The Secrets of Versailles: Building the World's Greatest Palace - Full Documentary

At the end of the Renaissance, in the powerful kingdom of France, something extraordinary began to be built. A palace unlike any other, to fill the unbridled desire of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Versailles is the reflection of how a young king becomes even more convinced over the years that he is the god, that he is the sun. Beyond the world-famous Hall of Mirrors spreads a labyrinth of corridors, staircases and salons, each more luxurious than the last. Outside, two huge wings stretch over 600 meters, opening onto enormous gardens, a remarkable horticultural achievement. We are in an indoor forest in an absolutely extraordinary building. It is part of an incredible display of French craftsmanship. Versailles' brilliance is the result of constant technical feats. Excavating the orangerie and maintaining its gigantic structure, mastering the play of light in the Grand Gallery, undergoing perpetual expansion without compromising its balance. From the moment he began spending time in Versailles, Louis XIV lived amid construction until almost the end of his life. In other words, there was never a time when the palace was considered finished. Sometimes historians lose track, almost lose their minds, due to how difficult it is to follow all the changes. Behind this perfect harmony lies more than a century of experimentation, trial and error and technical risk. After Louis XIV, it took four reigns with four other visions to complete this seemingly impossible architectural challenge. Versailles is like a giant incredible jigsaw assembled over the years. We sometimes think when we look at it that it was really built in one go, but that's not at all the case. Today, how can we trace the history of this colossal construction? How, step by step, king after king, could the design remain cohesive? How did a series of architects bring this crazy project to life in the service of an absolute monarchy? It's a backdrop that glorifies the king of France and shows France's supremacy over all the European powers of the time. By analyzing the architect's original blueprints and going behind the scenes of this monument to access, we can discover the subtleties that bind it all together and begin to understand why it took more than a century to build the planet's most famous palace. To the west of Paris, just a few miles from the French capital, is where you can find one of the world's most famous palaces. It's one of the most visited monuments in the world, the Palace of Versailles. Every year, more than eight million visitors flock to its halls and royal apartments, strolling through its extraordinary gardens. At the heart of an almost 800 hectare estate, the palace alone covers 64,000 square meters, roughly the equivalent of 10 football fields. It's a maze of 2,300 rooms, each one decorated and crafted down to the smallest detail. Versailles is beautiful from a mile away and just as beautiful two centimeters away. The overall effect is absolutely breathtaking to view as a whole down to the smallest detail. Versailles is pure magic. It's architectural genius. It's exquisite taste. And most of all, Versailles is pure power. This was the seat of the most powerful king in history. You have Louis XIV in front of you and it is all about spectacle and power and magnificence. The palace, which seems to have sprung from the mind of Louis XIV, as if he'd conceived it that way from the beginning, is, in fact, the result of a long architectural adventure. Versailles is the reflection of how a young king becomes even more convinced over the years that he is the god, that he is the sun. So Versailles grows with the king, as it were. Versailles is the result of successive constructions, hesitations and even contradictory decisions. It's an astonishing story that goes beyond the sun king's vision alone. It's the work of entire generations of genius builders spread over a century and a half and spanning the lives of four kings. It all began with a surprising fact. Contrary to popular belief, the history of Louis XIV's iconic palace did not start with Louis XIV. Behind the royal backdrop, as we go behind the scenes of the palace and even delve into its basement, we will travel back in time following the trail of the palace's very first builders. We're in a rather unexpected place. Here we have this wall that bears witness to an ancient vestige of another palace of Versailles, not the one we see today. And so these are the remains of a moat wall that now serves as a retaining wall for Louis XIV's current palace. Hidden from view, this surprising wall in the middle of the palace is actually what remains of an ancient building. Another palace built by Louis XIII, Louis XIV's father. That was in 1634. At that time, the site was nothing like what we know today. We have a tiny village. Versailles is a tiny village. And at the top of its hill, we have a mill that is reminiscent of the very rural atmosphere that was characteristic of Versailles at the beginning of the 17th century. And then there is an area surrounded by forests where kings like to come and hunt, particularly Louis XIII, who wanted to build a small pavilion to stay in when he came to hunt in the vicinity of Versailles. In the middle of the forest between Paris and Saint-Germain, Louis XIII built a modest building that he quickly replaced with a small castle in 1634. It was a basic construction made of simple bricks and in a defensive style that was already outdated for the time. It was an extremely simple building at the end of a courtyard with two small wings. The king lived there alone with a few people to serve him. It was