The Palace of Versailles, The French Revolution,Marie Antoinette and her Secret Passage

One of the most magnificent places that I've ever been to is the Palace of Versailles in France. It is also a place which has mirrored the ups and the downs of the French history, particularly during the French Revolution also called The Revolution of 1789. This was the revolutionary movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799 and reached its first climax there in 1789.

Designated as a World Heritage site in the 'cultural' category in 1979, the Palace of Versailles was the principal residence of the French kings from the time of Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Embellished by several generations of architects, sculptors, decorators and landscape architects, it provided Europe with a model of the ideal royal residence for over a century.

The Palace of Versailles -Majestic grandeur unlike any other

This former home of French kings epitomizes royal elegance in the style of Old Europe. Versailles originated in 1631 as a humble hunting lodge for Louis XIII. But his son Louis XIV built the now familiar palace on the site outside Paris and moved the nation’s government and court to Versailles in 1682.

Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"  supposedly spoken by "a great princess" upon learning that the peasants had no bread. There is no real evidence that Queen Marie-Antoinette ever uttered this phrase but this is what tends to happen over a period of time.

Marie Antoinette with two of her children

Stunning interiors

    The Versailles gardens took 40 years to complete; Louis XIV valued them as much as the palace.

Versailles’ sprawling, stunning palace is well matched by the splendour of the gardens in which it is situated. On our first trip there last November on a cold wet and windy day, we had a superb opportunity to walk through this section and marvel at all that has been done to make this place look the way it does now.

It is believed that Marie-Antoinette enjoyed these grounds so much that she created her own private estate here, a collection of rural homes and buildings laid out along the lines of a Norman village. The queen sought privacy and escaped the pomp and hubbub of the palace court at her hamlet, which now draws crowds in its own right. The queen’s estate even operated as a working farm where peasants and livestock produced fresh product for the tables of the grand palace.

The Palace of Versailles truly offers visitors a chance to walk in the footsteps of royalty and visit intimate chambers, including the king’s grand apartments. But perhaps the most famous room at Versailles is the 'Grande Galerie' or the Hall of Mirrors, which was once haunted by courtiers playing politics or awaiting an audience with the monarch. This same room later witnessed one of the defining moments of 20th-century European history when the Treaty of Versailles, ending the First World War, was signed within its walls in June 1919.

One of these days, I plan to write another blog post on this very Hall of Mirrors, which in a word is just 'stunning'! 

The massive, magnificent bed in the King's chamberVersailles remained the epicenter of French royal power, home to government offices and courtiers alike, until 1789, when a hungry and agitated group of mostly female revolutionaries stormed the palace and essentially evicted Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette. The mob sent the royal couple back to Paris on the first steps of a journey that led eventually to their beheadings.

This picture clicked by me shows you  the exact spot, a secret passage in their bedroom, from where Marie Antoinette is believed to have fled from after the mobs attacked the palace  gates then rushed past the palace guards looking for the King, the Queen and his family. It was clear, they had reached the end of their patience and all they wanted to do was to get rid of those who they perceived were those who they believed were responsible for this.

King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were eventually captured at the border due to the fact that they were impersonating peasants but were found to be travelling in a very fancy carriage. They were both returned to France where they were both beheaded. The executioner reported that the King died like a man and that Marie Antoinette was every bit a Queen when she met her fate.

My thoughts as I left this chamber- Much of what we know about Marie Antoinette is clouded by the judgement of many, many people. There was a time when she was clearly well loved by the population as was her husband but time has a way of changing and so it did- for Marie Antoinette, King Lous XVI and the French people.

And so much of it happened at this very Palace of Versailles...