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.
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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.
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| © 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.
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| © 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).
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| Detail of the window (photo by me) |
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| 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".
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| photo by me |
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| photo by me |
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| photo by me |
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| 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.
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| On the other side, we can see usual tourists (photo by me) |
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