really just a sort of hunting lodge with no vocation for being a royal residence. Even Louis XIII's contemporaries were struck by the building's sobriety and simplicity, with some writing that even a modest gentleman would not take pride in it. The history of Versailles began in stark contrast to what we know today. It was an incredibly simple building designed purely for practical purposes, barely worthy of a king. How is it possible that this unassuming building, almost disparaged by its contemporaries, gave rise to the most prestigious palace the Kingdom of France has ever known? Well, it won't take long to answer that question. In 1643, less than 10 years after the construction of this small hunting lodge, Louis XIII died. Long lived the king. He left his place to his son, the very young Louis XIV. The history of Versailles was in his hands. When Louis XIV became king, he was barely four and a half years old, and so was this palace in Versailles that he inherited. And Louis XIV, like his father, greatly enjoyed these game-rich areas with forests and, of course, plenty of game. From the early 1660s onwards, he began to visit Versailles more and more often, making it his leisure residence. 1661. Louis XIV was now 23 years old, and his father's modest pavilion became a place where he liked to spend time. However, the young king already felt cramped. The castle imposed a rudimentary lifestyle on him. He didn't even have enough room to bring in the few dozen people who provided his daily service. The situation was unbearable, and the monarch took matters into his own hands. Time to expand. Time to build. In 1661, work began on Louis XIV's Versailles. The goal was simple. New spaces had to be built to accommodate the king's royal guard. But above all, it had to be done quickly. In two years, the builders erected four new buildings, extending the old structure. The palace's surface area doubled. This is certainly the painting that best represents Louis XIV's first Versailles. It is a painting from 1668 that is quite well known in Versailles, where we can see its first developments, in particular, the entire forecourt that we see here, which Louis XIV had built in 1662. Behind it, we can still see Louis XIII's old hunting lodge. Although he had already begun renovating it, we can see that the facades are slightly different, updated. But most of all, he built these two wings. Here's what is known as the servant's wing, or the steward's wing. And here are the stables. He also had this more prestigious entrance built. And we can see that this is where the royal procession arrived on its way to Versailles. With this initial work, a key milestone was reached. A few added buildings changed everything. Louis XIV demonstrated for the first time that he intended to do something with this small castle. And nothing could stop him. 1668, Louis XIV was 30 years old. He had just emerged from his first war and was asserting his authority over his kingdom. But above all, he was increasingly showing an appetite for architecture. He was clearly looking for a place to leave his mark, to inscribe his growing power in stone. He needed a plot of land that was almost untouched and that offered unlimited possibilities. It's important to understand that Louis XIV was an outdoorsy king who needed to ride horses, go for walks, and hunt. He couldn't develop his taste for architecture in Paris. The urban fabric was much too dense, with a very tight grid, and the Louvre could not be expanded. From that moment on, Versailles would certainly become Louis XIV's life project, as he saw it as something of interest to him, given that he certainly had the soul of an architect. In 1668, the king's project became clearer. He was going to resume work on Versailles, but for good this time. He wanted to completely redesign its architecture to make it a place in his own image, radically transforming this leisure residence into a true royal residence. In other words, a place that could accommodate not just the dozens of people in his service, but also the hundreds of nobles who made up the court and whom he sought to keep close at hand. To take Versailles to that level, Louis XIV thought big. The new plan's first step was to create what were known as the Grand Appartement. He needed to build official rooms for receiving visitors from the court and for holding council meetings. In other words, the premises had to be considerably enlarged. The first major challenge faced by the king's builders was how to lay the first stones of a project worthy of Louis XIV's growing power, starting from his father's small castle. This becomes a key question. How are they going to build it? Now, they have two choices. They can either knock down the hunting lodge and begin the whole thing again, which is what, generally, that's what architects at the time would do. Knock down the old, bring in the new. Or you can try and incorporate it. And Louis did vacillate between what to do. In the end, he decided to keep the hunting lodge and build the accommodation, build the new rooms around it. And it fascinates me that Louis kept that original chateau. Build around the existing structure. It was an audacious choice and would be called the Lavaux Envelope, named after its architect. The idea was just as simple as it was revolutionary. The former hunting lodge was enlarged from the outside. For two years, at least 500 workers labored nonstop to erect a structure more than 11 meters wide on all the garden side facades. A monumental envelope spread over three levels that also unified the existing buildings and created numerous spaces, including the king's and queen's grand apartments. It was a huge task, completed in record time. Between 