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)

Versailles at Night

Recently, several photos were posted on the Versailles Facebook page. They were picturing the magnificent castle at night, with a very special lightning.

The clock, photo : EPV / Thomas Garnier

The Entrance, photo by : EPV / Thomas Garnier

The facade of the palace under the light. photo: EPV / Thomas Garnier

Hall of mirrors : EPV / Thomas Garnier

Coming Soon

Hi everyone,
I'm so sorry I was not able to post anything recently but with my exams in University, I did not find time to write here. But don't worry, I am working on new articles, I've got many ideas that will please you !!
See you later !

I leave you waiting with these beautiful pictures taken to show how Autumn did change the colours of Versailles, enjoy !

© EPV / Christian Milet

© EPV / Christian Milet

© EPV / Christian Milet

© EPV / Thomas Garnier

Le Temple de l'Amour et Le Belvédère - MA's domain I

As you may know, queen Marie Antoinette had a very important influence at Versailles. She was also very fond of nature, and wished for what she called a "simpler" life. She started wearing simpler white dresses, and was spending most of her time in the Trianon, where she established a more casual way of living, whithout any étiquette to dictate conducts.

In the end of the 1770's some elements were build for her in what was to be called 'Marie Antoinette's domain'. Royal architect Richard Mique started by conceiving the Temple de l'Amour, behind the Petit Trianon. It is an open-air temple, with in its center, a statue of Love (Ancient Greek god Eros) woodcrafting his bow, from Hercule's bludgeon. The temple was build upon asmall island on the river that runs through the gardens. It was suposed to be in harmony with the English Garden that surrounds it. The English Garden is a style known for the diversity of its plants, and is supposed to be an imitation of wild life (as opposed to the 17th century French Garden composed by geometrical gardens ).

Photo EPV Christian Milet

Marie Antoinette organized parties in her gardens. For exemple, in 1781, servants disposed candles and bonfires all through the fields. The fires were also set behind the Temple, to give a perfect lighting. These parties were reknown for their ephemeral luxury.
The queen's evenings were also set around the Belvédère and the Rocher.

'Illumination du pavillon du Belvédère (r) et du Rocher (l)' by Claude-Louis Chatelet (RMN)

The Belvédère was built at the same time as the Temple de l'Amour. It was also designed by architect Richard Mique who was very much appreciated by Marie Antoinette. He created an octogonal pavillion, with great windows on each side, to offer the queen a perfect panoramic view of her domain. The pond in front of it, offers a beautiful reflection in the day, and when the Belvédère is lit during celebrations.

Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst ) resting on a boat in the pond, with the Belvédère in the background
 (Sofia Coppola, 2007)

As I explained, Marie Antoinette had a passion for wild life. That is also why she asked for a cave to be created right next to the Belvédère, where she could have private meetings, or just read alone, in a quiet place. This cave protects the queen's privacy, because to enter, you have to cross a path that can be very muddy, surrounded by weeds and brambles. Totally artificial, it was sort of a private, nature room for Marie Antoinette. It was also set so that the queen could see who was coming towards the cave whithout being seen herself. This need for privacy of MA created a scandal at court. There were numerous rumours about this place, most of them were that the queen built it to welcome secret lovers, who were, according to the rumours, very numerous.

The path to the entrance of the cave (photo from acbx41.com)

This cave is also famous because on October 5th of 1789, Marie Antoinette was resting here when a servant brought a letter from the minister Saint-Priest, informing her of the arrival of the Parisian women at Versailles, who were there to complain about the enormous price rises the country faced, and to capture the Royal Family.

Marie Antoinette appearing at the balcony, in front of the Parisians, Anonymous

For me, it was the first time I saw these wonderful things this summer. To be honest, I felt really emotionnal in front of the cave, because I knew that this very small thing was important in my country's history. Unfortunately I didn't saw any ghost of the former queen, like these two british women did during the 1901 summer.


If you want to learn more about this, here are two French speaking links.

• Extract from the show Secrets d'Histoire about the domain 
• Radioshow about the 5th of October 1789

Closing Days

One of the best privileges I got when working at the Palace, was to be allowed in on mondays, the closing day.

If you follow the Palace on social medias (Twitter and Facebook), on monday, you can see pictures of the empty rooms and corridors. 

Empty Queen's Bedchamber (photo by me)

Empty Hall Of Mirrors (photo by me)

You may think that, since its closed, there is nothing inside, but you're wrong. There are less people than any other day, but still. There are people cleaning statues, floors, chandeliers. On monday, the Palace also offers visits for VIPs (for example, Leonardo Di Caprio came in June, or Kim & Kanye in May 2014). While wandering through the empty corridors, you can encounter curators watching paintings and art to see if there's any problems with it. Finally, monday is usually a shootingday for television documentaries or movies. For example, on my last monday at Versailles, I met three BBC journalists making a film about Louis XIV.

Salon de l'Oeil-De-Boeuf (photo by me)

One monday, we also realised a photoshoot of some furniture. The pictures we take are for the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (National Museums Reunion) and will be used for posters, postcards, and posted on the RMN's website .

photo by me

Salon de la Paix (photo by me)

Marie Antoinette's portraits

As many people around the world, I am fascinated with the life of Marie-Antoinette, the most famous queen of France (but not the last one as many people think, but I'll explain another time).


She was the daughter of the Empress of Austria. In 1770, at the age of 14, she was married to the French Dauphin (heir to the throne), Louis Auguste. Their marriage was made to bring peace between France and Austria, which had been enemies for a long time.

Marie Antoinette by Duplessis (unfinished). Photo RMN

Since the marriage was planned, at the end of the 1760's, Marie Antoinette had been portrayed many times, so that some of the paintings could be sent to the French court, where the King and Louis Auguste could see her face. The Dauphine was paying attention to her appearance. In all her portraits, she saw herself as unpretty. The Palace of Versailles even keep some sketches for portraits of Marie-Antoinette which are not completely finished, because she thought it was too ugly.







All changed when she met Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun. Women painters were rare at court, but Marie Antointette invited her, because she was very pleased with her work.The most famous portrait of the queen was by Mrs. Vigée-Le Brun, in 1783. It is called 'Marie Antoinette à la rose' (Marie Antoinette with a rose). It is a painting that everyone knows today, and one of the most asked in Versailles. People want to see this portrait, because it is the best ever made of the queen. It also has an interesting history.

Sclossmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany (photo RMN)

When Vigée first painted it, she presented it at the Salon. The Salon, was an exhibition of the best French painters of the year. The first painting she presented was a portrait of the queen, dressed in a very simple white dress. This was considered as an offence to monarchy, because a queen could not be shown dressed that simple ! Even though this painting received such a scandal, the 'chemise de la Reine' (Queen's shirt), became quickly the new fashionable dress among noble women.

To keep the painting displayed in the Salon, Vigée-Lebrun had to paint it over. The result is one of the most famous portrait of all art history, which is now exhibited in the first floor antichamber Trianon, in Versailles.

Photo RMN