The labyrinth of Versailles
Encyclopedia
The labyrinth of Versailles was a maze
in the Gardens of Versailles
with groups of fountains and sculptures depicting Aesop's fables. André Le Nôtre
initially planned a maze of unadorned paths in 1665, but in 1669, Charles Perrault
, advised Louis XIV
to include thirty-nine fountains each representing one of the fables of Aesop
. The work was carried out between 1672 and 1677. Water jets spurting from the animals mouths were conceived to give the impression of speech between the creatures. There was a plaque with a caption and a quatrain written by the poet Isaac de Benserade
next to each fountain. A detailed description of the labyrinth, its fables and sculptures is given in Perrault's Labyrinte de Versailles, illustrated with engravings by Sébastien Leclerc.
In 1778 Louis XVI
had the labyrinth removed and replaced by an arboretum of exotic trees planted as an English-styled garden.
of unadorned paths in an area south of the Latona Fountain near the Orangerie. In 1668 Jean de La Fontaine
published his first collection Fables Choisies, dedicated to "Monseigneur" Louis, le Grand Dauphin, the six-year-old son of Louis XIV
. Although La Fontaine had incurred the royal displeasure, his poems perhaps encouraged Charles Perrault
, author of the Mother Goose
stories, who the year before had been named senior civil servant in the Superintendance of the King's Buildings, to advise Louis XIV in 1669 to remodel the labyrinth in such a way as to serve the Dauphin
’s education. Between 1672 and 1677 Le Nôtre redesigned the labyrinth to feature thirty-nine fountains that depicted stories from Aesop’s Fables. The sculptors Jean-Baptiste Tuby
, Etienne Le Hongre
, Pierre Le Gros
, and the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
worked on these thirty-nine hydraulic sculptures.
Each fountain was accompanied by a plaque on which the fable was printed, with verse written by Isaac de Benserade
. It was from these plaques, Louis XIV’s son learned to read. In his Fables d'Ésope en quatrains, dont il y en a une partie au labyrinthe de Versailles de Benserade claims that, as well being the one to choose the fables, it was the King himself who had wanted a quatrain
to describe each of them.
Once completed in 1677 the labyrinth contained thirty-nine fountains with 333 painted metal animal sculptures. The water for the elaborate waterworks was conveyed from the Seine by the Machine de Marly
, which used fourteen water-wheels driving 253 pumps, some of which worked at a distance of three-quarters of a mile.
The layout of the maze was unusual, as there was no central goal, and, despite the five metre high hedges, allowed glimpses ahead. Piganiol de La Force
in his Nouvelle description du château et parc de Versailles et de Marly (1702) describes the labyrinth as a "network of allées bordered with palisades where it is easy to get lost." He continues: "At every turn you see a fountain decorated with delicate rocaille, and representing very simply a fable, the subject of which is indicated by a four-line inscription in gold letters on a bronze plate."
Shortly after the labyrinth was completed, Perrault published a description in his Recueil de divers ouvrages en prose et en vers. "At each end of a path," he wrote, "and wherever they cross, there are fountains, so arranged that in whatever place one finds oneself, one sees always three or four and often six or seven of them at once. The basins of these fountains, all different in figure and design, are enriched with fine rock-work and rare shells and for ornamentation have different animals who represent the most charming fables of Aesop. These animals are so well made and lifelike that they seem to be still in the action that they depict; one can even say that they in some way speak the words that the fable attributes to them, since the water that they spout forth at one another seems not only to give them life and action, but serves them also as a voice to express their passions and their thoughts."
was produced soon after.
The small, pocket-sized books were richly bound in red morocco leather with stamped gilt decoration. The book was eventually translated into English in 1768, and published by John Bowles
.
The labyrinth contributed greatly to the wonder that the Gardens of Versailles instilled in visitors and diplomats from abroad. An illustrated guide printed in Amsterdam in 1682 praised Le Nôtre's work saying, "Amongst all these works there is nothing more admirable and praiseworthy than the Royal Garden at Versailles, and, in it, the Labyrinth... The Turnings and Windings, edged on both sides with green cropt hedges, are not at all tedious, by reason that at every hand there are figures and water-works representing the mysterious and instructive fables of Aesop".