1669 and 1670, the surface area of the castle tripled, all guided by the surprising decision to preserve the old building. This strange decision has often been explained by Louis XIV's love for his father, who had the original hunting lodge built. But the answer may be much more down to earth. One might question Louis XIV's decision to enclose this castle rather than build a new one. If he had had to demolish his father's castle, it would have taken at least two years to rebuild something and be able to live there. Whereas here, we know very well that during construction, a room could be closed off and a plaster partition could be built. For example, here, just to give a random example, and the work could continue behind it. Looking back at the blueprints from the time, certain facts are obvious. Keeping the structure of his father's castle was actually a very pragmatic choice that served the king's demands and impatience. It's important to understand that he was someone who wanted to move very quickly. And by keeping his father's castle, not only did he obviously preserve his father's memory, but above all, it allowed him to come and live there, to come and hunt there, while the castle was being expanded. This entire section would ultimately increase the castle's living spaces by two-thirds. 1670, the contract was fulfilled. A new chapter of the castle's history began. It became a royal residence and even a central one. What's more, the construction forever changed Versailles' appearance. This new style became a trademark that can still be seen today. On the courtyard side, facing the town, the palace is still made of slate and brick, a signature of the past. However, facing the garden on the new construction side, a completely different style emerged. We are going to have the triumph of stone, meaning that there will be no more colors. Everything will be white, or rather the color of French limestone. And then we will see much more classic Italian-style elevations with roofs hidden behind balustrades, flat roofs that will also be a hallmark of this new Versailles. And then, above all, inside, the king will design apartments, more fitting for the royal status of the residence, and will create for himself and the queen a series of symmetrical apartments that still exist today. Those large apartments now determine the entire layout of the palace. They're located on either side of the building, to the south for the queen, to the north for the king. There are no fewer than seven adjoining salons on each side, covering 2,000 square meters, were designed to accommodate the royal family's movements and showcase their power throughout the day. And Louis XIV did not stop there. In this new space, he wanted to achieve something unprecedented. His grand apartments were to be a striking demonstration of the king's power using only interior decor. This grand apartment is characteristic of one of the unique features of the Palace of Versailles. It's open to everyone, to all citizens, but also to visitors from all over the world. And that is how we can see that it plays an absolutely fundamental role in this endeavor to glorify the reign through the arts. Craftsmen and architects made a daring choice. They turned to the most luxurious material there is, marble and its historic prestige. The new palace had to be covered in it. This was a challenge for the builders. At least 1,100 tons of this precious resource were quarried, cut, and transported from the four corners of the kingdom to be used on all the walls of the castle. This feat loudly proclaimed the king's logistical, economic, and industrial power. The grand apartments were a success. However, in this brand new palace, there was one place that took this architectural feat to even greater heights. A mythical place that, surprisingly, almost never came into being. It's outside the building on the garden side. Look closely. When comparing the current façade with period representations, one detail stands out. When we look at this painting, which dates from the 1670s, we can clearly recognize today's façade. But what strikes us is obviously what is here in the center, namely a terrace. The most iconic façade of the world's most famous palace actually featured a gigantic terrace. It was 40 meters long and nearly 13 meters wide, and its style was inspired by prestigious Italian villas, but much bigger. Yet today, no one would suspect that such a structure ever existed. And for good reason. Just a few years after its construction, its purpose was completely called into question. We realized that creating a void like this between two buildings on a terrace, exposed to the wind, we are in Versailles, not Italy, comes with a number of climatic constraints. But that's not all. Space was always lacking. And we came up with the idea of removing this enormous balcony and transforming it into a connecting gallery, which would link the king's apartment to the queen's. After barely 10 years, the terrace, as surprising as it was little known, was doomed to disappear. Space was needed to receive and impress nobility from across Europe. The king and his builders had no choice. A new structure was simply built against the old wall, creating a uniform façade. On the other side of the walls, this decision led to the creation of the most famous space in the palace, the Grand Gallery. Extending from the grand apartments, this gigantic 73-meter long space is a lobby where the court and visitors could stroll. The challenge was daunting for the king. Here, more than anywhere else, he had to impress, in the most literal sense. These walls, covered with countless mirrors, were absolutely remarkable. At the time, most mirrors were made of