Marie Antoinette's Private Chambers Have Reopened to the Public
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
As T&C observed a few months ago, 2023 really is turning out to be the year of Marie Antoinette (though is it ever not?). Perhaps you've been swept up by all the hype, too. Maybe you binged the new PBS series dedicated to the iconic queen (good news: it's been renewed for a season 2). Maybe you scored one of her pieces of furniture at the Sotheby's auction in May. Or maybe you went to see her Sèvres porcelain at the Getty Center in L.A.
If you happen to have plans to be in France this summer, you might want to add a day at Versailles to the itinerary. You can count yourselves one of the first to see Marie Antoinette's private apartments, which reopened last month after seven years of extensive restoration work—and just in time for the palace's 400th anniversary.
When Marie Antoinette moved into the royal palace as queen in 1774, she, like her predecessors, lived in the Queen's State Apartment. And like the consorts who came before her, she was expected to abide by the strict rules and schedules, pomp and circumstance, that defined life at court. Though Louis XVI had gifted his wife the Petit Trianon to use as a retreat—where she eventually commissioned elaborate gardens as well as a hamlet of villages to be used for agriculture, entertaining, and as bucolic refuge—Marie Antoinette had no such sanctuary within palace walls.
She set about making one. Much to the irritation of the king's architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Marie Antoinette took charge of meticulously decorating a series of intimate private chambers that could be accessed only via a secret door in her bedroom. Within these walls the queen could take a break from her queenly duties, entertain her coterie of closest confidantes, and play with her children.
Researchers, curators, and archivists consulted plans, historical documents, even fabric scraps found under sofas and chairs, to recreate these rooms, each of which was envisioned after a certain theme. The Méridienne Room, for instance, was designed to celebrate the birth of the couple's first son—and is now swathed in a faithful reproduction of the lilac-hued textiles the queen had installed in the space. She created a library, too, and next to it the Gold Room, inspired by her fascination with ancient Egypt. Upstairs, she had smaller rooms—reserved for herself and her chambermaids and servants—embellished in Toile de Jouy fabric.
Ever a passionate lover of interior design, Marie Antoinette continued to redecorate and refurbish her beloved secret spaces until 1788. A year later, when revolutionaries stormed the palace in the Women's March on Versailles, these chambers would prove useful—albeit temporarily—as a hiding spot.
You Might Also Like
