Marie Antoinette Box set available via BBC iPlayer
Katie Bowman - 17 February 2023
She was an airhead: the Archduchess of Austria – uncouth, rebellious, extravagant – sent to France in 1770 to do nothing more taxing than marry Louis XV’s grandson and produce a male heir. Or so we all thought, until Deborah Davis – writer of Oscar-winning The Favourite – retold Marie Antoinette’s story in the eponymous TV series, which climaxed on BBC2 last week. In the dramatisation we see a far more vulnerable, sensitive Marie Antoinette and this deeper connection to the Queen’s character is thanks, in no small part, to the exquisite locations. With a cast and crew of 780 people, Marie Antoinette is an astonishing feat in televisual time travel.
The star location, of course, is the ravishing Palace of Versailles, where Marie Antoinette lived with her husband, later to become King Louis XVI. It’s not so much a stately home as a small town – and did, in fact, become the de facto centre of the kingdom for almost a century – so you should dedicate one or two days to the estate, an hour’s drive west of Paris (en.chateauversailles.fr; entry from £17). Be sure to avoid Mondays when the Palace is closed to the public: Monday, in fact, was the one day each week when the crew was able to shoot at the Palace itself, a necessity when you think of the unforgettable scenes that take place in the chandeliered Hall of Mirrors or the black-andwhite tiled Marble Courtyard – both locations that could never be re-created in a studio.
If you visit Versailles this summer, buy a ticket to the Fountains Night Show (every Saturday from June to September), when the gardens come alive after dark. Fountains and pools are orchestrated to music before a magnificent fireworks display, just as is witnessed by the anxious young Queen on her wedding night in episode one of the series.
Despite the privileged access of the production team, there is one experience you can have that they could not: a snoop around Versailles’ fascinating Secret Rooms. Louis XVI built these tiny apartments – along with hidden doors and corridors – so that he could visit the Queen without being seen by palace staff, and to provide her with refuge and privacy. Because it was impossible to shoot in these confined spaces, the entire network of Secret Rooms was reconstructed at local French studios, Bry-sur-Marne, where sets took almost three months to build. Production designer Pierre Queffelean also points out that what we see as tourists is a much more polished version of reality: “The palace would have been a dirtier place. Today it is very clean, painted in white with bright golds. But if you think back to that time, there were between 2,500 and 3,000 people living [at Versailles] constantly.” Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte – an hour and a half’s drive south east of Paris – stood in for the Palace of Versailles when it wasn’t a Monday and the crew needed to film exterior scenes. The castle was built only a few years after Versailles, and its glorious gardens make the perfect backdrop to the pomp of Marie Antoinette’s courtly walkabouts.
The château is currently closed but reopens on 1 April; if you’re very lucky, your trip may coincide with Costume Day, when palace staff wear 17th-century dress, offering musketeer shows and horse-drawn carriage rides. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a corseted gown of your own – visitors are each given a gilt mask on arrival; vaux-le-vicomte.com; entry from £15; see website for dates.) Not far from Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is the Château Fontainebleau, where the royal family retreats on holiday in episode three (fun historical fact: the Queen also fled to the castle on the eve of the French Revolution). Fontainebleau is the château that spawned a thousand imitations, and there are kitsch hotels with the same name – from Miami to Mumbai – inspired by its ostentatious design. However, the real thing is more delicate than you might imagine, if you know where to look: seek out the subtle lines o f the Grand Parterre; the serene carp pond and pavilion where visitors can hire rowing boats; and the hush of lesser-known Saint-Louis vestibule or Saint-Saturnin lower chapel (chateaudefontainebleau.fr; entry from £10).
And, as for the modern-day Marie Antoinette – where did the actor who played the Rebel Queen stay during filming? Emilia Schüle, born in Russia and raised in Germany, wouldn’t necessarily recommend the French capital: “I’ve grown a bit tired of Paris. It’s quite small so I got to know every corner. It’s not perfect, it’s dirty but… it’s also beautiful and smells like croissants.”
Instead of Paris, we suggest you base yourself at Château de Bourron, a stunning castle hotel that is moments from Fontainebleau (double rooms start from £163; bourron.fr). With its moat, twin turrets and horseshoe stone stairwell modelled on Fontainebleau, it’s as close as you’ll get to sleeping like a queen.
