The Petit Trianon: A World Apart

In 1774, Louis XVI gave Marie Antoinette the Petit Trianon, a small château on the grounds of Versailles. This gift would become both her sanctuary and a symbol of everything her critics despised. Here, she attempted to create a private world where she could escape the suffocating etiquette of court life.

The transformation of the Petit Trianon reflected Marie Antoinette's evolving tastes and desires. She commissioned the architect Richard Mique to create an English-style garden, replacing formal French parterres with winding paths, streams, and "natural" vistas. The famous Hameau de la Reine (Queen's Hamlet), built between 1783 and 1786, took this fantasy further—a theatrical village where the queen and her ladies could play at being shepherdesses and dairy maids.

Contemporary accounts of life at the Petit Trianon vary wildly depending on the observer's perspective. Friends like the Duchesse de Polignac described idyllic days of music, simple meals, and genuine relaxation. The queen would appear in white muslin dresses and straw hats, tend to her gardens, and even milk specially cleaned cows in her model dairy.

Critics saw something very different. The cost of creating this "simple" retreat was enormous—over two million livres at a time when the royal treasury was already strained. The exclusivity of the Trianon, where only the queen's favorites were welcome, offended those shut out. Most damningly, the spectacle of a queen playing peasant while actual peasants struggled with poverty and taxation seemed to epitomize royal disconnect from reality.

The servants who worked at the Petit Trianon left revealing accounts. The gardener Antoine Richard noted the queen's genuine knowledge of plants and her pleasure in physical activity. The dairy maids found her kind but admitted the elaborate cleaning rituals that preceded her "simple" milking sessions. The disconnect between appearance and reality extended to every aspect of the Trianon fantasy.