Alain Baraton

This is a fast, rather charming read from the head gardener of Versailles, talking about his own history in the garden as well as historical tidbits and occasional rants about the state of things in modern France. A gentle, opinionated behind the scenes look at yes, the world's grandest garden.

Lost in translation. That is the only excuse I can imagine for the way this book turned out. What should have been an interesting read turned into a disjointed, frustrating experience. (If you’re interested in reading about the park police chasing lovers through the park, then this is the book for you). The author jumps around from one interesting feature to another, however, the actual physical layout is left to the reader’s imagination, as there are no maps or photos to orient oneself. show more The book could have been much better with a map identifying the areas. Much more so with some photos. The author’s depicting of the history of the garden is the more of the same, jumping around in time and seemingly more concerned with royal gossip than the actual garden. What a disappointment! show less

Lost in translation. That is the only excuse I can imagine for the way this book turned out. What should have been an interesting read turned into a disjointed, frustrating experience. (If you’re interested in reading about the park police chasing lovers through the park, then this is the book for you). The author jumps around from one interesting feature to another, however, the actual physical layout is left to the reader’s imagination, as there are no maps or photos to orient oneself. show more The book could have been much better with a map identifying the areas. Much more so with some photos. The author’s depicting of the history of the garden is the more of the same, jumping around in time and seemingly more concerned with royal gossip than the actual garden. What a disappointment! show less

I really enjoyed many of the anecdotes in this book, but (like other reviewers) I really wish there were photos of the gardens. Obviously, I can Google the names of the various places in the book, but it would have been nice to be able to see them in the text. Not a bad book, but not one you'd need to go out of your way to read either.