The composer Marin Marais
, hired in 1676 as a musician to the royal court of Versailles, knew the labyrinth. He wrote in the avertissements to his The Labyrinth and other stories, "One enters the labyrinth and, after descending to the ducks and dog comes up again next to Bacchus." He also knew that nearby the labyrinth there was another bosquet called the Ballroom, which could explain the chaconne
which brings his long, mysterious Labyrinthe to a close. Titon du Tillet admired it: "The piece from his Fourth Book, titled Le Labyrinthe, in which after roaming through various keys, touching diverse dissonances, and underlining, first with sombre tones and later with lively and sprightly ones, the uncertainty of a man lost in a labyrinth, the composer manages happily to find the way out at last and finishes with a graceful and natural sounding Chaconne."
by Le Gros ("B") holding a scroll of paper and the other of Love or Cupid
by Tuby ("C") holding a ball of thread, like Ariadne
's.
Perrault writes of the two figures: "Aesop has a roll of paper which he shows to Love who has a ball of thread, as if to say tha t if God has committed men to troublesome labyrinths, there is no secret to getting out as long as Love is accompanied by wisdom
, of which Aesop in his fables teaches the path."
For Michel Conan, the maze's design "invited all visitors to give first-person attention" to their movements, and the statues "advised that unless they pondered their choices they might fail to find their way through the labyrinth." For him, the labyrinth, as a metaphor
for life, "encouraged self-reflection and a search for a personal code of conduct
", with the dialogue between Cupid and Aesop at the entrance emphasising this:
Cupid: Aesop:
, which compromised Marie-Antoinette, transpired in 1785.
In the reserve collections of the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, there remain only thirty-four fragments of the fountains, as well as the statues of L'Amour and Aesop.
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
in the Gardens of Versailles
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...
with groups of fountains and sculptures depicting Aesop's fables. André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France...
initially planned a maze of unadorned paths in 1665, but in 1669, Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
, advised Louis XIV
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...
to include thirty-nine fountains each representing one of the fables of Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
. The work was carried out between 1672 and 1677. Water jets spurting from the animals mouths were conceived to give the impression of speech between the creatures. There was a plaque with a caption and a quatrain written by the poet Isaac de Benserade
Isaac de Benserade
Isaac de Benserade was a French poet.Born in Lyons-la-Forêt in the Province of Normandy, his family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres. He began his literary career with the tragedy of Cléopâtre , which was followed by four other pieces...
next to each fountain. A detailed description of the labyrinth, its fables and sculptures is given in Perrault's Labyrinte de Versailles, illustrated with engravings by Sébastien Leclerc.
In 1778 Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
had the labyrinth removed and replaced by an arboretum of exotic trees planted as an English-styled garden.
Creation
In 1665, André Le Nôtre planned a hedge mazeHedge Maze
A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges.-History:...
of unadorned paths in an area south of the Latona Fountain near the Orangerie. In 1668 Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
published his first collection Fables Choisies, dedicated to "Monseigneur" Louis, le Grand Dauphin, the six-year-old son of Louis XIV
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...
. Although La Fontaine had incurred the royal displeasure, his poems perhaps encouraged Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
, author of the Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
stories, who the year before had been named senior civil servant in the Superintendance of the King's Buildings, to advise Louis XIV in 1669 to remodel the labyrinth in such a way as to serve the Dauphin
Louis, Grand Dauphin
Louis of France was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin...
’s education. Between 1672 and 1677 Le Nôtre redesigned the labyrinth to feature thirty-nine fountains that depicted stories from Aesop’s Fables. The sculptors Jean-Baptiste Tuby
Jean-Baptiste Tuby
Jean-Baptiste Tuby was a French sculptor of Italian origins. He was born in Rome in 1635 and died in Paris in 1700. He is most renowned for the Fountain of Apollo at Versailles.-External links:* Fountain of Apollo at Versailles...
