian suburb. Complete your DVD collection with the movies Le Roi Danse/The King is Dancing (2000) and Marie Antoinette (2006). Le Roi Danse highlights the music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian composer who spent most of his life working at the court of Louis XIV and finally became a French subject. He composed music to Molière’s comedies and contributed to the musical landscape of the XVIIe century in France. French students will definitely be interested in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette played by the American actress Kirsten Dunst. Some might remember the famous response attributed to the volatile queen upon hearing that the poor of France were unable to purchase bread: “S’ils n’ont pas de pain qu’ils mangent de la brioche ! Let them eat cake !” This film à costumes is focused on the theatrical universe of the dauphine becoming a young French queen shifting from the life of festivities and pleasure sous l’Ancien Régime to an inglorious execution at the height of the French Revolution.
Versailles successfully blends tradition with innovation, heritage with the vision of the future being a real gem on the world’s map. For more information on the university visit http://www.uvsq.fr/toute-l-actualite/university-in-video and check http://www.amazon.com to order the DVDs Marie Antoinette, Le Roi Danse, Vatel on the glorious glimpses of French cultural history.
Cactus offers French courses in several locations around Paris. Please visit the Cactus Language website to find out more.
Tags: versailles, paris, history, language, london, languages, france, culture, french
Posted by Laura Lippert 2010-06 under
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