polished metal, which was only vaguely reflective. However, a rival power to the Kingdom of France held the secret to a much more precise mirror, made of glass and liquid metal, mercury. This technique had been jealously guarded for centuries. It was a highly political issue. At that time, it was the Republic of Venice that mastered the craft of blowing these mirrors. And Colbert, Louis XIV's prime minister, created a royal mirror factory in France that produced all the mirrors in the gallery. There are more than 300 of them. Through trial and error, enormous expense, and even espionage, the new factory managed to reproduce the famous Venetian mirrors in large quantities. So what the Hall of Mirrors is, it is part of an incredible display of French craftsmanship. Proof to the world that the French can make mirrors. They can make glass. With this success, the crown made a mark. With the Hall of Mirrors, it displayed its industrial victory over the Great Venice for all to see. In total, there are exactly 357 mirrors spread across 17 arches covering the walls. And this display of royal power didn't stop there. It continued up to the ceiling in its paintings. The king was then absolutely everywhere. 1678. 17 years had passed since Louis XIV had begun work on the palace. Construction of the Grand Gallery had begun, and the king had succeeded in transforming his father's former hunting lodge into a true royal residence. His use of the arts was an incredible celebration of his reign. A real success. It would be easy to think the Versailles story ended there. But Louis XIV did not agree. In 1678, the palace was not even a fifth of the size that we know today. There was still a long way to go and stone to be laid. It is often said, and rightly so, that from the moment he began spending time in Versailles, Louis XIV lived amid construction until almost the end of his life. In other words, there was never a time when the palace was considered finished. What we now call the Hall of Mirrors was in fact only the first piece of a new project. That now obsessed the monarch. Even though Versailles was the center of attention, it was still just one royal residence among many. Members of the court followed the king's movements whenever possible. And the government remained based in the French capital. Louis XIV intended to change all that. The king gradually began to consider making Versailles his permanent residence. This was something new and truly significant. It was the early 1680s, 1682 to be exact, which is the date chosen for this milestone. And it marked the end of the itinerant court. At that point, we witnessed something quite extraordinary. The king is going to set up his main residence in one place and one place only. Versailles is going to become the seat of the court, the seat of royal power. This is where he is going to govern. And indeed, at that point, the palace's status is going to change completely. Louis XIV demanded that the nobility settle down almost completely. He also used this settling down of the court politically, since geographical isolation allowed him to control all powers and influences. This decision had incredibly serious consequences for the palace and its builders. It was no longer hundreds, but thousands of people who were preparing to move to Versailles. Nearly 7,000, according to some sources. The court had never been so numerous and so concentrated. The expansions to be carried out were incomparable to anything that had been done in the past. And it was a new architect, Jules Ardoin-Mansart, who was put in charge of construction. It promised to be a titanic undertaking. For 10 years, tens of thousands of workers, supported by thousands of horses, worked to erect two huge wings on either side of the palace. They extended the palace by more than 150 meters to the south, then to the north. Moving towards the town, even more buildings were constructed. They would house the servants. Finally, large and small stables were built to surround the parade ground and create a veritable royal complex. The palace's surface area was quintupled. 1689. Versailles had been under almost constant construction for nearly 30 years. 30 years to see 600 meters of facades unfold to the glory of Louis XIV. The palace's silhouette was now famous throughout the world. However, it was not enough to convey the king's extravagant project. That would be overlooking a crucial element for Louis XIV. The famous gardens of Versailles. This legendary park, now world famous, was at the heart of the king's project from his earliest days in Versailles. Even before his ambition to build the largest palace, the kingdom had ever seen. What is important is that the gardens are not, as in other residences, the ultimate ornament of a completed palace. Moreover, the gardens predate the palace. In other words, the lines, the very structure of the gardens, which were established very early on, well, they also determined the lines of the castle. From the outset, the gardens and the palace walls were designed as a completely coherent whole. Looking at the result today, it's difficult to imagine what the surroundings looked like before Louis XIV left his mark on them. It's difficult to imagine the work accomplished by a genius gardener, André Le Nôtre. Originally, Versailles was perched on a hill surrounded by forests and marshes. Louis XIV wanted to tame this natural environment, and Le Nôtre had to find a way. He began by draining the marshy land. Several hundred hectares had to be dried out before moving on to the most important stage, earthworks. Thousands of tons of earth had to be moved to sculpt the hill, creating reliefs, slopes, flowerbeds, paths, and unobstructed views. For the