, Etienne Le Hongre
Etienne Le Hongre
Etienne Le Hongre was a French sculptor, part of the team that worked for the Bâtiments du Roi at Versailles. Le Hongre was one of the first generation of sculptors formed by the precepts of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture...
, Pierre Le Gros
Pierre Le Gros
Pierre Le Gros refers to one of two French sculptors, father and son:*Pierre Le Gros the Elder, 1629-1714*Pierre Le Gros the Younger, 1666-1719...
, and the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
The brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy were French sculptors...
worked on these thirty-nine hydraulic sculptures.
Each fountain was accompanied by a plaque on which the fable was printed, with verse written by Isaac de Benserade
Isaac de Benserade
Isaac de Benserade was a French poet.Born in Lyons-la-Forêt in the Province of Normandy, his family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres. He began his literary career with the tragedy of Cléopâtre , which was followed by four other pieces...
. It was from these plaques, Louis XIV’s son learned to read. In his Fables d'Ésope en quatrains, dont il y en a une partie au labyrinthe de Versailles de Benserade claims that, as well being the one to choose the fables, it was the King himself who had wanted a quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
to describe each of them.
Once completed in 1677 the labyrinth contained thirty-nine fountains with 333 painted metal animal sculptures. The water for the elaborate waterworks was conveyed from the Seine by the Machine de Marly
Machine de Marly
The Machine de Marly, also widely known as La Machine de Marly and The Machine of Marly, was a French engineering marvel completed in 1684. King Louis XIV needed a large water supply for his fountains at Versailles...
, which used fourteen water-wheels driving 253 pumps, some of which worked at a distance of three-quarters of a mile.
The layout of the maze was unusual, as there was no central goal, and, despite the five metre high hedges, allowed glimpses ahead. Piganiol de La Force
Jean-Aymar Piganiol de La Force
Jean-Aymar Piganiol de la Force , son of Pierre and of Marguerite Parisot, dame de La Force, was a French man of letters known above all for works of a descriptive geographical character, for which he travelled extensively in France...
in his Nouvelle description du château et parc de Versailles et de Marly (1702) describes the labyrinth as a "network of allées bordered with palisades where it is easy to get lost." He continues: "At every turn you see a fountain decorated with delicate rocaille, and representing very simply a fable, the subject of which is indicated by a four-line inscription in gold letters on a bronze plate."
Shortly after the labyrinth was completed, Perrault published a description in his Recueil de divers ouvrages en prose et en vers. "At each end of a path," he wrote, "and wherever they cross, there are fountains, so arranged that in whatever place one finds oneself, one sees always three or four and often six or seven of them at once. The basins of these fountains, all different in figure and design, are enriched with fine rock-work and rare shells and for ornamentation have different animals who represent the most charming fables of Aesop. These animals are so well made and lifelike that they seem to be still in the action that they depict; one can even say that they in some way speak the words that the fable attributes to them, since the water that they spout forth at one another seems not only to give them life and action, but serves them also as a voice to express their passions and their thoughts."
Success
This labyrinth was so popular, not only with the King and the young Dauphin, but with the nobility and gentry who were allowed to visit the garden, that a guidebook was published, Perrault's Labyrinte de Versailles, which contained the fables, a description of the fountains and the quatrains written by the poet Isaac Benserade for each fable. It was first published in 1675, then reprinted in 1677 with engravings by Sébastien Leclerc. A third version, in which the engravings by Leclerc were illuminated by Jacques BaillyJacques Bailly
Jacques A. Bailly was the 1980 champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and now serves as the official pronouncer of the Bee, a position he has held since 2003....
was produced soon after.
The small, pocket-sized books were richly bound in red morocco leather with stamped gilt decoration. The book was eventually translated into English in 1768, and published by John Bowles
John Bowles (author)
John Bowles was an English barrister and author.He gained his bachelor of laws degree on 25 March 1779 from the University of Douai and the university licensed him on 11 May 1781. He wrote more than 33 pamphlets—16 on the British war against revolutionary France—between 1791 and 1817...
