Image taken from the book: "L'art des jardins: parcs, jardins, promenades" of Alfred-Auguste Ernouf,  year 1886. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

Michel Lasne (159X-1667): "Portrait de la Maison Royale de Fontainebleau, estampe. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

Le Château de Chenonceau

France; 15th century; architect: Philibert Delorme. 

More info on Wikipedia: Le Château de Chenonceau.

"Panorama van Château de Chenonceau", Indre-et-Loire, France; retouched photograph from the original by Ra-smit. Source: Wikipedia.

Gaspard Gobaut (1814-1882): "Le Luxembourg côté jardin", 1850.

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

Antoine Aveline (1691-1743), graveur: "Vüe de Chambor, Maison Royal de France, dans le Blesois...", estampe. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

"Deborah de Luca at Château de Chambord for Cercle", 2017.

"La façade nord du château de Chambord", photograph by Benh Lieu Song.  Source: Wikipedia.

Gaspard Gobaut (1814-1882): "Le palais et le jardin des Tuileries", 1847.

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

Jacques-François Blondel: "Architecture Françoise, ou Recueil des Plans, Elevations, Coupes et Profils des Eglises, Maisons Royales, Palais, Hôtel & Edifices les plus considérables de Paris, ainsi que des Châteaux & Maisons de ...", Paris, France, 1756. Source: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, website: e-rara.ch.

Yoga with Angélique Thiriet at Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, 2020.

Sculpture by Aristide Maillol exposed at Jardin des Tuilerie in Paris,

photograph by Michele Leonardi.

Le Château de

Vaux-le-Vicomte

near Melun, in France; 1656-1661; architects: Louis Le Vau,

Charles Le Brun, Pierre Mignard, Pierre Puget, André Le Nôtre.

More info on Wikipedia:  Le Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

"La façade sud du château de Vaux-le-Vicomte vue depuis le "Rond d'eau" - Maincy", photograph by Jean-Pol Grandmont. Source: Wikipedia.

"Kasteel van Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy", photograph by Esther Westerveld. Source: Wikipedia.

Portrait of  Louis XIV of France, "Le Roi Soleil", by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701, detail. Collection: Musée du Grand Louvre, Paris, France; photograph by Michele Leonardi.

Antoine Aveline (1691-1743), graveur: "Vüe et perspective du Château Royal de Versailles, du coté de l'Entrée", estampe gravée par A. Aveline, 17XX.

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

"Versailles: from Louis XIII to the French Revolution".  Language: English.

"Versailles: de Louis XIII à la Révolution".  Language: French.

"Ville et château de Versailles avec le château de Clagny": dessin, plan. 1714.

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

"Galerie des Glaces du Château de Versailles, à Versailles en France", photograph by Myrabella. Source: Wikipedia.

Gilles de Mortain: "Les plans, profils et élévations des Ville et château de Versailles...", Paris, France, 1716.

Source: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, website: e-rara.ch.

"Versailles, construction d'un rêve impossible", régie par Cyrielle Adam, CAPA Presse, 2017.  Language: French.

Antoine Aveline (1691-1743), dessinateur: "Veüe et Perspective de l'Entrée de Trianon de Versailles". Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

Excerpts from the book by Antoine-Joseph Dézallier d'Argenville: "La Théorie et la pratique du jardinage", Paris, France, year 1713. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, website: gallica.bnf.fr .

• Alfred-Auguste Ernouf:  "L'art des jardins: parcs, jardins, promenades",  Rothschild Éditeur, Paris, France, 1886.

Text in French.

• Christopher Hibbert:  "Chateaux of the Loire",  Newsweek, New York, U.S.A., 1982.

• Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos: "Chateaux of the Loire Valley",  H.F. Ullmann Publishing Gmbh, Potsdam, Germany, 2011.

The architectural heritage of the French kings is nowhere as present as in the Loire valley. Magnificent castles, sophisticated gardens, and sweeping parks demonstrate both the monarchs’ power and appreciation of art, attracting and fascinating uncounted visitors to this day. Sixty of these works of art have been captured in brilliant color photographs for this book: the Hall of the States General at Blois, the Saumur and Angers fortresses, the picture-postcard castle of Azay-le-Rideau built in the middle of a river, and, impressive and shrouded in legend, the massive Chambord castle. The substantial texts describing individual castles are complemented by a map, a timetable, a genealogy of the kings of France, a glossary, and a bibliography. This is a fascinating book for all lovers of the Loire valley, all travelers, and anyone with an interest in history.

• Monique Mosser and Georges Teyssot: "The Architecture of Western Gardens: A Design History from the Renaissance to the Present Day",  544 pages, The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1991.

The Architecture of Western Gardens presents an international tour of garden design from the Renaissance to the present. As object and as literature, it is a sumptuous and unprecedented resource. The more than seventy essays by scholars from Europe and America all commissioned for this book - and over 650 illustrations raise the standard of garden literature to a new level. The result is an invaluable compendium that will serve as a fundamental starting point for exploring the many expressions of the place where nature and culture, project and diversion, work and pleasure meet. Organized chronologically, the essays and illustrations make up a mosaic of the garden in the Western world. The humanist garden in Renaissance Italy, the concepts of the "Sublime" and the "Picturesque," mazes, grottoes, and other curiosities, city parks, American land art, and even Disneyland are among the topics treated. Discussions of characteristic aspects of history and theory are followed by analyses of individual gardens as paradigms of their type: the Hortus Palatinus in Heidelberg, the Parc Monceau in Paris, the Park Güell in Barcelona, Stowe in England, and many more. The illustrations are a model of how iconography can function as text. They include ground plans meticulously redrawn from original archival material to provide precise information on the scale and nature of many of the projects, as well as a wealth of drawings, reconstructions, paintings, and photographs.

• Christian Norberg-Schulz: "Architecture baroque",  Éditions Gallimard, Paris, France, 1992.

Excellent book on Baroque architecture, written in French.

• Christian Norberg-Schulz: "Architecture baroque tardive et rococo",  Éditions Gallimard, Paris, France, 1995.

Excellent book on Baroque architecture, written in French.