The Canal de l'Eure, made necessary by the insufficient water supply for the Château de Versailles and the water features of its gardens, was designed for Louis XIV of France by his military engineer Vauban, based on preliminary surveys by Philippe de La Hire. The population of the town of Versailles 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 () is a department in Normandy in Northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2019, Eure had a population of 599,507.Pontgouin Pontgouin () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Eure-et-Loir department The following is a list of the 365 communes of the Eure-et-Loir department of France. The communes ...

and were led to the Etang de la Tour, today in the department of Yvelines. The ruinously expensive project, worked on from 1685 to 1690, was never completed. Passing through the gardens of the

château de Maintenon The Château de Maintenon is a ''château'', developed from the original castle, situated in the '' commune'' of Maintenon in the Eure-et-Loir ''département'' of France. It is best known as being the private residence of the second spouse of Lou ...

, purchased by Madame de Maintenon in 1675, its arches ranging in three colossal tiers, nevertheless seemed to François-René de Chateaubriand "a work worthy of the Caesars".Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, tr.,''The Memoirs of François René Châteaubriant'' 1902:238

Notes

*This article is based on a translation from French Wikipedia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Eure, Canal de Aqueducts in France Canals in France Buildings and structures in Versailles Infrastructure completed in the 17th century