.
The labyrinth contributed greatly to the wonder that the Gardens of Versailles instilled in visitors and diplomats from abroad. An illustrated guide printed in Amsterdam in 1682 praised Le Nôtre's work saying, "Amongst all these works there is nothing more admirable and praiseworthy than the Royal Garden at Versailles, and, in it, the Labyrinth... The Turnings and Windings, edged on both sides with green cropt hedges, are not at all tedious, by reason that at every hand there are figures and water-works representing the mysterious and instructive fables of Aesop".
The composer Marin Marais
Marin Marais
Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles...
, hired in 1676 as a musician to the royal court of Versailles, knew the labyrinth. He wrote in the avertissements to his The Labyrinth and other stories, "One enters the labyrinth and, after descending to the ducks and dog comes up again next to Bacchus." He also knew that nearby the labyrinth there was another bosquet called the Ballroom, which could explain the chaconne
Chaconne
A chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
which brings his long, mysterious Labyrinthe to a close. Titon du Tillet admired it: "The piece from his Fourth Book, titled Le Labyrinthe, in which after roaming through various keys, touching diverse dissonances, and underlining, first with sombre tones and later with lively and sprightly ones, the uncertainty of a man lost in a labyrinth, the composer manages happily to find the way out at last and finishes with a graceful and natural sounding Chaconne."
Aesop and Love
Two statues were placed at the entrance to the labyrinth ("A" in the plan), one of AesopAesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
by Le Gros ("B") holding a scroll of paper and the other of Love or Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
by Tuby ("C") holding a ball of thread, like Ariadne
Ariadne
Ariadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
's.
Perrault writes of the two figures: "Aesop has a roll of paper which he shows to Love who has a ball of thread, as if to say tha t if God has committed men to troublesome labyrinths, there is no secret to getting out as long as Love is accompanied by wisdom
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
, of which Aesop in his fables teaches the path."
For Michel Conan, the maze's design "invited all visitors to give first-person attention" to their movements, and the statues "advised that unless they pondered their choices they might fail to find their way through the labyrinth." For him, the labyrinth, as a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for life, "encouraged self-reflection and a search for a personal code of conduct
Code of Conduct
A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical codes and honor codes....
", with the dialogue between Cupid and Aesop at the entrance emphasising this:
Cupid: Aesop:
The fables in the labyrinth
- Owl and Birds (Le duc et les oiseaux, PerryPerry IndexThe Perry Index is a widely-used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC...
614) - Cocks and Partridge (Les coqs et la perdrix, Perry 23)
- The Cock, the Dog and the FoxThe Cock, the Dog and the FoxThe Cock, the Dog and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables and appears as number 252 in the Perry Index. Although it has similarities with other fables where a predator flatters a bird, such as The Fox and the Crow and Chanticleer and the Fox, in this one the cock is the victor rather than victim...
(Le coq et le renard, Perry 252) - The Cock and the JewelThe Cock and the JewelThe Cock and the Jewel is a fable attributed to Aesop. It is one of a number that feature only a single animal. As a trope in literature, the fable is reminiscent of stories used in zen such as the kōan...
(Le coq et le diamant, Perry 503) - The Cat and the MiceThe Cat and the MiceThe Cat and the Mice is a fable attributed to Aesop of which there are several variants. Sometimes a weasel is the predator; the prey can also be rats and chickens.-The Fables:...
