12 rue de l'Indépendance Américaine, Yvelines
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At closing time, the attendants of Versailles walk the last of the crowds towards the exits, and the gilded gates swing shut behind them. A handful of people are allowed to stay. They have their own house inside the estate, a butler each and, for one night, the run of the most famous palace in France.
That house is Le Grand Contrôle, built in 1681 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart for Louis XIV's Controller-General of Finances, the man who had to find the money for all this. Its last occupant was Jacques Necker. When the king dismissed him in July 1789, Paris rose, and three days later the Bastille fell. Today it is a hotel of fifteen rooms and suites that plays the eighteenth century entirely straight. The staff wear period dress, and the bedrooms have no television, only a quill and an inkwell on the desk.
Once the day visitors have gone, the guests are driven across the cobbled courtyards to the palace. The Hall of Mirrors, which thousands of people shuffle through every day, is empty. Seventeen tall windows let in the last of the evening light, and seventeen arches of mirrors throw it straight back. The only sound is the guide's footsteps on the old parquet. Louis XIV built this room to overwhelm foreign ambassadors. Three and a half centuries later, it has lost none of its technique.
Afterwards there is no train to catch and no car park to find. Guests drift back across the darkened courtyard to dinner, served as a royal feast, with Alain Ducasse behind the menu and waiters who introduce each course with a story from court. It lasts about three hours, which feels right for Versailles. On summer Saturdays, when the fountains play by night and fireworks burst over the Grand Canal, the walk to bed is the shortest in town.
The suites are furnished with genuine antiques, and most have a fireplace and several a canopied bed. The bathrobes are so soft that guests have been known to eye their suitcases thoughtfully, while the minibar, all included, comes stocked with macarons, which is probably as close as anyone needs to get to Marie Antoinette's views on snacks.
The next day begins with a knock at the door and a little chamber music, and before the gates open there is a second private visit, to the Queen's Petit Trianon. This is a once-in-a-lifetime stay, best planned around the after-hours tour, which starts late in the day and waits for nobody. Not every suite overlooks the gardens. The tone is formal and unashamedly theatrical, so anyone allergic to costume, or travelling with very small children, may prefer to stay in Paris, less than an hour away in the car the hotel sends.
Sooner or later, the quill proves hard to resist. There are not many addresses that look better at the top of a letter.
Whose rooms
The Necker Suite was the private apartment of Jacques Necker, Louis XVI's finance minister. Its freestanding bathtub looks out over the Orangery Garden and the château.
The grandest suite was the private apartment of Jacques Necker. It has Versailles parquet, ceilings of 4.20 metres, a living room, a period fireplace and a four-poster bed, and the freestanding bath looks out over the Orangery Garden and the château. It sleeps two, and its rate also covers lunch, dinner without alcohol and a car from Paris.
The Bar de la Chapelle sits in the Salon d'Audience, its red walls lined with bottles and gilt mirrors and lit by candles in the evening, and in fine weather it moves out onto a terrace above the Orangery. Every guest also has unlimited access to the Orangery gardens below, the view from that terrace.
Dinner starts with a drink among the other guests in the Salon d'Audience, before the doors open on a dining room lit only by candles. Staff in eighteenth-century dress carve at the table and serve à la française, with dishes set down to share. On Saturdays the whole room sits at one long table. Men are asked to wear a jacket.
The garden side of the house looks down on the Orangery parterre, the Hundred Steps and the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses. Guests have unlimited access to the Orangery gardens and can borrow golf carts for the wider park. Rooms on this side, L'Orangerie and Madame de Fouquet with their terraces among them, are the ones worth asking for by name.
At a glance
Where
12 rue de l'Indépendance Américaine, 78000 Versailles; inside the grounds of the Château de Versailles, beside the Orangery and the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses. By car about 45 minutes from central Paris and from Gare du Nord; by train 10 minutes' walk from Versailles Château Rive Gauche or 20 minutes from Versailles Chantiers; Orly about 30 minutes, Charles de Gaulle about an hour; Saint-Cyr-l'École aerodrome for helicopters about five minutes
Why this one
The only hotel in the château grounds.
A guided visit after closing.
Fifteen rooms and suites in all.
The Edit Notes
The garden side is the one to ask for. L'Orangerie and Madame de Fouquet look over the Orangery and the Hundred Steps, each with a private terrace; Turgot and the Marquis de Fouquet Suite face the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses; Necker and Madame de Staël have three aspects. Baron de Staël-Holstein, the two Premier Suites and Rose Bertin look onto the courtyard, the town or the south wing of the château, which is a fine view but not the gardens.
Anyone booking for the four-poster should name the room. The hotel lists a bed canopy in Baron de Staël-Holstein, Madame de Fouquet, the Marquis de Fouquet Suite, the Madame de Staël Suite and the Necker Suite; Madame de Fouquet and Necker have full four-posters. The three Deluxe Rooms, Turgot, L'Orangerie, the Premier Suites and the Pavillon des Jardiniers suites have conventional beds. Period fireplaces, on the other hand, are in almost every room of the main house.
The Royal Feast is the evening the stay is built around, and it is open to outside diners, so the candlelit room fills. It begins with a drink in the Salon d'Audience before the dining room is revealed; on Saturdays every guest sits at one long table, which suits some couples less than others. Men are asked to wear a jacket. La Table des Jardiniers, in the Pavillon des Jardiniers, is the quieter alternative for a second night.
From central Paris the drive takes about 45 minutes; Versailles Château Rive Gauche station is a ten-minute walk, and parking with valet is included. A chauffeured transfer from Paris or the airport is part of the rate only in the Necker and Madame de Staël suites and the Grand Appartement. Rose Bertin, under the roof, has no lift and eighteen steps. L'Orangerie is the hotel's room for guests with reduced mobility.
The price question
The money buys a night inside the gates of Versailles: the château after the crowds have left, a butler, breakfast and tea by Ducasse, the spa, and the Orangery gardens on the doorstep. It does not buy a large hotel. Fifteen rooms vary widely in size and outlook, and the most theatrical evening, the Royal Feast, is charged separately.
Book it for one or two nights built around the after-hours tour and one Royal Feast, in a garden-side room chosen by name. Travellers who want a lively neighbourhood, a large hotel's facilities or simply a bed near the Louvre are better placed in Paris and should visit Versailles for the day.
Hôtel de Crillon
On Place de la Concorde: an eighteenth-century house with 36 suites, ten of them signature suites, and a spa with a pool.
Le Pavillon de la Reine
On the Place des Vosges in the Marais: 56 rooms and suites around a garden courtyard, with a spa and hammam.
The Extra Edit
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