Grand Canal alone, 23 hectares had to be leveled to perfection. That's 34 football fields laid end-to-end and made perfectly flat. Finally, more than 200,000 trees were moved, planted, and replanted to adorn this enormous space. Through decades of hard work, Le Nôtre managed to create from scratch a perfectly controlled environment to satisfy the monarch's desires. The goal? Make visitors forget the sheer size of the palace and invite them to take a stroll. A natural engineering feat whose stars are the famous groves of Versailles. The groves are enclosed spaces, closed off and bordered by vegetation. They are really like open-air salons. Behind me is one of the last groves to be created during the reign of Louis XIV, the Ballroom Grove with its waterfall. This is very important because here, Le Nôtre skillfully played with height differences that he created by leveling the hill. Here, he kept it so he could install this waterfall, this water staircase, which is quite remarkable. These groves, each one different from the next, connected by paths and squares of varying sizes, form a veritable work of urban landscaping never before seen at the time. But Le Nôtre's work conceals a secret that is less well-known and perhaps more important than anything else. The entire park was designed as a mirror image of the palace. The gardens form an architectural feature that cannot be separated from the buildings. And the buildings themselves only stand because the park gives them meaning. We always tend to say that a garden, what we call a French garden, but let's call it a formal garden instead, that a formal garden is boring, that's not true at all because you have to know how to walk in it. It's extremely stimulating for the eye. There are perspective effects absolutely everywhere. When you start from here and walk up towards the castle, you realize that when you look at the castle, you can't see it in its entirety. You're at the bottom of the garden, but you can only see the height of the first floor and the floor above it, which is called the attic floor. And then if you walk up the green carpet, you will see the castle gradually disappear. And you just need to go to the top of the pond at the foot of the stairs, climb the stairs, and suddenly the castle appears in its entirety. And this is a really fun game because we can see that Le Nôtre mastered the art of making the building appear and disappear as we stroll through the garden. And that's fabulous because at every turn, at every perspective, there's an optical illusion. There's something intriguing and you want to go further. In the same way, but this time from the opposite perspective, each flowerbed, each path, each viewpoint creates a unique setting that extends the salons and galleries of the palace. The gardens of Versailles are a construction in their own right. They mobilize the efforts of thousands of builders over decades, and the result is unparalleled. Architects and gardeners work together to create an absolute masterpiece. Its most emblematic embodiment lies in a creation that is as monumental as it is discreet. Louis XIV's incredible orangery. Once again, it was guided by a seemingly unstoppable delusion of grandeur. Arriving in the gardens and heading south, a parterre of a thousand orange trees and exotic trees is revealed at the last moment from the handrail. A surreal vision in our climate, an unthinkable 300 years ago. Louis wanted the impossible and he wanted oranges all year round. He wanted oranges in freezing cold Paris. And what he did was he built an orangery. It was filled with orange trees in their beautiful silver pots. It's difficult to underestimate how much a status symbol and exotic fruit was in the 17th century. If you had a pineapple, it would blow someone's mind. If you had an orange, people would literally faint. I mean, this was incredible. So the king was saying, I have the ultimate will over nature. The king's wishes were commands. For more than three centuries, over a thousand exotic trees, orange trees, lemon trees and pomegranate trees have taken root in Versailles. To achieve such a feat, it was necessary to guarantee optimal conditions for these countless, highly sensitive trees, even in the middle of winter. I think we are in the largest orangery in the world here. We thought there was a gallery about 155 meters long and 13 meters high under the vaulted ceiling, which is quite something. And then there are the absolutely colossal walls, which are over five meters thick. This is an absolutely extraordinary structure. Just imagine it's summer now. Just imagine what it's like in winter. All the trees that are currently outside on the lawn and elsewhere in the garden are brought inside here, and it creates an absolutely fabulous effect when winter arrives in this place. You're in an indoor forest. There's a very distinctive smell. There's an atmosphere and a kind of humidity that emanates from it. But ultimately, it's absolutely perfect. Facing south, the orangery takes advantage of every ray of sunshine to warm its inhabitants once winter arrives. But the challenge of such a construction did not stop there, of course. The building also had to minimize heat exchange or heat loss in this case. To achieve this, the architects and builders had an idea to bury it at least halfway like a cave, capable of storing a thousand trees. The orangery was not just built. It was dug out beneath the palace grounds. Today, as in the past, visitors walk over this monumental construction without even realizing it's there. The main axis is over 150 meters long, to which must be added two wings of nearly 100 meters, all plunging 20 meters below the gardens. The structure is colossal. And with