The Canal de l'Eure, made necessary by the insufficient water supply for the Château de Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

 and the water features of its gardens

Gardens of Versailles

The Gardens of Versailles occupy part of what was once the Domaine royal de Versailles, the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover some 800 hectares of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French Garden style perfected here by...

, was designed for Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 by his military engineer Vauban

Vauban

Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them...

, based on preliminary surveys by Philippe de La Hire

Philippe de La Hire

Philippe de La Hire was a French mathematician and astronomer. According to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle he was an "academy unto himself"....

. The population of the town of Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

 multiplied by a factor of ten during the first decade or so of the court's residence. Having exhausted all the nearer water sources, Louvois, at the king's command, organized the planning of this "Canal Louis XIV", which was never in fact intended to be navigable. Its length was over 80 kilometers.

Waters of the Eure

Eure

Eure is a department in the north of France named after the river Eure.- History :Eure is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 were diverted somewhat downstream from Pontgouin

Pontgouin

Pontgouin is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-Population:-References:*...

 and were led to the Etang de la Tour, today in the department of Yvelines

Yvelines

Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...

. The ruinously expensive project, worked on from 1685 to 1690, was never completed. Passing through the gardens of the château de Maintenon

Château de Maintenon

The Château de Maintenon is a château situated in the Eure-et-Loir region of France. It is best known as being the private residence of the second spouse of Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon....

, purchased by Madame de Maintenon in 1675, its arches ranging in three colossal tiers, nevertheless seemed to François-René de Chateaubriand

François-René de Chateaubriand

François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.-Early life and exile:...

"a work worthy of the Caesars".