She was an airhead: the Archduchess of Austria – uncouth, rebellious, extravagant – sent to France in 1770 to do nothing more taxing than marry Louis XV’s grandson and produce a male heir. Or so we all thought, until Deborah Davis – writer of Oscar-winning The Favourite – retold Marie Antoinette’s story in the eponymous TV series, which climaxed on BBC2 last week. In the dramatisation we see a far more vulnerable, sensitive Marie Antoinette and this deeper connection to the Queen’s character is thanks, in no small part, to the exquisite locations. With a cast and crew of 780 people, Marie Antoinette is an astonishing feat in televisual time travel.
The star location, of course, is the ravishing Palace of Versailles, where Marie Antoinette lived with her husband, later to become King Louis XVI. It’s not so much a stately home as a small town – and did, in fact, become the de facto centre of the kingdom for almost a century – so you should dedicate one or two days to the estate, an hour’s drive west of Paris (en.chateauversailles.fr; entry from £17). Be sure to avoid Mondays when the Palace is closed to the public: Monday, in fact, was the one day each week when the crew was able to shoot at the Palace itself, a necessity when you think of the unforgettable scenes that take place in the chandeliered Hall of Mirrors or the black-andwhite tiled Marble Courtyard – both locations that could never be re-created in a studio.
If you visit Versailles this summer, buy a ticket to the Fountains Night Show (every Saturday from June to September), when the gardens come alive after dark. Fountains and pools are orchestrated to music before a magnificent fireworks display, just as is witnessed by the anxious young Queen on her wedding night in episode one of the series.
Despite the privileged access of the production team, there is one experience you can have that they could not: a snoop around Versailles’ fascinating Secret Rooms. Louis XVI built these tiny apartments – along with hidden doors and corridors – so that he could visit the Queen without being seen by palace staff, and to provide her with refuge and privacy. Because it was impossible to shoot in these confined spaces, the entire network of Secret Rooms was reconstructed at local French studios, Bry-sur-Marne, where sets took almost three months to build. Production designer Pierre Queffelean also points out that what we see as tourists is a much more polished version of reality: “The palace would have been a dirtier place. Today it is very clean, painted in white with bright golds. But if you think back to that time, there were between 2,500 and 3,000 people living [at Versailles] constantly.” Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte – an hour and a half’s drive south east of Paris – stood in for the Palace of Versailles when it wasn’t a Monday and the crew needed to film exterior scenes. The castle was built only a few years after Versailles, and its glorious gardens make the perfect backdrop to the pomp of Marie Antoinette’s courtly walkabouts.
The château is currently closed but reopens on 1 April; if you’re very lucky, your trip may coincide with Costume Day, when palace staff wear 17th-century dress, offering musketeer shows and horse-drawn carriage rides. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a corseted gown of your own – visitors are each given a gilt mask on arrival; vaux-le-vicomte.com; entry from £15; see website for dates.) Not far from Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is the Château Fontainebleau, where the royal family retreats on holiday in episode three (fun historical fact: the Queen also fled to the castle on the eve of the French Revolution). Fontainebleau is the château that spawned a thousand imitations, and there are kitsch hotels with the same name – from Miami to Mumbai – inspired by its ostentatious design. However, the real thing is more delicate than you might imagine, if you know where to look: seek out the subtle lines o f the Grand Parterre; the serene carp pond and pavilion where visitors can hire rowing boats; and the hush of lesser-known Saint-Louis vestibule or Saint-Saturnin lower chapel (chateaudefontainebleau.fr; entry from £10).
And, as for the modern-day Marie Antoinette – where did the actor who played the Rebel Queen stay during filming? Emilia Schüle, born in Russia and raised in Germany, wouldn’t necessarily recommend the French capital: “I’ve grown a bit tired of Paris. It’s quite small so I got to know every corner. It’s not perfect, it’s dirty but… it’s also beautiful and smells like croissants.”
Instead of Paris, we suggest you base yourself at Château de Bourron, a stunning castle hotel that is moments from Fontainebleau (double rooms start from £163; bourron.fr). With its moat, twin turrets and horseshoe stone stairwell modelled on Fontainebleau, it’s as close as you’ll get to sleeping like a queen.
KATIE BOWMAN