Tea at Trianon: Versailles Recreates Louis XVI's Private Bedroom

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Versailles Recreates Louis XVI's Private Bedroom

The King's State Bedroom, used for the lever and coucher rituals.

From The Times:

A king might be expected to have rather an elaborate bedchamber. Louis XVI of France was no exception and had no fewer than three. Until now, visitors to the Palace of Versailles have only been able to view his grand public bedroom, where courtiers vied for the privilege of helping the king dress and undress as he rose in the morning and retired at night. His state bed was largely symbolic, used mainly for the lever and coucher rituals, which served as daily public reminders that all power, honours and favours were accorded by the monarch. However, the formal bedchamber was uncomfortable and cold in winter because it was too big to heat properly. Meanwhile, intimate moments with Marie Antoinette were reserved for the queen’s bedroom.
Instead, Louis XVI often slept alone in a separate and more modest bed in his private apartments that was also used by his grandfather before him, Louis XV. Conveniently, it had a stairway to the room of Louis XV’s official mistress, Madame du Barry, on the floor above. The four-poster bed in this room was destroyed during the French Revolution that toppled Louis XVI, who was guillotined in public in Place de la Révolution, now Place de la Concorde, in 1793. Restorers have spent years reconstructing it and the bed will go on public display at the palace next month. (Read more.)

The private bedroom can be seen HERE.