At Versailles, a grand Olympic venue dazzles spectators and rivals alike

VERSAILLES, France — Websites for the 2024 Olympic Video games have marveled spectators, from a seaside volleyball venue on the base of the Eiffel Tower to the turn-of-the-century exhibition corridor the Grand Palais.

However none can fairly match the mix of historical past and grandeur as that internet hosting the equestrian occasions and trendy pentathlon: the palace of Versailles.

As soon as, the spectacular Seventeenth-century chateau was the seat of energy in King Louis XIV’s France, its halls crowded with diplomats and courtiers. Lately, it is turn out to be one of the crucial visited vacationer points of interest in Europe. And now, it’s 16,000 Olympic spectators who stroll the west aspect of the property, the place a brief grandstand now faces a backdrop of the chateau, its gilded roof glinting in the summertime solar.

“Once you get here and you see the palace down the way, it’s just breathtaking,” stated Charlie Frye, who traveled from the UK to observe the British equestrian Harry Charles, a private buddy, compete within the group leaping last. “Probably no better spot for it. Incredible.”

The venue’s setting helped to attract movie star consideration to the equestrian occasions, together with visits by French President Emmanuel Macron (“I think we can all be very proud to have these events here,” he stated to reporters after the group leaping last), the tennis nice Serena Williams and the retired NFL star Tom Brady, who got here together with his 11-year-old daughter in tow.

And people fortunate sufficient to have the perfect views could also be attempting not to take a look at all.

“When I’m in the ring, I try not to look up too much. I try to blur it all out,” stated McLain Ward, the American equestrian who has competed in six Olympic Video games and numerous equestrian competitions in different scenic areas.

Nonetheless, Versailles — “spectacular” and “awe-striking,” he stated — stood out. “It’s one of those settings that is iconic and will transcend not only our sport but time,” he added.

The Olympics joins a protracted historical past of the horse at Versailles

To some it might appear to be a form of sacrilege to carry Olympic occasions someplace so historic. Museum officers argue the other.

At Versailles, there’s a lengthy and wealthy historical past of horses, stated Laurent Salomé, the director of the nationwide museum. At Versailles’ top, there have been equestrian parades and ceremonies, and Louis XIV constructed monumental royal stables that after housed lots of of horses.

Holding the Olympic equestrian occasions right here slot in that legacy, he stated. “It’s a great celebration of horses where they belong — in Versailles, where they’ve always been so central,” Salomé stated.

The venue is located on the west finish of the property, on an esplanade referred to as the Étoile Royale. From the palace, the grandstand is seen on the far aspect of the mile-long Grand Canal, straight consistent with the beautiful symmetry of the grounds.

Earlier than his son constructed the palace that the world is aware of at this time, his father Louis XIII first constructed a looking lodge right here, the place he would come to flee the hustle and bustle of courtroom to hunt together with his horses and canine.

The backyard paths and contours of sight of at this time have been as soon as the routes into the forest that the king would observe to start his hunts, Salomé stated.

“That’s maybe one of the reasons why it feels so natural to have it here, and in the center of the perspective, rather than thinking, ‘Okay, we have space, we can hide it somewhere in the woods,'” Salomé stated.

The museum, too, has embraced the Olympic fever. Officers fast-tracked an exhibition about horses that had lengthy been within the works. Now, the halls of the palace are lined with spectacular work of horses and artifacts from an period of historical past the place the horse was central to European life — together with three spectacular units of armor for horse and trip, together with one worn by

Paris was formally chosen because the host of the Olympics again in 2017, and Versailles was finalized as the location for the equestrian occasions a number of years later.

Olympic organizers and Versailles officers alike supported the concept of holding occasions at Versailles. (“It was a very good collaboration,” Salomé stated. “The contract, the discussions, it’s enormous. It’s hundreds of meetings, hundreds of pages of agreements. But it went really smoothly.”)

The largest requirement was making certain that the property could possibly be returned to its earlier state after the Video games have been over. Greater than 740 acres have been reworked for the Olympics, for the grandstands, cross nation course, stables and different non permanent infrastructure. Not one tree was eliminated, officers say, and the dismantling of the venue will start after the shut of the Paralympics in September.

“It’s magnificent. It’s grandiose.”

To take part in a centuries-long legacy of equestrian life at Versailles was a “dream come true” for Italian equestrian Evelina Bertoli. “We are trying to keep the horses in the sport for a long time. It will not be easy, but we have to fight to keep this special animal until the end,” she stated.

After competing within the group and particular person eventing competitions, Bertoli determined to go to the palace, she stated, taking a second to pause on the terrace to admire the view. “Now, I’m looking to the stadium, and I just feel the emotions,” she stated.

Between the palace, the gardens and the remainder of its sprawling property and buildings, Versailles is so huge that in additional regular instances, there may be nearly at all times one thing present process a renovation. However for the Olympics, they determined that “everything should be perfect,” Salome stated.

In consequence, guests to the chateau now are getting the chateau at its greatest. Even those that have seen it earlier than, like Jacqueline Godet of Lyon, discovered themselves feeling awed.

“It’s magnificent. It’s grandiose,” Godet stated, standing together with her husband Olivier on the terrace, with the Grand Canal stretching out earlier than them and the Olympic venue posed on its far edge.

Solely France might host Olympic occasions at such a website, she stated. “To highlight to the world a little bit of what we have in France,” she added, made her really feel proud to be French.

Reporting contributed by Fatima Al-Kassab.