its five meter thick stone walls, it even reinforces the entire southern part of the palace. We are overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the proportions. And at the same time, there are no carvings, nothing at all. We are truly in a state of austerity that could almost be described as romantic. And the main beauty, apart from these extraordinary dimensions, is really the treatment of the stone. Mansart was extremely skilled at working with stone in a remarkable way. It is the art of cutting stone, known as stereotomy. And when you look at the vault above, it is absolutely splendid because there are only volumes. The light plays in a very particular way on them. And then we have the entrance to the other gallery, which goes under the staircase, the grand staircases that border the Orangerie. And we have something absolutely remarkable. And this Orangerie is beautiful in its simplicity because we have something perfect. After the monumental white stone exterior, after the hall of mirrors, after the gardens and stables, Louis XIV added a palace for his plants to Versailles. 1699, the king had grown old. He was 61 years old and it had been almost 10 years since his life project, his palace, had not been expanded further. The court still lived and breathed to the rhythm of his days from sunrise to sunset. But the days of the grand celebrations that enlivened the palace were over. At the end of Louis XIV's reign, he had a complete personality change. His glamorous mistress, Madame de Montespan, was no more. And he fell in love with Madame de Mantenon, the royal governess, who was very pious and intelligent. And Louis disavowed all amusements, all pleasure, became very religious. And the court became very regular, very dull, very routine. The king became obsessed with piety, with salvation. And so the grand, incredible festivities of Versailles were no more as Louis moved into old age. At the beginning of the 18th century, Versailles was about to undergo one last change, reflecting the increasingly religious leanings of its creator. Louis XIV wanted to add a chapel to the north wing of his palace that would leave its mark on history. He didn't know it yet, but he was about to begin construction on the last building to be built during his reign. Louis XIV's last construction was this chapel that we can see here, which is ultimately the fifth and last chapel in the palace. It's important to note that there had been others before, but they weren't built in a majestic style. King Louis XIV was a very Christian king and had always wanted a specific building for his chapel. So he needed what you might call a house dedicated to God. And that's why he waited so long for it. For about 10 years, builders laid the stones of the large, very large royal chapel, one on top of the other. The most impressive thing when you enter this chapel is its height, its elevation. Your gaze is drawn upwards towards the vaulted ceiling with pilasters on the first level, then columns, Corinthian columns, which really give the impression of an ancient temple within this chapel. Everything inside the building draws the eye towards its highest point. A prodigious sensation of elevation that is not just an impression. The chapel is exceptional in the true sense of the word for one simple reason. At over 40 meters high, it towers over the entire king's palace. The same king who had nevertheless inscribed his greatness and power in every corner of his palace. The symbolism of this chapel is powerful. Louis the Great remains small in the face of God. Inside, the same idea is clearly echoed. While Louis XIV covered the ceilings with his exploits, here, he remains discreet. Above the columns, we have this vault, which is a large Italian style trompe-l'oeil with architecture that gives the impression of opening up to the sky. And in the center, we see God the Father in his glory, surrounded by several angels. It is truly a demonstration of the king's faith and of God's power, which is superior to that of the king. In 1715, five years after the consecration of the royal chapel, the man who saw himself as the sun king passed away. A 72-year reign came to an end. The longest the kingdom of France would ever know. Now, it was time for the younger generation to take over. Very young indeed, Louis XV was none other than the great-grandson of Louis XIV. He inherited the crown, but above all, a monumental palace. But how could the young Louis XV take charge of a palace of such magnitude? A palace that had been under construction for more than 50 years, tailor-made for his great-grandfather. In 1742, Louis XV, who was only five years old when he ascended the throne, was now 32. During this time, Versailles retained its appearance as a perfectly finished work. But was this really the case? On closer inspection, at the very end of the north wing, just beyond the courtiers' apartments, there is a large empty space. This surprising space was actually intended to be a theatre, but it was clearly not a priority for Louis XV. The place was perfect for the young Louis XV. It was time for him to leave his mark, so he called on his best architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel. They wanted to create an opera house worthy of the palace. After many years of research, reflection and conceptualization, Gabriel started construction on a truncated oval theatre. He eliminated blind spots and created remarkable acoustics. Facing the audience, he then had a stage built with exceptional dimensions. 