Petit Trianon
— a door the queen closed behind her.
Not only on a wall.
“A square neoclassical pavilion on the grounds of Versailles, given to Marie Antoinette in 1774 and kept by her as a private retreat. Louis XV had it built for Madame de Pompadour, who died before it opened. The four facades look toward four different gardens: one formal, one English, one botanical, one the small village she added later. The queen forbade court etiquette inside. A footman who entered without being called could be sent away. It is small for a royal house, and quiet, and that was the point.
Petit Trianon, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
The Petit Trianon stands at the western end of the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, in the commune of Versailles, about 20 kilometres west of Paris, in the Yvelines department of Île-de-France. The pavilion sits within the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, the section of the Versailles estate set apart for the queen's private use. The Palace and Park of Versailles, including the Trianon estate, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Access is by foot or shuttle from the main palace through the gardens, or by a separate entrance from the Trianon car park north of the estate.
Designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel and built between 1762 and 1768, the Petit Trianon is widely cited as the first major neoclassical building in France. Louis XV commissioned it for Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764 before it was finished. Each of the four facades faces a different garden and uses a different order of pilasters, yet the whole reads as a single severe cube. Gabriel was also the architect of the Place de la Concorde and the École Militaire in Paris. The pavilion's restraint, after decades of late Rococo, marks the moment French royal taste turned. The pale Saint-Leu limestone has weathered for more than two and a half centuries.
The Petit Trianon is open to the public as part of the Château de Versailles, typically Tuesday through Sunday from noon, closed on Mondays. Entry is included with the Versailles Passport ticket, which also covers the Grand Trianon, the Hameau de la Reine, and the gardens. A separate Estate of Trianon ticket admits the Trianon palaces and the queen's hamlet without the main château. From central Paris, the RER C train reaches Versailles-Château-Rive-Gauche in about 35 minutes; from there the Trianon estate is roughly a kilometre walk through the gardens. The hamlet Marie Antoinette built nearby, finished in 1786, remains one of the most-visited features of the estate after the main palace.