King’s Kitchen Garden
- What to see and do
- Gardens and outdoor leisure
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- King’s Kitchen Garden
Description
Welcome to a garden of truly regal vegetables. It was at the demand of Louis XIV that Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, the director of the royal kitchen gardens and orchards, created this superb garden between 1678 and 1683, with its main purpose being to provide produce for the king’s table.
The king himself regularly used to enjoy walks around the garden. He would descend from the castle via the famous “Hundred Steps” that border the Orangerie and arrive by the King’s Gateway, which can still be admired today. He would then walk up an alleyway lined with pear trees before arriving at the central terrace of the Grand Carré, where the kitchen gardeners would be hard at work.
A royal vegetable garden
Supremely elegant, the King’s Kitchen Garden is now principally an incredible gardening library, which aims to preserve the ancient arts of pruning, with more than 60 different types of fruit tree. Since 1991, the space has also been home to the French horticultural school the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage. Here, the school’s students can train on more than 400 varieties of fruiting plants and just as many vegetables, both contemporary and heritage. And they aren’t the only ones to benefit from the garden’s rich crops: at the entrance, a bookshop and boutique sells produce from the garden in the form of preserves and juices, as well as a selection of books on gardening and plants.
Discover the King’s Kitchen Garden through one of the treasure hunts in the Paris Region Adventures application specially designed for families and downloadable free of charge.
Community facilities
Days and opening hours
All year round, daily between 10 am and 6 pm. Closed exceptionally on January 1st, May 1st and December 25th.
Prices
- Full price: 5 € Reduced price: 3 € Student: 3 € Job seeker: 3 € Group adults: 135 € Set price group adults: 200 to 260 € Set price group children: 105 €.
Free entry for children < 26 years, accompanying guides, children accompanied by an adult, disabled people, disabled people and accompanying persons.
Normal price : 4,5€ the full week and 7€ the weekend and bank holiday Reduced: 3€ ( students, job seekers, children from 12 to 17 years )
Low season (November till March) : Single rate of 3€ per adult, free for children under 12 years old and people with disabilities
Groups with lecturer (max 30 people per group) : 200€ (105€ for school and groups without lecturer). Additional fee of 35€ for foreign language tour.
Facility
- Picnic area
- Public WC
- Car park
- Parking
Services
- Educational visits
- Themed tour
- Shop
- Tourist brochures
- Tourist information
- Tour free of charge
- Guided tours
Activities
- Activity
- Children's entertainment
- Concert
- Temporary exhibition
- Shows
- Theatre
- Handicrafts workshops
Tour
Spoken languages
- English
- French
Guided tour languages
- English
- French
Documentation languages (home)
- English
- French
Bulletin board languages
- French
Single mean time tour
90 minsSingle services tour
- Unguided individual tours available permanently
- Guided individual tours on request
Accessibility
- Accessible for wheelchairs with assistance
- Copyright images:
- Didier plowy
- Vincent Guine
- Didier Plowy
- Arnaud Dubois Fresney