Marie-Antoinette’s estate – Palace of Versailles
So, I’ve wrote last week about The Gardens of Versailles and here I come to speak about Marie Antoinette’s estate.
The Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s former domain, is a masterpiece of neoclassical architecture situated on the grounds of Chateau Versailles. I must underline that while Versailles represents luxury and power, the Petit Trianon represented intimacy and balance. Every element of its memory reminds of Queen Marie-Antoinette, the queen which imposed her personal taste at Versailles.
In her Trianon domain, which Louis XVI gave her in 1774, she found the heaven of privacy that enabled her to escape from the rigors of court etiquette. Nobody could come there without her invitation.
The domain has a theater, a little house for guests and the famous Temple of Love situated on a little island directly behind the house. I can truly say that this is one of the most unforgettable places I’ve seen.
Queen Marie-Antoinette commissioned the architect Mique to design and build the neo-classical structure in 1778. The Temple of Love was built to celebrate the love of the king and the queen for each other and the consummation of their marriage, delayed for many years.
“The consummation took so long because Marie-Antoinette was a mere child when she was married; she was fourteen but looked as if she were much younger, and Louis was not a pervert. He was a gentleman, and waited for her to mature. He also approached his bride in a restrained manner because his aunties had inculcated in him the dangers for France when a king became enthralled by a woman, as had happened to his grandfather Louis XV. Louis could probably see himself becoming quite easily enthralled with Marie-Antoinette, and so he held himself back. Also, as author Simone Bertière speculates in L’Insoumise, there may have been a physical problem with Marie-Antoinette which made marital relations difficult at first. In their early twenties, however, the young couple found their bonheur essentiel, their “essential happiness,” as Marie-Antoinette wrote to her mother. It became a marriage which all the forces of hell could not sunder.” (Referral from here)
I leave you with this story in your mind and I invite you to see the pictures I took:
