Hall of Mirrors (Treaty of Versailles 1919, German Empire Proclamation 1871), Marie Antoinette's Hameau de la Reine, Le Nôtre's Formal Gardens & Musical Fountains
📍 Versailles, France📅 3-day itinerary
The absolute monarchy made physical — the palace that Louis XIV (the Sun King, 72 years on the throne) moved the entire French court of 20,000 people to in 1682, where Jules Hardouin-Mansart built the Hall of Mirrors (73 m long, 357 mirrors reflecting 17 windows, 20,000 candles in silver chandeliers) as the room where Bismarck proclaimed the German Empire in 1871 and where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, and where Marie Antoinette escaped the ceremonial burden of queenship in the Petit Trianon and the thatched-roof hamlet she built to play at pastoral life — 20 km southwest of Paris, 35 minutes by RER C.
The Hall of Mirrors Where Bismarck Deliberately Chose the Most Humiliating Possible Venue (the Throne Room of the Defeated French Monarchy) to Proclaim the New German Empire on January 18, 1871 — and Where the Same 357 Mirrors Were Witness to the 1919 Treaty That Created the Conditions for World War II
Marie Antoinette's Hameau de la Reine (12 Thatched-Roof Norman Farmhouses Around an Artificial Lake, Built 1783-1787, Where the Queen of France Played at Peasant Life with Sèvres Porcelain-Decorated Dairy Equipment While Real French Peasants Were Beginning to Starve) — and the Petit Trianon She Received on the First Day of Louis XVI's Reign
The Versailles Gardens' Bosquet de la Colonnade (32 Marble Columns in a Circle, 1686) and the "Rocaille" Bosquet Where the Shell-and-Pebblework Decoration of the Outdoor Ballroom Gave the Name "Rococo" to the Entire Decorative Style of 18th-Century Europe — and the Musical Fountain Show Where All 55 Fountains Run Simultaneously to 17th-Century Music