(Le chat pendu et les rats, Perry 79) - The Eagle and the Fox (L'aigle et le renard Perry 1)
- The Jay and the Peacock (Les paons et le geai, Perry 472)
- The Cock and the Turkey-cock (Le coq et le coq d'Inde)
- The Peacock and the Jackdaw (Le paon et la pie, Perry 219)
- The Viper and the File (Le dragon, l'enclume et la lime, Perry 93)
- The Ape's Twin Offspring (Le singe et ses petits, Perry 218)
- The Bat (Le combat des oiseaux, Perry 566)
- Hen, Chicks and Kite (La poule et les poussins, Perry 601)
- The Fox and the Stork, first part (Le renard et la grue, Perry 426)
- The Fox and the Stork, second part (La grue et le renard, Perry 426)
- The Peacock complains to Juno about his Voice (Le paon et le rossignol, Perry 509)
- The Parrot and the Ape (Le perroquet et le singe)
- The Wolf and the Fox before Judge Ape (Le singe juge, Perry 474)
- The Mouse and the Frog (Le rat et la grenouille, Perry 384)
- The Tortoise and the HareThe Tortoise and the HareThe Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...
(Le lièvre et la tortue, Perry 226) - The Wolf and the HeronThe Wolf and the CraneThe Wolf and the Crane is a fable attributed to Aesop that has several eastern analogues. Similar stories have a lion instead of a wolf, and a stork, heron or partridge takes the place of the crane.-The fable and its alternative versions:...
(Le loup et la grue, Perry 156) - The Kite and the Birds (Le milan et les oiseaux)
- The Ape and the Fox (Le singe roi, Perry 81)
- The Fox and the Goat in the Well (Le renard et le bouc, Perry 9)
- The Mice in Council (Le conseil des rats, Perry 613)
- The Frogs ask Zeus for a KingThe Frogs Who Desired a KingThe Frogs Who Desired a King is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 44 in the Perry Index. Throughout its history, the story has been given a political application.-The Fable and its political applications:...
(Les Grenouilles et Jupiter, Perry 44) - The Monkey and the CatThe Monkey and the CatThe Monkey and the Cat is best known as a fable adapted by Jean de La Fontaine that appeared in the second edition of his Fables Choisies in 1679...
(Le singe et le chat, not in Perry) - The Fox and the Grapes out of ReachThe Fox and the Grapes"The Fox and the Grapes" is one of the traditional Aesop's fables and can be held to illustrate the concept of cognitive dissonance. In this view, the premise of the fox that covets inaccessible grapes is taken to stand for a person who attempts to hold incompatible ideas simultaneously...
(Le renard et les raisins, Perry 15) - Eagle and Beetle (L'aigle, le lapin et l'escarbot, Perry 3)
- The Wolf and the Porcupine (Le loup et le porc-épi)
- The Snake with several Heads (Le serpent à plusieurs têtes)
- The Mouse, the Cat and the little Cock (La petite souris, le chat et le cochet)
- The Kite and the Doves (Le milan et les colombes, Perry 486)
- The Ape and the Dolphin (Le dauphin et le singe, Perry 73)
- Fox and CrowThe Fox and the Crow (Aesop)"The Fox and the Crow" is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 124 in the Perry Index. There are early Latin and Greek versions and the fable may even have been portrayed on an ancient Greek vase. The story is used as a warning against listening to flattery....
(Le renard et le corbeau, Perry 124) - The Swan and his Owner (Du cygne et de la grue, Perry 233)
- The Fox looks at the Actor's Mask (Le loup et la tête, Perry 27)
- The Snake and the Porcupine (Le serpent et le porc-epic)
- The Ducks and the Water-Spaniel (Les cannes et le petit barbet)
Destruction
Citing repair and maintenance costs, Louis XVI ordered the labyrinth destroyed in 1778. In its place, an arboretum of exotic trees was planted as an English-styled garden. Rechristened Bosquet de la Reine, it would be in this part of the garden that an episode of the Affair of the Diamond NecklaceAffair of the diamond necklace
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a mysterious incident in the 1780s at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud...
, which compromised Marie-Antoinette, transpired in 1785.
In the reserve collections of the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, there remain only thirty-four fragments of the fountains, as well as the statues of L'Amour and Aesop.
External links
- Interactive plan of the labyrinth and photos of two of the statues at versailles1687.free.fr
- links to almost all of the fables on shanaweb.net page on Perrault (in French)