May 5, 2017 (125/365)

« Nous avons fait un beau rêve, voilà tout... » - Marie Antoinette

The opulence of the Château de Versailles is world renowned, but I've always preferred le Hameau de la Reine (The Queen's Hamlet) -- Marie Antoinette's rustic retreat in the park of the palace. Built in 1783 near the Petit Trianon, it was a rendez-vous for the queen and her closest friends to enjoy nature and life's simpler pleasures.The hamlet includes gardens, orchards, meadows, lakes, streams, a classical Temple of Love, a grotto, and cascade. The farm produced milk and eggs and included a dovecote, a boudoir, a mill, and a lighthouse. In the tempestuous political atmosphere of pre-revolutionary France, the hamlet was understandably quite controversial.

Guilty Pleasure Confession: I love this scene from Sofia Coppola's 2006 film, Marie Antoinette (almost as much as this one where they eat macarons and try on shoes!)