Petit Trianon - MA's domain II

In the year 1668, king Louis XIV (1638-1715) bought the little village of Trianon, right near Versailles. He wished to build a palace where he and his family could rest, away from the strong "étiquette" and rules of the court. That's how was built the Grand Trianon in the years 1780, today known as the Grand Trianon.

Grand Trianon, EPV

Few years later, king Louis XV (1710-1774), great-grandson of Louis XIV, with the advices of his 'favorite' Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) decided to build a second palace in Trianon. This one was supposed to be used for botanical studies by the scientists Richard and Jussieu.  The king entrusted the works to his dear architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698-1782), who recreated the interiors of Versailles for him. For this second palace, the king chose a Greek-inspired architecture, marking a difference with the Rocaille style in fashion in the early years of the reign. 
The works began in 1762 in the gardens of Trianon. Unfortunately, Madame de Pompadour was not able to see the palace achieved, she died in 1764. After six years, the works were done and the brand new palace could be enjoyed by the King and his new favorite Madame Du Barry. Louis XV enjoyed the palace as his ancestor enjoyed the Grand Trianon. He came there mainly with his favorite. She was much less enclined to scientific studies than her predecessor, and the original botanical purposes were quickly abandonned. The palace was starting to be associated with adultary, pleasure, and profligacy.

The columns characterizing the Greek inspiration, Petit Trianon, EPV

The palace is a square of 20 m wide, including two floors. It marked a rupture with the Rocaille style that characterized the early years of Louis XV's reign.

Engraving of the palace extracted from
 Guide illustré des palais et des jardins de Trianon, 1887, Gallica

The Northern front was made of a simple architecture, lookig towards the English Garden. The front facing the French Garden is the most Greek like, decorated with columns.
The palace was completely restored in 2008 thanks to a sponsorship with Montres Bréguet.

View of the Petit Trianon from the English Garden, Christian Milet, EPV

When Marie Antoinette arrived in France in the year 1770, she showed a profound interest for the small palace. In 1774, Louis XVI offers it to her "Vous aimez les fleurs, j'ai un bouquet pour vous, c'est le Petit Trianon" (You like flowers, I've got a bouquet for you, it is the Petit Trianon). He gave her a magnificient keyring decorated with 531 diamonds. It was the very first time that a Queen of France was becoming proprietary of her own domain, which caused a scandal because she was also a foreigner.

Louis XVI gives the key to the Petit Trianon to Marie Antoinette,
from  'Marie Antoinette' by S. Coppola, 2007

In her palace, Marie Antoinette replaced the figure of Louis XV with her own.

Thomas Garnier, EPV

She allowed her friends to visit her on invitation. They were chosen for their personnality, and not for their title of position at court as it was usual. Once they had been invited, they were written on a register held by the concierge Bonnefoy, and were given a token in order to enter the domain.
Among the most regular visitors were the Polignac couple, Axel de Fersen (alledged lover of the Queen), Madame Elisabeth (little sister of Louis XVI), the King, and her own children.



The salon de compagnie was a room dedicated to leisure (games, music, discussions,...).

Salon de Compagnie, Thomas Garnier, EPV

In one of the room on the ground floor, she had arranged mirrors to pull up in front of the windows, so that she wouldn't be spied on when on her retreat. This brought a huge scandal regarding the behaviors of the Queen and her alleged adultaries.

Cabinet des Glaces Mouvantes, Satoshi Nakagawa on WikiCommons

It was a place exempted from protocole (when the Queen enterred a room, no one had to stand up and bow to her as they were forced to do in Versailles). This brought back the sulfurous scent beared by the Petit Trianon with Madame Du Barry.
Critics began calling the palace "Small Vienna" or "Small Schönbrunn" and many pamphlets circulated speculating on what was happenning in the Petit Trianon (most talked about orgies, since most of the Queen's entourage were libertines, and there were no servants).

