The Courtyard of Monseigneur

This courtyard was named for the only surviving son of Louis XIV and Marie Thérèse who was otherwise simply known as le Grand Dauphin - actually "Monseigneur" is in itself short for "Monseigneur le Dauphin". Like the remaining part of Versailles built by Louis XIV the courtyard is made from white and slightly pink stones; the walls are decorated with medallions cut in stone. As with the Queen's Courtyard, this place would have smelled terribly in the Ancien Regime. Despite regulations it was quite common for servants who wanted to avoid the long way out of the castle to simply empty chamberpots out of the window and since there is no place for it all to go, you can imagine that it would have to be cleaned out once in a while...

Nowadays, there is drain at the centre and judging from the stone paving it has been there for a while (perhaps even from the beginning) but still the filth would have been awful.

View of the passageway into the Queen's courtyard