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Château de Versailles dist. RMN-Grand Palais

Although Louis XV used the Deer Park Pavilion as a “bachelor flat,” his favorite mistresses usually lived in palace rooms accessible by a private staircase. Madame de Pompadour’s Grand Cabinet was decorated in pink damask, one of the marquise’s favorite colors.

The intricately designed decor of the Queen’s Library in shades of green and yellow gold displayed books from Marie Antoinette’s private collection. While the doors are covered with fake bindings, the engraved drawer handles feature the House of Austria’s emblem.

Included in the mistresses’ apartments was this elegant library overlooking the Royal Courtyard. When Louis XV’s last mistress, Madame du Barry, lived here, she kept her parrot in this birdcage decorated with porcelain flowers and her own coat of arms.

Louis XIV and his family ceremoniously dined in this room every evening at 10 p.m. while surrounded by courtiers. Although the tradition gradually faded away, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette reestablished it with weekly Sunday dinners accompanied by live musicians.

Nicknamed the “room of applause,” the Diana Salon used to hold a large billiard table for Louis XIV, who excelled at the game and played every night after dinner per his doctor’s orders.

On the opposite side of the mistresses’ apartments, the rooms have a view of Stags’ Courtyard—a walled area where Louis XV mounted stag sculptures in honor of his passion for hunting.

This breathtaking double door entrance to the first floor of the Royal Chapel gave the king direct access from his apartments. Although dignitaries and other royalty observed services from the side galleries, the main gallery facing the organ and altar was reserved for the king and his family.

Madame Victoire, one of Louis XV’s eight daughters, lived at the palace until the Revolution. Previously part of Louis XIV’s Bath Chambers, this brightly furnished room with taffeta curtains became the princess’s bedchamber in 1769.

The Queen’s Bedchamber has been restored to appear as it did when Marie Antoinette fled Versailles in October 1789 through this room’s secret door. The flowery silk wall hangings and light color palette—changed based on the season of year—reflect her summer decoration, even though it was fall at the time.

Thousands of orange, lemon, and pomegranate trees at Versailles—some more than 200 years old—are sheltered in the Orangery during the winter and arranged in geometric patterns in the parterre, or ornamental garden, during summer. Courtiers would often give Louis XIV their orange trees as a show of good manners.