Where 'Versailles' was filmed in France

As season three of the BBC's 'Versailles' gets underway, with more power, corruption and lies at the court of Louis XIV, we go behind the scenes of the hot-blooded drama

By James Medd

12 July 2018

'A beacon to the world, reflecting the power and glory of God himself': that’s the promise made by Louis XIV (George Blagden) as he leads his retinue up a magnificent marble staircase, tossing his locks and rustling his ruffles, to see his latest act of interior decoration. Versailles may have won initial attention for its displays of flesh but, as this line makes clear, it’s really all about the scenery. The plot revolves around the building of Louis’ Château de Versailles, after all, and every intrigue, rendezvous or contretemps comes with a backdrop of 17th-century lavishness.

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The royal reveal in this scene from the opening episode of the third and final season is of the grandest of Louis’ grand projects, the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), pictured above, an astonishing hall of 357 mirrors finished in 1684. What we see on screen is the very thing, but this isn’t always the case. In part that’s due to sweeping changes made to the Château by Marie-Antoinette in the following century, but access to one of France’s hottest tourist spots was always going to be a problem. There are exterior shots in the Cour d’Honneur at the front of the palace, as when Louis receives the conquered Emperor Leopold of Hungary in the season opener, and in the distinctively paved Cour de Marbre (Marble Court), but often we’re elsewhere entirely.
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Luckily, the Ile-de-France region around Versailles and Paris is not short of châteaux from the era, and the show makes use of around 20 venues. Chief among these is Vaux-le-Vicomte, pictured above, 30 miles south-east of the capital and an established favourite for those in search of Gallic grandeur. Built by Nicolas Fouquet, master of Louis XIV’s finances, it was a direct inspiration for Versailles, and the work of the same team of architect Louis Le Vau, landscape gardener André le Nôtre and decorator Charles Le Brun. Its CV includes starring roles in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette(2006), the wonderful Ridicule (1996) and, most famously, 1979’s Moonraker, where it plays the lair of Hugo Drax, villainously transported brick by brick to California.
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With its domed Grand Salon, gold-panelled halls and geometric gardens, a visit to Vaux-le-Vicomte is akin to time travel. It’s no wonder much of the action of Versailles takes place here, despite the strict control of owner le comte de Vogüé who apparently insists on stockinged feet and forbids filming in the King’s Bedroom (in which Louis XIV, though he visited, never actually slept). Also heavily featured is Château de Maisons-Laffitte, pictured above, to the north-west of Paris, previously seen in Woody Allen’s Love and Death (1975) and the 1994 Isabelle Adjani vehicle La Reine Margot. Built 30 years before Louis’ work in Versailles, this was picked for its grand ballrooms and camera-friendly white marble staircase.
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For exteriors, extensive use is also made of the Château de Champs-sur-Marne, pictured above, on the eastern outskirts of Paris. Largely built around 20 years after Versailles, it was the main location for Dangerous Liaisons(1988) and stately Proust adaptation Swann in Love (1984). The gardens here were designed by a pupil of Le Nôtre, though another venue often seen on the show, the Parc de Sceaux to the south of Paris, was the work of the master himself. There, fountains and formal gardens are joined by 180 hectares of lawns and constructed waterfall features.

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A decent tour of the show’s locations would also take in the forbiddingly grand Salle des Preuses at the Château de Pierrefonds, pictured above, a little further out to the north-east and previously Camelot in BBC series Merlin, as well as Château de Vigny, 30 miles to the north, with its fairytale Troubadour-style turrets. Only this last is not open to the public – though don’t expect any of them to make much of their televisual fame. They are, as you’d hope, much too grand for that.
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Elisa Lasowski as Marie-Thérèse, queen to Louis XIV in Versailles
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In the corridors of power at Versailles
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Alexander Vlahos as Prince Philippe and Evan Williams as Chevalier

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Elisa Lasowski as Marie-Thérèse, in the gardens at Versailles
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The Palace of Versailles
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