Virtual tour lets us follow Louis XIV's footsteps inside gloriously re-gilded royal chapel at Versailles

Pierre Arligui photo

We're about one month away from the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the new-and-bigger chapel at the palace of Versailles, outside Paris. The event is an excuse to show off a major cleaning and restoration of the remarkable interior and a variety of related artefacts. The exhibition opened last week, and runs to July 18.

Best of all, the organizers have created a virtual tour that, like Google Earth, allows anyone from anywhere in the world to wander around to admire this spectacular place.

Check it out here. The designers of the tour give us the option of going in English or French, and there's some gorgeous period music to accompany your virtual gawk.

As the the site of Louis XIV's daily prayers, as well as big celebrations, there was much music created within the walls of both the new and old buildings.

To give you a taste, here are two samples:

First, from the old chapel, "Panis angelorum" by Henry du Mont (composer at the Chapelle royale for 12 years, until he died in 1684), a three-part motet sung by a group led by Montrealer Martin Robidoux;

Second, the motet "Domine, salvum fac regem" (loosely translated as God Save the King) by the much better-known François Couperin, who was hired to play the organ in the chapel for three months of the year in the new chapel (this is from a French album led by Bernard Coudurier, from 1989. The images are of the chapel.)