On October, 5th 1789, women of Paris marched on Versailles asking for bread for the people. the queen had to leave the Petit Trianon to stay alongside her huseband. It was the last time that she saw her dear palace.

A libertine vision of the Queen's journeys in the Petit Trianon,

extract from 'Marie Antoinette' by S. Coppola, 2007

During the Revolution, most of the furniture was sold in auction, as happenned for the one in Versailles. Popular balls and popuar feasts were organised in the domain of Trianon.
In 1805, with the coronation as Emperor of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), the Petit Trianon  took back its prestigious rank of palace. The Emperor to his beloved sister, Pauline Princess of Borghese. Restoration works were engaged after all the damages that had been done by the revolutionnaries. Festivals were held in the Trianon and the gardens surrounding by the Imperial family. later, the Petit Trianon was given to Napoleon's second wife Marie-Louise (1791-1847).

Marie-Louise's bedchamber in the Petit Trianon, Starus on WikiCommons

After the fall of Napoleon's Empire in 1815, monarchy was restored and king Louis XVIII was crowned. He offered the Petit Trianon to Marie-Thérèse de France, duchess of Angouleme and daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Unfortunately, her memories of the place were far too painful for her and she only made a few visits there but chose not to stay there..

In the year 1830, Louis Philippe (1775-1850), duke of Orléans, was appointed "Roi des Français" (King of the French) by the assembly of deputies. He decided to restore the Palace of Versailles and to install a museum dedicated to all the glories of France ("Musée dédié à toutes les gloires de la France"), which was to be the first museum of French History (which I will surely write about in a while). To monitor the works, he and his family settled in the Petit Trianon.

The family of the Duke of Orléans in the gardens of the Peit Trianon,
 engraving of a drawing by Charles-Jean Guérard

Under the Second Empire, Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), wife of Napoleon III, admired very much Marie Antoinette. She ordered that all the original furniture and decorations shall be put back at their original place. The problem was that these had been sold under the Revolution, and it was very hard to find everything back.Still today not everything is back in place, and the Palace of Versailles regularly buys  at auctions objects and settings that were once part of the domain (like this magnificient porcelain plate aquired a few days ago by the museum).

Bust of the Impress Eugénie, Salle Eugénie du Petit Trianon [X]

The palace was completely restored in 2008 thanks to a sponsorship with Montres Bréguet.
It possible today to visit the main rooms, and the Petit Trianon is very appreciated by all visitors. personnally I fell in love with the place, it is so cosy and much more intimate than the impressive Great Apartments back in Versailles ! It was funny to learn that most of the marble used to build it originated from a place very near my hometown in the Pyrénées mountains.

Madame de Pompadour's Private Apartment

  Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), was a woman of bourgeois origins, she did not descended from a family of the French nobility. In 1745, she had the good fortune to meet the king at a masked-ball organised in Versailles, where she managed to seduce the monarch with her beauty and her intelligence. He formalized her as his favorite, six months after their first meeting.
 Seven years later, the king and the marquise were no longer in love, but they kept a strong friendship. Jeanne-Antoinette even provided the king with young women, so that he would not choose a woman among these at Court. The king also sometimes asked for advises to her on state matters. He even kept her close to him, at the Palace. He bought for her the Hôtel d'Evreux, today known as the Presidential Palace de l'Elysée. While being the king's favorite, she used her influence to protect artists and writers (Voltaire, she permitted the publication of the two first volumes of L'Encyclopédie by Diderot and D'Alembert). 

Portrait en pied de la Marquise de Pompadour,
 by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Musée de Louvre (RMN)

  In 1745, the king installed his lover in the apartment right above his own. This apartment hosted the monarch's previous favorite (Madame de Chateauroux). This small apartment offers an impressive view of the northern part of the gardens.

