Queen's Hamlet, Versailles

About

The hamlet of the Queen is an outbuilding of the Petit Trianon located in the Parc du Château de Versailles, in the Yvelines, France. This charming hamlet was commissioned during the winter of 1782-1783 by Queen Marie-Antoinette who wanted to get away from the constraints of the Court of Versailles, with the nostalgia of a more rustic life, in a setting inspired by the writings of Rousseau, a small paradise where theatre and party would make him forget his status as queen. This rural place, which was also a farm, marked the influence of the ideas of the physiocrats and philosophers of the Enlightenment on the aristocracy of the time.

The construction was entrusted to architect Richard Mique on the inspiration of the hamlet of Chantilly and drawings by painter Hubert Robert. Around an artificial pond for carp and pike fishing, Richard Mique had twelve wood-paned cottages built in the northern part of the gardens, near the Petit Trianon and in the extension of the English garden. A farm to produce milk and eggs for the queen, a tower as a lighthouse, a dovecote, a boudoir, a barn, a mill, a house...