An Afternoon in the Parc de Sceaux
Photos of an 'Alternative Versailles' to the south of Paris
5 min readNov 12, 2022
In December 2020, a few days before Christmas, I visited the Domaine départemental de Sceaux, a departmental estate a few kilometres south of Paris.
In 1670, the domain was bought by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister of King Louis XIV, who transformed it into a place of prestige.
He hired André Le Nôtre, the designer of the Versaille Palace and the castle in Chantilly to design the garden.
Not surprisingly, the garden has the same signature style as those aforementioned palace grounds, with a focus on symmetry, geometrical precision and trees groomed to unnatural perfection.
