Less than a decade after the theater's inauguration in 1780, the curtain would come crashing down on the French monarchy and its Austrian-born queen, who seemed to grow in moral stature as she approached the guillotine. But I had to admit that there is a poignancy about the playhouse and its fantasy world. I did not commune with Marie Antoinette's ghost, as some claim to have done. Marie condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal It's a state of grace, an aura you sense-even after 40 years here." "You're thinking about other things, then all of a sudden, you're totally surprised. "From time to time, you have to visit a spot like the theater when there's no one else around to give the place a chance to trigger an emotional reaction," he said. On the way out, Baulez, who has worked at the former royal palace for four decades, locked the gate with a heavy iron key. Have a good, long look," said Christian Baulez, Versailles' chief conservator.
The painted, original backdrop depicts a rustic farmhouse hearth, and I can just imagine the young queen reveling in her role as a shepherdess while her witty friends and dull husband, French king Louis XVI, applaud politely.Īt the time I was there, the theater was closed to most visitors (it is now open to the public from April 1 through October 31), and I wanted to take full advantage of my access. Late September sunlight filters onto the blue velvet furnishings of the jewel-box theater built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
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