SHORT FEATURE ON MARLY-LE-ROI WHICH IS TWINNED WITH MARLOW.
Written by Harry Walton
LOOK at the French town of Marly-le-Roi and it is hard to imagine that it once contained what was then one of the wonders of the world.
The site just 11 miles from the centre of Paris was actually two villages until the famous sun king Louis XIV bought them both and united them in the late 17th century.
He was looking for a place to build a chateau of a more intimate nature than the great site at Versailles and work started in 1679.
The estate had a castle at its centre with six pavilions on each side dedicated to the king’s guests, but it was the fountains feeding a number of pools which were the real marvel.
Water for them and the fountains at Versailles was provided by the Marly hydraulic machine located at Bougival.
Fourteen vast 36ft-wide paddle-wheels were driven by the current of the River Seine to operate 221 pumps in what was a miracle of modern hydraulic engineering. The scale of it can be appreciated by the fact that it provided almost the same amount of daily water as used by the entire city of Paris.
It was perhaps the largest integrated machine of the 17th century and pumped water into reservoirs from where it either flowed to fill the cascade at Marly-le-Roi or passed through an elaborate underground network of reservoirs and aqueducts to drive the fountains at Versailles.
Rank hath its privileges and, since there was only sufficient head of water to operate one set of fountains, the site chosen was invariably the one where the king was.
Louis XV and Marie-Antoinette were the last royalty to stay at Marly-le-Roi and after the French Revolution the estate became neglected and was bought by an industrialist before it fell into ruins and was destroyed in 1816.
In modern times only two of the pools remain and they lack the statuary features for which Marly was so renowned.
Copies of two of the sculptor Coustou’s famous large rearing horse sculptures, known as the Marly horses, still stand on their original position at the north end of the site.
The originals are on display in the Marly courtyard in the Louvre Museum together with some of the other statues retrieved from the site.
Visitors to Marly-le-Roi can expect to see typical houses and mansions dating from the 18th and 19th centuries as well as cobbled streets, gardens and Saint-Vigor church.
The town also boats a variety of restaurants from French and Italian to Indian and Moorish as well as a variety of bookshops, gift shops and even a chocolatier while the tourist office is open seven days a week.
Links:
Marly-le-Roi City Hall: www.marlyleroi.fr.
Tourist office: info@marlyleroi-tourisme.fr.
Les Chevaux de Marley restaurant: www.leschevauxdemarley.fr.