The Lost Bathrooms of Versailles

The transformation from royal residence to national museum undertaken by Louis-Philippe was a harsh ordeal for Versailles. While it gained the so-called Empire-rooms - and the Salle des Battailles - it lost the majority of personal apartments of the resident courtiers. This included the accommodation for their servants and their private installations. Sadly, the few semi-permanent bathrooms of the royal family were also demolished. 

This has led to the idea that Versailles was inhabited by people who never washed - while fixtures such as permanent bathtubs were rare, the ideals of hygiene advanced rapidly during the 18th century. This meant that the majority of the royal family had their own, private bathrooms. Sadly, only three survives today: those of Madame du Barry, that of Louis XVI (without the bathtub) and that of Marie Antoinette.

Marie Leszscynska 

The queen's interior apartment today entirely shows the taste of its last inhabitant - Marie Antoinette. Her predecessor, Marie Leszczynska, had her own distinct style which was gradually replaced as the new queen made her mark on the few rooms allocated to the queen's personal use.

Whereas Marie Antoinette's bathroom is largely intact, that of Marie Leszczynska is entirely gone. It was replaced by a supplementary library. The bathroom was installed in 1728 and was remodeled in 1769. The queen made regular use of her bathroom which is attested by the fact that it was temporarily closed due to maintenance in 1746; Marie Leszczsynska had to make use of her husband's bathrooms while the plaster was still moist. This particular cabinet was done in a blue-grey colour scheme; it was joined immediately by a small cabinet in which she could relax after her bath. That cabinet was decorated by five large paintings of landscapes by Oudry.

Meanwhile, the bathroom itself was decorated by Natoire who chose pastoral scenes with a definite poetic theme. He was joined by Verbeckt and Guesnon who provided the panelling.  

The small rooms contained a water tank as well as a so-called "Peking-bed"; a style inspired by the Far East which was very much an interest of Marie Leszczynska. At the time of her death, the bed was in white and blue.

Marię Lezczynska's bathroom marked, 1747

Madame Adélaide

The first bathroom of Madame Adélaide received a makeover in 1737 which saw imitated marble painted on the walls; this was a far cheaper way of achieving that particularly expensive look. This bathroom was either changed - likely when she was moved to another apartment - or updated.

She had another bathroom which was made in 1765. This room overlooked what is currently the Louis-Philippe Staircase and was decorated with golden figures, mostly associated with water, such as fishing and swimming. The bathroom was directly connected with her then-bedroom (now Louis XVI's library).

Plans exist from the late 1780's which suggested an entirely new bathroom for the aging Madame Adélaide on the ground floor - they were likely never carried out.

Marie Josèphe 

While the reigning dauphine, Marie Josèphe's apartment included a small salle de Bain. It was decorated with stucco by Chevalier (the same man who had redone Madame Adelaide's bathroom); the renovations by the king's stucateur were only enjoyed briefly by Marie Josèphe as her husband died shortly afterwards. Her bathroom was oval in shape and delicately decorated with boiserie. The dauphine entered her bathroom from her interior cabinet.

Interestingly, Marie Josèphe shared a bathroom with her husband, the Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand, before it was demolished to make room for a new staircase.

Bathrooms were rarely mentioned in details in contemporary literature - whether that be correspondence or memoirs. Like today, they were considered particularly private areas and were rarely seen by any other than the owner and their staff. At Versailles, a permanent bathroom was the prerogative of the royal family; several courtiers submitted applications for erecting their own bathrooms in their apartments but were refused. This left them with the options of either having a bathtub being manually brought into their apartment when needed or using their private hotels in town - if they had one.