Versailles secrets: Toilets, mistresses and hidden labs

DW (English)

Versailles, outside Paris, France, is one of the most famous palaces on Earth. What was the life of nobility like at court?

Transcript

00:00Pomp and splendor, but no toilets.

00:05Or were there?

00:06Walls with secret doors and many mistresses.

00:09Here's what you might not have known about the Palace of Versailles,

00:12the most famous place in France.

00:16Here are three secrets about the residence of the so-called Sun King, Louis XIV.

00:25Versailles Palace is located around 20 kilometers southwest of Paris.

00:29Every year, several million visitors come from all over the world to see this palace.

00:33But today, it's closed to the public, so we have it almost all to ourselves.

00:40Our first expert is Flavie Leroux.

00:43She tells us that, in addition to the famous kings, mistresses also played an important role at court.

00:49One of the most famous was Madame du Barry, the mistress of King Louis XV.

00:53She resided in these luxurious chambers in the palace and even had a bathroom with hot water, a luxury at the time.

01:01Her apartment was furnished with precious porcelain and sumptuous furniture.

01:05It was large, almost 350 square meters.

01:09She lived in this apartment for almost four years.

01:12The apartment was exceptional because of its size, location in the palace and its furnishings,

01:17as you can see from the magnificent golden decorations.

01:21Time for secret number one.

01:24Now I'll show you one of the secrets of this apartment.

01:28In this bedroom, this door in the wall leads directly to one of the king's private rooms, the library.

01:37It could be accessed through this small staircase.

01:44Our next expert awaits us here.

01:47Hello, I'm Mathieu Davignan, director of the Versailles Research Center.

01:52Our second secret is related to a basic human need.

01:55After all, even the most distinguished members of society must relieve themselves.

02:00But toilets as we know them today didn't exist in the 18th century.

02:07It is often said that there was a lack of hygiene in Versailles, but that was not the case.

02:12Here we have the king's real bidet, and you can see how the system works with the ceramic.

02:21This is really something special.

02:24You can also see that the ceramic inside the king's bidet has been beautifully crafted.

02:35Under King Louis XVI, there was even a toilet in the palace.

02:41This is a water closet system invented by the English in the late 1720s.

02:46This one is a reconstruction, but it's exactly what it looked like.

02:50The only thing missing is the flush, which wasn't reconstructed.

02:54This toilet flushed waste water directly into the underground sewage system.

02:58And on both sides of it, there were small compartments holding absorbent cotton, which you could use to wipe your bottom.

03:07Now it's time for secret number three.

03:10In addition to literature, Louis XVI had another passion, chemistry.

03:14He liked to carry out experiments in a small, hidden room that only his closest confidants knew about.

03:23We're here in the chemistry laboratory of Louis XVI, which was inaugurated in 1780.

03:29It's one of the many small scientific rooms around the marble courtyard.

03:33It's the reason why the floor is tiled.

03:37Previously, this room had a parquet floor like the others, but because chemicals were involved,

03:42it could have been dangerous when liquid substances splashed onto the floor.

03:47You can see that the ceiling is quite high, and there's a hole above the window in case chemical reactions occurred.

03:57There's also a kind of stove in the fireplace for experimenting.

04:06The Palace of Versailles certainly holds many secrets waiting to be revealed, but one thing is certain.

04:12A visit to this gem is sure to be a highlight of any trip to France.

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