The stairs to access the apartment (photo by me)

View on the Northern Aisle, from the apartments of the Pompadour (photo by me)

  When I visited, luckily for me, the weather was incredible, the sun enterred joyfully in the rooms.
The apartment has been completely refurnished and redecorated few years ago, thanks to a generous sponsorship from a jewelry brand. These rooms are accessible with a special guiding tour focused on hidden apartments of the castle.

Cabinet of the marquise (photo by me)

Bedchamber (photo by me)

photo by me

photo by me

Madame Husset's (marquise's maid) room, a very small room usually closed to the public (photo by me)

Further informations:

* Article about the apartment on the site of the Palace
* Gallery from the Facebook account of the Palace
* Le Bal Des Ifs, by Franck Ferrand, an interesting biography of Madame de Pompadour by famous French writer and Versailles specialist Franck Ferrand. I found it easy to read and to understand all the mechanisms of the mid. 18th century French court.
* Article about the marquise on Encyclopaedia Universalis by Louis Trenard (in French)
* Article about the marquise on Encyclopaedia Britannica by Nancy Mitford (in English)
* Extract from the show Secrets d'Histoire about the marquise (in French)

Marie Antoinette's Inside Cabinets

The tradition in Versailles had always been for sovereigns to have apartments for "apparat", apartments for the court life, for public appearances, for public ceremonies (Grand Lever, Grand Souper,...), but the kings and queens in Versailles also could enjoy more private apartments, where they could spend some private time, with their close relatives and friends. If you've seen the 2007 Sofia Coppola film 'Marie Antoinette' you might remember that the queen spends some of her time alone in rooms quite smaller than the official ones.

L'escalier des porteurs d'eau,
 first step into a quiet little world (photo by me)

I am going to try to describe you a part of the Queen's private apartments, or as we call them in French 'les Cabinets Intérieurs de la Reine', which I had the privilege to visit last summer.


We access them through a hidden door in the end of the Queen's Great Apartments, door obviously locked for most visitors. It was quite an amazing feeling to pass from the crowded apartments to this empty quiet staircase.











Once we climbed these stairs, and after two or three rooms with no particularity, we arrived at the entrance of the Cabinet Doré (Golden Cabinet), in which we could not enter for security reasons, but with the door entirely open, we were still able to see the beautiful room.

© EPV/ Christian Milet

It is the largest room of all Marie Antoinette's private apartments. it was there that the queen received most of her private guests, including her Ministre des Modes (Fashion Minister) as she liked to call her, Rose Bertin, or her official poraitis Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (whom we saw here). It was also in this room that she liked to take her music lessons. We can see a harp in the background, it actually belonged to the Queen and was crafted by the luthier and composer Jean-Henri Naderman in 1774 (he is reknown among harpists for writing several sonatas, inspired by the cour of Versailles).

We then moves on towards another room, much smaller than this one, the Cabinet de la Méridienne.

© EPV/ Jean-Marc Manaï

This little room was sort of a refuge for the Queen. She used to come here to rest on the sofa, whithout being disturbed. Indeed, she could lock herself in from the inside, thanks to the lockets on both doors. It was installed in the years 1780, when Marie Antoinette was pregnant with the second royal baby, whom everyone was hoping to be a boy, so that he kingdom would have its "dauphin". On the wooden walls are crafted some dolphins (symbol of the heir to the throne of France), eagles (symbols of the Austrian empire where the queen was born), and other feminin and royals symbols. On the fireplace is displayed a bust representing the son that Marie Antoinete finally had, who was destined to become Louis XVII, born in 1785 (he died during the Revolution).

Detail of the window  (photo by me)

Details of the door (photo by me)

After this quiet moment in this beautiful cabinet, we continued our visit to a series of small rooms, all quite ravishing, and impressively small, when we know the reputation marie Antoinette had for the "grandiose".

photo by me

photo by me

photo by me

photo by me

We then went down a flight of stairs and arrived right on the other side of the door that we can see in the Queen's Great Bedchamber.

On the other side, we can see usual tourists (photo by me)