Apartments of the dauphin and the dauphine

These ground-floor apartments, which several staircases directly connect to those of the queen just above, were always for the royal family’s inner circle. The present condition corresponds to the period when Louis XV’s son (Louis, Dauphin of France) and his second wife Marie-Josèphe de Saxe lived here between 1747 and 1765. This is where the little dauphin, the future Louis XVII, and his sister Madame Royale lived when the Revolution broke out. Their last and most intimate room – the prince’s l

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The dauphine’s first antechamber

This room stands on part of the site of a chapel that occupied the upper ground floor and the first floor. In 1682 the chapel was demolished and replaced by an apartment used by the duchesse de Montpensier, known as “la Grande Mademoiselle” (1692-1693); the Grand-Aumônier de France (1693-1706), who directed the royal household’s religious activities; and the Grand-Maître de la garde-robe du Roi (1706-1712), who oversaw the king’s wardrobe. In 1712 a guardroom for the duc de Berry replaced the apartment. After his death on 4 July 1714, the room became part of the maréchal de Villars’ apartment. In 1747 its size was reduced by a third to form the dauphine’s first antechamber.
The paintings on display here recall Louis XV’s accession and coronation. They include two portraits of the young king, one painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud in 1716, shortly after his accession, the other in 1723 by Alexis-Simon Belle, who depicted him in his coronation dress; Philippe d’Orléans, Regent of France, by Jean-Baptiste Santerre; and two unknown members of parliament by Nicolas de Largillière. Two paintings by Pierre-Denis Martin depict the Sortie du lit de justice (The King Rising from the Bed of Justice) on 12 September 1715, and the Cavalcade du Roi après le sacre (The King’s Cavalcade after the Coronation) on 22 October 1722.

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The dauphine’s second antechamber

Portraits of Marie Leszczinska in royal dress and of an unknown duchess, as well as two paintings of flowers by Blain de Fontenay, are above the door. A bust of the regent by Jean-Louis Le Moyne graces the beautiful red marble mantelpiece, which may have come from Marie Leszczinska’s first-floor bedroom.

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The dauphine’s drawing room

The dauphine’s apartment comes after that of the dauphin and is visited in the opposite direction of the normal order of the succession of rooms, in other words: first and second antechambers, drawing room, bedroom and private study. Marie-Josèphe de Saxe gathered the ladies in her entourage for conversation or games in the drawing room, whose dimensions date back to the period when it served as the guardroom for Louis XIV’s son. Like the entire apartment, it was redecorated for her, but Louis-Philippe had the new décor destroyed in the nineteenth century, sparing only the large console table, which was placed beneath a mirror whose frame has been recreated; today a barometer made for the future Louis XVI, who occupied this apartment until his accession to the throne in 1774, rests upon it. Portraits of ministers and members of the royal family from early in Louis XV’s reign have been hung on the “couleur de feu” wall coverings, a modern evocation of those listed in the inventories.

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The dauphine’s bedchamber

This is the room where the dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, daughter of King Augustus III of Poland and wife of Louis XV’s son, gave birth to three future kings of France: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X. Nothing remains of the décor made for her in 1747 except the scenes above the door painted by Jean Restout. A beautiful “Polish-style” bed (four posts hold up the canopy) by Nicolas Heurtaut has replaced the original. Paintings by Jean-Marc Nattier of Madame Henriette as Flora and Madame Adélaïde as Diana, the dauphine’s sisters-in-law and Louis XV’s daughters, are on either side.

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The dauphine’s private study

For a long time this small room and the following one formed a single space, which was first the antechamber of Monsieur, then of Monseigneur, before becoming the latter’s bedchamber in 1693. It also served as the bedchamber of the regent, then of the dauphin when he was a child, but was divided in 1747 to form private studies for the dauphine and dauphin. The young couple’s apartments communicated with each other by their furthest rooms, protecting their privacy to a certain extent.
Some of the natural panelling’s charming décor in “vernis Martin” remains; it has been completed and the scene above the door depicting the Four Seasons, which Jean-Baptiste Oudry painted for this room in 1749, has been put back into its original position.
Antoine Gaudreaux made the chest of drawers and Bernard Van Rysenburgh the sloping desk in 1745 for the first dauphine; both admirable pieces were used by the second.
A glazed door to the right of the niche, where a sofa once stood, provides access to the rear rooms.

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