The Palace of Versailles, whose origins date back to the seventeenth century, was successively a hunting lodge, a seat of power and, from the nineteenth century, a museum. With the gardens and the Palaces of Trianon, the park of the Château de Versailles spreads over 800 hectares. The Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace, was built to replace a large terrace designed by the architect Louis Le Vau, which opened onto the garden. Water features of all kinds are an important part of French gardens, even more so than plant designs and groves. At Versailles, they include waterfalls in some of the groves, spurts of water in the fountains, and the calm surface of the water reflecting...