31 meters wide, 29 meters deep and 18 meters high. It was a venue tailor-made for grand performances. Gabriel took on this project and it took him almost 20 years to complete the theatre behind me. We know that Gabriel sent architects to Italy to inspect all the theatres that were being built there so that he could adopt what was new at the time, the Italian-style horseshoe theatre layout. Therefore, it was really the facility that the Palace of Versailles was missing that was finally completed. In 1770, the Royal Opera House was finally completed. Its architecture fulfilled its promise and its decor magnified the whole. But where Ange-Jacques Gabriel made all the difference was in concealing a feature that would still be surprising today. The theatre is entirely modular. It can be completely transformed depending on the event. It can become an opera house, a ballroom and even host banquets. This makes it comparable to the large stadiums we know today. We're going to design a mechanical system which is being done by Blaisant-Yarnoux, the king's chief engineer, so the levels can be altered. This means that the level of the amphitheatre where we are now will be slightly lowered while the level of the orchestra will be raised to the same height. And we'll gain a floor flush with the stage creating a hall. When we raise the curtain, we'll put a backdrop around it, an architectural backdrop that will be more or less detailed, reminiscent of the hall, but not necessarily a copy. And we'll have an absolutely fantastic space for other activities such as balls and feasts. With this achievement, Louis XV added a touch of modernity to his great-grandfather's immense palace. He, in turn, left his mark. After the chapel, the gardens, the orangery, the grand apartments and Mansart's immense wings, the Royal Opera House brought more than a century of relentless work to a close. The palace finally resembled what we know today. 1774. History was not over. It would even be unstoppable. It was now Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's turn to take up residence. But things had changed. The kingdom's economic situation was deteriorating and it was no longer a time for displays of power. Preserving the royal family's privacy and building more discreet spaces became an architectural priority. Behind the luxury of the grand apartments that made the palace famous, the builders of Versailles developed a series of more discreet rooms, almost invisible to the general public. What is always surprising, in fact, at the heart of the queen's private chambers is the size of the rooms, which are very small. As we can see here, less than 17 square meters for the most opulent room, sometimes tiny. Yet these are the royal's actual living quarters. Other spaces, passageways, corridors, small rooms are very simple. The archives say so. Bare walls, simply painted white. They also have a maze-like quality to them. Wherever possible, the king and queen added rooms, connecting them by tiny staircases, networks of corridors, small rooms and back rooms. This was the ultimate challenge facing the last generation of builders of Versailles. To create such a maze of rooms, it was no longer a question of pushing back the walls. The interior of the palace had to be completely reconfigured. Partitions were moved, corridors were designed and even mezzanines were added. Hundreds of craftsmen were hard at work transforming every square meter. Every day, we modify partitions, open and close staircases, reposition fireplaces, change the shape of rooms, change the height of ceilings, which means removing all the window frames, windows and also the floors. So these are quite considerable construction projects and I must say that when you study them, sometimes historians lose track, almost lose their minds because it's so difficult to follow the ways these small rooms change shape, location and purpose. Sometimes at lightning speed. Regarding the changes made by the Queen, we can say that the French Revolution halted a process that would very likely have led to the total disappearance of the Louis XIV décor on the Queen's side. In complete secrecy, behind the walls of the historic salons, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette changed the face of Versailles for posterity. For 15 years, the palace was a hive of activity as it sought to satisfy the royal couple's last wishes. But time was running out. 1789. The time for construction was over. The people heralded the end of the monarchy. The French Revolution brought the king back to Paris. The message was even clearer. There would be no return to Versailles and its excesses. Would ever be so powerful ever again or have been before. No one would be able to impose their will on people, on nature, on the court, even on water. And that's what Louis did. This wonderful, incredible, magnificent palace is to me the image of absolute monarchy and the image of the glamour of absolute monarchy and also the tyranny. The French Revolution put an end to more than 150 years of royalty at its highest level, concentrated in one place. It is so fascinating to me that Versailles that was meant by Louis XIV to be the image of monarchical grandeur that no one could ever push down, unseat, destroy. That Versailles actually destroyed the monarchy. That perhaps if Louis had never built Versailles, perhaps Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI would have been able to keep their heads. Ironically, it's perhaps partly thanks to Versailles that times have changed. From Louis XIII's modest hunting lodge to Louis XIV's delusions of grandeur to the symbol of an absolute and authoritarian monarchy that no one wanted anymore, the palace today tells us a fascinating story about the past. A story that we discover as we walk through its corridors, its salons and its gardens. A story about politics, art, architecture and a story of grandeur.