Versailles: Marie Antoinette's Private Apartments

Marie Antoinette's Salon Doré one of the four main rooms of her "Petits Appartements" in Versailles.

These small rooms with their concealed doors escaped the surveillance of spies and favoured love affairs and intrigues. To step through the looking-glass, just as Marie Antoinette used to do, is an extraordinary experience. The four main rooms, the Méridienne, the two libraries, the Salon Doré, their boudoirs and their bathrooms provide a perfect image of eighteenth-century France as we imagine it today.

from The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette by Marie-France Boyer & François Halard

Is it any wonder that I have always taken such inspiration from this wonderful suite of rooms designed and created by the finest craftsmen!

Richard Mique the premier architecte to Louis XVI and a favourite of the queen's was given the task of transforming these rooms for her use while the Rousseau brothers, Jules Antoine and Jean Siméon, did the decorative work on the panelling.

The Salon Doré was both the most grand and the most public room in the suite; Neoclassic in style with "Pompeian" motifs and playful cherubs.



The Méridienne, its daybed tucked into a mirrored alcove, was a place for rest and relaxation. Given to Marie Antoinette by Louis XVI in 1782 to celebrate the birth of the Dauphin, this lovely retreat followed the delicate Rococo style

The green library, with its high ceiling was quite simple in comparison.

In this photo you can see the wonderful "tompe l'oeil" books on the door of the blue library. I'm always amused by the fact that Marie Antoinette also used "faux books" on the shelves to make her libraries more beautiful.