PARIS, March 30 — The Chateau of Versailles will provide one of the most elegant Olympic backdrops when the equestrian competitions canter through its famous park, but with less than four months to go to the Paris Games, it is a muddy building site.

The project has involved moving hundreds of tonnes of earth to build a 5.3km cross-country course and erecting temporary grandstands for spectators, but the centrepiece was the regilding of the spectacular Fountain of Apollo.