Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The King's Passage

Here is the private hallway at Versailles used by Louis XVI when visiting Marie-Antoinette's bedchamber. The Dauphin's room can be seen to the right. As soon as the royal couple were moved to the Tuileries they had another private passage built, connecting their apartments. The Queen fled down this passage the night of October 5-6 when the mob was trying to kill her. Share

4 comments:

The North Coast said...

Too bad that this passage has been so remorselessly clean-walled and modernized, that we can have no idea what it really looked like from this photo. I appreciate that this was all done to make the palace more tourist-friendly and easy-to-maintain, and maybe letting visitors view the historic rooms through glass is better than having them tramp through them, but I hope this was not done to too many spaces in Versailles.

elena maria vidal said...

From what I have seen, they really do try to restore everything at Versailles to exactly how it was. Other than the electric lights, I don't think it is too modernized. The windows were already there, I'm pretty sure, to add natural light to the passage.

ImportanttoMadeleine said...

I've stood in Marie Antoinette's bedchamber and gazed through the door leading to this hallway many times, wishing I could go through it. That doorway is, to me, one of Versailles' most compelling places. I've been fortunate enough to have a private tour through rooms in the Petit Trianon and Versailles
that aren't open to the public and have even stood on the stage in Marie Antoinette's private theatre, but my dream is to stand in this hallway and try to absorb the aura. Maybe next visit. Thanks for posting the picture.

May said...

I love all the tidbits you post about Louis and Antoinette!