At Versailles, a grand Olympic venue dazzles spectators and competitors alike

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VERSAILLES, France — Sites for the 2024 Olympic Games have marveled spectators, from a beach volleyball venue at the base of the Eiffel Tower to the turn-of-the-century exhibition hall the Grand Palais.

But none can quite match the combination of history and grandeur as that hosting the equestrian events and modern pentathlon: the palace of Versailles.

Once, the spectacular 17th-century chateau was the seat of power in King Louis XIV's France, its halls crowded with diplomats and courtiers. In recent years, it's become one of the most visited tourist attractions in Europe. And now, it is 16,000 Olympic spectators who stroll the west side of the estate, where a temporary grandstand now faces a backdrop of the chateau, its gilded roof glinting in the summer sun.

"Once you get here and you see the palace down the way, it's just breathtaking," said Charlie Frye, who traveled from the United Kingdom to watch the British equestrian Harry Charles, a personal friend, compete in the team jumping final. "Probably no better spot for it. Incredible."

The venue's setting helped to draw celebrity attention to the equestrian events, including visits by French President Emmanuel Macron ("I think we can all be very proud to have these events here," he said to reporters after the team jumping final), the tennis great Serena Williams and the retired NFL star Tom Brady, who came with his 11-year-old daughter in tow.

And those lucky enough to have the very best views may be trying not to look at all.

"When I'm in the ring, I try not to look up too much. I try to blur it all out," said McLain Ward, the American equestrian who has competed in six Olympic Games and countless equestrian competitions in other scenic locations.

Still, Versailles — "spectacular" and "awe-striking," he said — stood out. "It's one of those settings that is iconic and will transcend not only our sport but time," he added.

The Olympics joins a long history of the horse at Versailles

To some it could seem like a kind of sacrilege to hold Olympic events somewhere so historic. Museum officials argue the opposite.

At Versailles, there is a long and rich history of horses, said Laurent Salomé, the director of the national museum. At Versailles' height, there were equestrian parades and ceremonies, and Louis XIV constructed enormous royal stables that once housed hundreds of horses.

Holding the Olympic equestrian events here fit in that legacy, he said. "It's a great celebration of horses where they belong — in Versailles, where they've always been so central," Salomé said.

The venue is situated on the west end of the estate, on an esplanade called the Étoile Royale. From the palace, the grandstand is visible on the far side of the mile-long Grand Canal, directly in line with the exquisite symmetry of the grounds.

Before his son built the palace that the world knows today, his father Louis XIII first built a hunting lodge here, where he would come to escape the hustle and bustle of court to hunt with his horses and dogs.

The garden paths and lines of sight of today were once the routes into the forest that the king would follow to begin his hunts, Salomé said.

"That's maybe one of the reasons why it feels so natural to have it here, and in the center of the perspective, rather than thinking, 'Okay, we have space, we can hide it somewhere in the woods,'" Salomé said.

The museum, too, has embraced the Olympic fever. Officials fast-tracked an exhibition about horses that had long been in the works. Now, the halls of the palace are lined with spectacular paintings of horses and artifacts from an era of history where the horse was central to European life — including three spectacular sets of ceremonial armor for horse and rider, including one worn by Louis XIII.

Paris was officially selected as the host of the Olympics back in 2017, and Versailles was finalized as the site for the equestrian events several years later.

Olympic organizers and Versailles officials alike supported the idea of holding events at Versailles. ("It was a very good collaboration," Salomé said. "The contract, the discussions, it's enormous. It's hundreds of meetings, hundreds of pages of agreements. But it went really smoothly.")

The biggest requirement was ensuring that the estate could be returned to its previous state after the Games were over. More than 740 acres were transformed for the Olympics, for the grandstands, cross country course, stables and other temporary infrastructure. Not one tree was removed, officials say, and the dismantling of the venue will begin after the close of the Paralympics in September.

"It's magnificent. It's grandiose."

To participate in a centuries-long legacy of equestrian life at Versailles was a "dream come true" for Italian equestrian Evelina Bertoli. "We are trying to keep the horses in the sport for a long time. It will not be easy, but we have to fight to keep this special animal until the end," she said.

After competing in the team and individual eventing competitions, Bertoli decided to visit the palace, she said, taking a moment to pause on the terrace to admire the view. "Now, I'm looking to the stadium, and I just feel the emotions," she said.

Between the palace, the gardens and the rest of its sprawling estate and buildings, Versailles is so vast that in more normal times, there is almost always something undergoing a renovation. But for the Olympics, they decided that "everything should be perfect," Salome said.

As a result, visitors to the chateau now are getting the chateau at its best. Even those who have seen it before, like Jacqueline Godet of Lyon, found themselves feeling awed.

"It's magnificent. It's grandiose," Godet said, standing with her husband Olivier on the terrace, with the Grand Canal stretching out before them and the Olympic venue posed on its far edge.

Only France could host Olympic events at such a site, she said. "To highlight to the world a little bit of what we have in France," she added, made her feel proud to be French.

Reporting contributed by Fatima Al-Kassab.