This magnificent garden was created by André Le Nôtre between 1677 and 1679. Le Nôtre is perhaps the most outstanding garden architect of all time. He created what we know today as ‘Le Jardin à la Française’. Before working at Versailles, he created the marvelous gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte and worked at many other extraordinary Châteaux in France. The Trois Fontaines Bosquet is the only bosquet to be mentioned in an original document “as of the King’s design”. Louis XIV’s love of nature was indeed consistent with the harmonious decoration of this unique bosquet. The Trois Fontaines Bosquet is one of fifteen bosquets at Versailles and one of six to have been restored to date. It was designed without any sculpture and composed of sky, water, and greenery. It is the purest of gardens, masterly using elements of nature.

The three basins, different in shape, size and water effect, were laid out in three successive terraces and levels. A series of rock work (roccaille) cascades, set in stepped lawns, connected the three pools. The uppermost and smallest basin was a round pool decorated with a fountain composed of 140 jets. The central basin, larger and square, had a tall jet in each corner and six jets on each side, which intermingled to create a water vault. The lower basin, large and octagonal in shape, framed a central fountain of rockwork from which spouted a fleur-de-lis motif (the royal emblem), itself surrounded by a trellised palisade, which was doubled by an arbor that formed niches at its extremities. At the foot of each niche, two grass filled terraces, planted with few trees, tapered the sharp points.