Marie Antoinette's country retreat in Versailles

Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI, is probably best known for her lavish taste and outrageous spending that led to her downfall and eventual execution by guillotine in 1793.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Vigee Lebrun,
the first female French court painter

Her reputed obsession with all things rare and exquisite seems at odds with the modest apartment at Petit Trianon in Versailles where she resided for most of her married life. The two-storey building consists of a series of chambers, all surprisingly small and intimate. The neoclassical decoration and furnishings throughout are simple and restrained.

The bedroom of Marie Antoinette at Petit Trianon

The private apartment overlooking the hamlet in the distant

The idyllic private life that Marie Antoinette tried to recreate in Petit Trianon and the grandoise Palace of Versailles could not be more different.  Look at how naturalistic the landscaping is in contrast to the formal, geometric arrangement of typical French gardens.  The folly, pond and willow trees seen here suggest a new style of Anglo-Chinese gardening that became popular across Europe in the late 18th century.

A folly named 'The temple of love'

The pond and the lighthouse in the hamlet

To satisfy her love of the countryside, Marie Antoinette built a small hamlet in Petit Trianon, complete with an artificial pond, a dozen cottages with gardens, an orchard, a farm to raise animals, a lighthouse and a windmill.  This is a place where she could return to the pleasures of simple, rural pursuits, away from the pomp of Versailles and the rigours of court etiquette.

I suppose this is extravagance of a different kind - to construct a new reality for herself when the life at court proved to be too hard to bear.

Typical cottages in the late 18th century with exposed beams and thatched roof 

Farm animals are raised and kept for the
consumption by the queen's household