Versailles was once a village in the countryside but is now a wealthy suburb of Paris. It is famous for its royal place which has become a tourist attraction. I decided to travel to Versailles but to resist the spectacle of absolute monarchy associated with its most famous building. Instead of visiting this tacky attraction, I walked around and around the block containing what were once the royal stables and what is currently a school of architecture (founded in 1969). Actually this isn’t so much a block as a triangle with a bite taken out of one corner.

One side of this triangle is mostly taken up with the entrance to Ecole nationale superieure d’architecture de Versailles or ENSAV. However those parts of it closest to the bus stops and train station also contain a few amenities such as The Buffalo Grill, a particularly unappetizing restaurant. Turning the corner one comes to the bus stops with the train station across the road – this corner is the part with the bite taken out of the triangle. Among other things it boasts such corporate carbuncles as a Starbucks and a McDonald’s. There are also various cafes, some shops selling tourist tat, and a hotel. Turning into the third line of the triangle one finds a few more shops including the Tourist Information Bureau – but like the first section described above, much of it is more notable for its blank wall.

I walked around this triangle multiple times over the course of an hour. The section containing the Starbucks and McDonald’s proved to be the busiest in terms of both pedestrians and road traffic. There were local teenagers hanging around outside the McDonald’s shouting at each other, and a lot of adults waiting for buses. For some of the time there was a large party of French school children who looked to me to be between 8 and 10 years old. The predominant languages I heard on this stretch were French and English (mostly American English as opposed to British or Australian English).

Along the section with the Tourist Information Bureau I heard some Italian spoken, as well as French and English. On one level this was the most annoying section of the walk because its features included cars emerging from an underground car park: however, it was the angle from which the old stable building looked most impressive – possibly because this was the view of the building mostly likely to be seen by an absolute monarch. There were curved roofs behind the blander features that most immediately abutted the street.

On the section of the walk past the entrance to ENSAV there was for a time a group of about 20 Japanese architecture students talking excitedly to each other. It was also here that a man on a bicycle who was not using the designated cycle lanes nearly ran into me. This was the only section on which I saw locals walking their dogs.

I strolled around in the same direction for about an hour. Among the more exciting things that happened were that a man reading a newspaper as he walked, and another man engaged in a mobile phone conversation, would have bumped into me had I not taken evasive action. I considered reversing the direction in which I perambulated but decided to save this excitement for another visit to Versailles. Instead, I headed for the train station and made my way back into the centre of Paris. It ought to go without saying that The Palace of Versailles should be pulled down because of what it represents.

Above: La Marechalerie – centre d’art contemporain Ecole nationale superieure d’architecture de Versailles. An intervention At Versailles by Tadashi Kawamata, September to December 2008. The intervention is in part of what was once the royal stables.