Marie-Antoinette’s interior cabinets are now open to the public at the Palace of Versailles. To find out more about these private apartments, historian Virginie Girod went to meet Hélène Delalex, heritage curator at the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and the Trianon.
It is in these interior cabinets that the queen received her closest friends, and granted herself privileged moments with her children. Within the splendor and grandeur of the Palace of Versailles, the interior cabinets would almost clash. “It often strikes visitors to see these tiny rooms, sometimes very simple, which are the real place where the sovereign lived”, confides Hélène Delalex in the podcast “At the heart of History”.
“At the heart of history” is a Europe 1 Studio podcast.
Writing and presentation: Virginie Girod
– Producer: Camille Bichler (with Florine Silvant)
– Artistic direction: Adèle Humbert and Julien Tharaud
– Directed by: Clement Ibrahim
– Original music: Julien Tharaud
– Additional music: Julien Tharaud and Sébastien Guidis
– Communication: Kelly Decroix
– Visual: Sidonie Mangin
It is a succession of rooms on a human scale, but always richly decorated. In the dining room, for example, we discover a splendid toile de Jouy with a “pineapple” motif, which seems very modern for the time! Marie Antoinette “does not arrange a complete space, she does with what she has. And the architects will compete in ingenuity to try to symmetrize the rooms and form a sort of absolutely charming canvas,” confides Hélène Delalex. In total, about twenty rooms are grouped on two floors. Some are richly decorated with Toiles de Jouy or even Lyon silks, while others are simply painted white for clarity. “The Queen is obsessed with clarity and whiteness. These small cabinets overlook small sad courtyards, so it was absolutely necessary to bring light”, adds the curator.
A stroll “In the heart of History” of Marie-Antoinette
To show the interior cabinets of the sovereign, Virginie Girod and Hélène Delalex stroll through several rooms rich in stories to unveil. In the dining room, a toile de Jouy decorated with an exotic pineapple pattern covers the walls. “It may seem very surprising, but it was very fashionable at the time. Since the reign of Louis XV to be exact. Because Louis XV grew the first pineapples,” says Hélène Delalex. The visit continues with the Cabinet de la Méridienne, a 17 m² boudoir, which was the sovereign’s favorite room. This boudoir, decorated in parma, is decorated around the “theme of conjugal love and the expected birth of the Dauphin. The cabinet was set up in 1781, when Marie-Antoinette was waiting, like all of France, for the heir to the throne”.
Immerse yourself in the intimacy of the sovereign
Through this exceptional interview accompanied by a stroll, Hélène Delalex describes the privileged places in which Marie Antoinette spent time, and invites us to enter into her intimacy. “Access to these interior cabinets is strictly regulated. These are small spaces for the queen’s intimate life, where she mainly entertained her children, and a few handpicked favourites. continues the curator. Go back in time and discover the interior cabinets of Marie-Antoinette, in the company of Virginie Girod and Hélène Delalex, in your podcast “At the Heart of History”, a Europe 1 Studio production.