Petit appartement de la reine, Private royal chambers in Palace of Versailles, France.
The Petit Appartement de la Reine is a suite of private rooms positioned behind the Queen's State Apartments, opening onto two interior courtyards within the Palace of Versailles. It includes a dining room, library, billiard room, and connecting passages that allowed queens to move through the palace without public notice.
These rooms developed over the 17th and 18th centuries as private retreats for the queens of Versailles. Each queen modified and personalized the spaces according to her tastes and the period she spent at court.
The rooms display French craftsmanship through painted ceilings, wood paneling, and marble fireplaces that reflect each queen's personal preferences. The furnishings reveal how the inhabitants' tastes and lifestyle choices shaped the appearance of their private spaces.
Visitors should know these rooms are small and intimate, so groups may sometimes be limited in size. It helps to arrive in early morning or late afternoon hours when fewer people are moving through the palace.
A hidden corridor connected these rooms to other parts of the palace and offered queens a concealed route for moving unseen. Marie Antoinette used this escape passage in 1789 to evade intruders who had entered Versailles.
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