Versailles Gardens and French Cloister

The cloister came from a fourteenth-century Augustinian monastery in Montréjeau in France, bought by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s, dismantled and shipped to the United States, where it sat in crates for decades. Huntington Hartford bought it in the 1960s for Paradise Island and had it reassembled, largely by guesswork since the numbering had been lost. It now stands at the top of a formal terraced garden looking down over the harbour, and it is a favourite wedding spot.

What you actually see

• The cloister - fourteenth-century French monastic arcades, reassembled in the 1960s.
• The terraced garden - formal steps and statuary descending towards the water.
• The harbour view - Nassau harbour framed through the cloister arches.
• The statuary - figures set along the garden terraces.

When to go

November to April is the dry season. Early morning avoids both the heat and the wedding parties. It is open ground and free to walk through.

Honest expectations

The reassembly was done without the original numbering, so the arrangement is approximate rather than authentic. The site is small and twenty minutes covers it. Weddings close parts of it without notice.

Nearby

Paradise Island's resorts are around it, and Nassau is over the bridge.