Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet

On Saturday I went to visit Versailles again. Pehr was still pooped from our busy week with his parents, so he stayed at home and had some father-son bonding time with Ryne. I really wanted to visit The Petit hameau de la Reine (Little hamlet of the Queen) before we left Paris and I had yet to see it on my two previous trips out to Versailles. Boy am I glad I went! I loved, loved, loved it! Definitely my favorite part of Versailles (by far!) and probably one of my favorite things I’ve seen in Paris so far, next to the Eiffel Tower twinkling at night.

Before arriving at the hamlet, I passed the Temple of Love, a marble-columned circular structure which Marie Antoinette had built on her property to pay homage to the spirit of friendship.

The hamlet itself is a rustic community of several buildings built in seclusion far away from the palace. The thatch roofed cottages, designed in the Normandy-style, were built in 1783 for Marie Antoinette. They were used as her escape from palace life, and are quaint and charming – the complete opposite of the extravagance and opulence that you see in the palace. There is a farm consisting of a cow, horses, chickens, roosters, geese, sheep, a donkey and a peacock. There is also a water mill, garden, vineyard (Merlot from what the sign said), streams and a pond. There were two swans on the property, one resting on eggs in a big nest at the end of the pond.

I took 420 pictures (gasp!), but here are a few to share. I’m going to download all of them to an online gallery, so if you’re interested in spending a few minutes (or hours…just kidding) looking at them, let me know and I’ll email you the link.