Le Petit Trianon
by habituallychic
07 . 15 . 10
After visiting Le Petit Trianon on the grounds of Versailles, it’s easy to see why Marie Antoinette would have wanted to escape the formality of court life at this small chateau. While the interiors are as gorgeous as you would expect, it’s the surrounding park and gardens that really steal the show. Enjoy!
Photos by Heather Clawson for Habitually Chic
14 Comments
LOVELY… j’adore the little chat at the end of your post!
Can you imagine having that “little” place built just for you. It is too beautiful. The cat is adorable too.
We were there last year. Soooo pretty. Something that struck me as so strange was the French (at the time) fear of water borne diseases that made for very few baths.They rarely took baths. Their palaces were built practically without bathrooms.
What a different view the Italians had at the same time. We were in Florence last week and saw all the beautiful marble tubs at the Pitti Palace.
mb from Dallas
Great post Heather,
MB is absolutely correct regarding the bath situation. Adding to the comment…
The French were not fond of bathing which gave rise to L’Orangeries being planted everywhere.
This too led to the development and masterful French perfume industry, as a means of covering the shall we say ‘musk’. In addition, underpants were designed with ‘cutouts’ allowing easy maneuvering of the large satin skirts for ‘attending to personal issues’ while in the garden.
Strange but true…Ah! bless the scent of citrus..
Hautezone.blogspot.com
isn’t this wild?
(maybe not.)
only last night,
i was reading up on casanova,
and came across le petit trianon,
and the other buildings of versailles!
oh,
but it is a small-small world.
elsie de wolfe lived in the villa trianon –
which i always have confused with the petit one –
on the versailles grounds.
unfortunately,
it’s not the easiest to find information on it.
i’ve heard that when she died,
she was called the last queen of versailles.
and it was true.
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=div&did=DLDECARTS.DEWOLFEHOUSE.I0025&isize=S
I can’t wait to go to Versailles! I’m hoping to go in the next year! Looks amazing!
Beautiful! Was just there last year and I also just posted to my own blog about Bastille Day. Perhaps I’ll follow your lead and post some more photos from France.
Lovely pics! Thanks for posting! You’ve inspired me
Sumptious trees, arches, allees and a beautiful cat! Wonderful
pics, Ms. HC.
BarbaraG
I love the symmetry and balance of the french gardens. Magnifique!!
oh can I give your blog adress to one of my collegues who is the owner of this cat?
yes I’m working here… sometimes in the Trianon but most of the time in the castle… very nice pictures!
So glad you all enjoyed the photos! I heard about Elsie de Wolfe and will definitely do more research. Thanks for reminding me!
Riddle – the cat was my favorite part of Le Petit Trianon. I had a Siamese cat growing up and she looked just like your friend’s cat! We were wondering if the employees of Versailles lived in those apartments year round. That must be amazing!
well…I’ll not say amazing… yes it’s a marvelous place but it’s also old and not very comfortable, and you know when you live there you can’t make the necessary to “upgrade” your home… because anything is under the approvement of the curators, even for little things… and french bureaucraty is… well… not rapid…
the appartements are weird in forms, and for little persons… I would not ask for on because my husband is too tall for them… and I want to make the deco of my house like I want! and they ‘re wet all the time.
and you can’t invite friends as you want, because of the hour of closing… and and and…
living near it’s better if you’re just a employee and not a curator or a chief gardener.
If I could I would show you pictures of interiors but even it would be allowed, I don’t want to break yours dreams…
I wasn’t working the 14th but I hope that you escape the rain of the morning!
Thank you for showing this, it’s nice to ‘take a little trip’ to these beautiful grounds. It’s now on my bucket list!
Hi, just wanted to let you know I corrected the photo credit on my tumblr {insidetheloop}… my apologies for not tracking it to the original source, and thanks so much for making note of it…I understand how frustrating it can be to find your photos listed wrong..
Here is the link: http://insidetheloop.tumblr.com/post/6400559557/correction-this-photo-was-taken-by-habituallychic