Rebirth of the Queen's Hamlet

Longing to escape the pressures of the Court, Marie-Antoinette dreamed of the simple charms of country life. So the young Queen asked Richard Mique to build her a hamlet a few hundred metres from the château at Versailles. Set around an artificial lake, this little village was inspired by the architecture then in vogue and Rousseau's philosophy of a return to nature. "Her genuine educational desire to show the peasant world to her children has too often been forgotten," is the immediate comment of Jérémie Benoît, the curator in charge of the Châteaux de Trianon. In the summer of 1783, the Lorraine architect Mique began work based on an idea by the artist Hubert Robert. The Queen took a keen interest in every stage of the project, from sketch to model. By 1787, the work was complete. Built in the style of a Normandy village with half-timbering and thatched roofs, the houses in the hamlet were artificially aged to enhance their picturesque quality. The group of eleven buildings, divided into three sectors…