Audio quality: 7/10. I really liked the male/female voice contrast but couldn’t place the man’s accent which was a little distracting. Some of the chapters had dodgy edits clipping words which is a shame. It was performed rather than spoken but that actually worked really well considering we were exploring the Sun King’s Garden which is probably the grandest garden in Europe.
Audio content: 6/10. The content is pitched at someone with some background artistic and historic knowledge of France in the 1600s. It probably works better if you have enjoyed the house tour before heading to the garden. But listening in isolation I found I was trying to keep up and some of it was a little highbrow. Luckily, I was touring the garden with a horticulture expert (my fiancé) who was able to fill in some of the blanks and explain just how remarkable a 200-year-old pomegranate tree really is.
Ease of use: 8/10 The app worked really well for me. You need to download all the tours even if you are just visiting the garden as I was but I didn’t find the files too big. It’s FREE which I think is excellent.
The gardens tour has only got 13 audio episodes covering a tour projected at taking 2 hours so it might feel a bit light for some. The voice directs your gaze rather than encouraging you to move so if you don’t keep an eye on the map (contained in the map) you might get lost like I did!
Worth a download? 21/30 Turn on. I’d definitely use this as a companion to my visit. A podcast like this one with from the BBC with the legendary Mervyn Bragg is a great primer which I would recommend to get across the era.
Top Tips: Take a picnic. It was such fun to enjoy baguette, cheese and wine as we explored the stunning follies and statues of Versailles.
Make sure you plan you visit on a day that the fountains will be ON! I was very sad that we didn’t and was only consoled by the previously mentioned red wine we brought along in our picnic. Check here to see the schedule.
