Versailles, a feminine palace

Between grandiose celebrations and daily life, representation and intimacy, minor intrigues and major politics, what kind of Versailles did women live in for more than three centuries?

This guide proposes to discover it by following the women who left their mark on the Palace: From Marie-Thérèse of Austria, the self-effacing wife of the Sun King, to the influential mistresses of Louis XV, from the mischievousness of the young Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy to the sovereign poise of Marie Leszczynska, from the latter's eight daughters - the irreducible Mesdames - to Marie-Antoinette, dauphine and then queen, not forgetting the friends, superintendents, ladies-in-waiting, ladies-in-waiting and palace maids, merchants or artists. Through these women, sometimes in the shadows, sometimes in the light, guessed thanks to portraits, decorations and objects, the reader discovers a Versailles off the beaten track.

Mixing period works and contemporary views, this book is punctuated by thematic points to reveal a personality, to emphasize a particular fact, or to glimpse the unexpected aspect of a place full of history.

Flavie Leroux and Élodie Vaysse
with RMN-GP editions, 2022
Number of pages: 176
Dimensions: 15,5 x 23 cm
Language: French
ISBN 978-2-7118-7478-1