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The Versailles Palace, an Official UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a sprawling château with landscaped grounds and formal gardens. Thirteen miles southwest of Paris, it was the political capital of France from 1682 to 1789 and the opulent residence of French kings. Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, was the monarch of France from 1643 until 1715. In 1661, he moved the royal court to Versailles, which had previously functioned as a hunting lodge. He commissioned a palace and garden that would impress the world and display his power. It has over 700 rooms filled with fine furniture and paintings, tapestries and sculptures by French and Italian masters. The Hall of Mirrors includes 17 arched windows paired with 17 alternating mirrors, crystal chandeliers, marble columns and gilding.
Marie-Antoinette is the only queen to have imposed her personal taste on Versailles. Brushing aside the old court and its traditions, she insisted on living as she wished. In her Petit Trianon domain, which Louis XVI gave her in 1774, she found privacy that enabled her to escape from the rigours of court etiquette. No one could go there without her invitation.
Behind the Petit Trianon is her hamlet, created in the style of a miniature Norman village. It contained the farm, twelve thatched cottages, a dovecote, mill and tower, all of which Marie Antoinette had built in 1783 by her favourite architect, Richard Mique and landscape gardener, Andre Le Notre.
A farmer was appointed by Marie Antoinette to manage the farm, so that its vegetable gardens, fields, orchards and vineyards supplied produce to the palace kitchens. She loved the simplicity of country life and wanted to indulge in it. She also wanted the farm to help create the illusion that the Petit Trianon was in the countryside.
It is well worth the long walk it takes to get there!!
It was from Versailles that Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI were taken and then held captive in the Tuilleries Palace in Paris. It was a fortress prison from where Louis was taken to be guillotined in 1793. Marie-Antoinette was then imprisoned in the Conciergerie from where she was taken to be guillotined, also in 1793.
Marie-Antoinette is the only queen to have imposed her personal taste on Versailles. Brushing aside the old court and its traditions, she insisted on living as she wished. In her Petit Trianon domain, which Louis XVI gave her in 1774, she found privacy that enabled her to escape from the rigours of court etiquette. No one could go there without her invitation.
Behind the Petit Trianon is her hamlet, created in the style of a miniature Norman village. It contained the farm, twelve thatched cottages, a dovecote, mill and tower, all of which Marie Antoinette had built in 1783 by her favourite architect, Richard Mique and landscape gardener, Andre Le Notre.
A farmer was appointed by Marie Antoinette to manage the farm, so that its vegetable gardens, fields, orchards and vineyards supplied produce to the palace kitchens. She loved the simplicity of country life and wanted to indulge in it. She also wanted the farm to help create the illusion that the Petit Trianon was in the countryside.
It is well worth the long walk it takes to get there!!
It was from Versailles that Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI were taken and then held captive in the Tuilleries Palace in Paris. It was a fortress prison from where Louis was taken to be guillotined in 1793. Marie-Antoinette was then imprisoned in the Conciergerie from where she was taken to be guillotined, also in 1793.
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Francie Stoutamire Photography