Trianon and the Queen's Hamlet at Versailles: A Private Royal Retreat

Photography is quite bad. Printing on non-photographic paper makes many images dark, blurry, and with poor resolution. Many photographs have color that is too saturated. Very surprised that a book on the Trianons has so few images of the actual interiors of the Trianons. There are exquisite books on Versailles and environs. This is not one of them.

I’m really disappointed with this book. Quality of paper is really bad . The book arrived damaged on the corners. I have 3 different books from this publisher and they are great, I don’t know why they did such a poor job on that one.

I have many beautiful books from this same publisher, so I am very surprised by the grossly inferior quality of this publication. The photos are printed on what appears to be regular copy paper which results in lifeless, dull photos. Even the front and back covers are printed on dull grainy paper. Photos that I print on my 10 year old Epson home printer look 10x better. Very disappointed in the end product of a book that I had eagerly awaited for several months.

Very pleased with this book. The text is clear and informative and it's abundantly illustrated with photographs, plans, and drawings. According to this book, the Grand Trianon was an exceptional building project because it was designed to complement gardens already in place, not the other way around. To illustrate this, the full-page color photographs of the interior spaces of the palace were taken with a view to the trees, flowers and fountains just outside, showing how the large interior spaces were oriented toward the beautiful gardens just beyond the tall glass doors. The Petit Trianon is also beautifully depicted and clearly described. It's a rare pleasure to see so many photographs of Marie-Antoinette's little theater. I also much appreciated the photographs of the interior of the buildings in the queen's hamlet. This book provides as immersive an experience as you can possibly have short of actually being there.

After waiting months for this book to arrive, it turned out to be one of the poorest quality books I have ever seen ! Not one page in the whole book has accurate colors, all the photographs look dark and dingy. A number of the pages are not in correct sequence, and many are over-printed with two different images on top of each other making them useless altogether. This book was a mistake, and should never have been offered for sale at any price ! It is a disaster!

I was reluctant to order the book because of all the negative reviews regarding the picture quality. Boy, I am happy I took a chance and got it. It just arrived, is gorgeous and cannot wait to spend more time with it. Yes, there are some over exposed, or supersaturated photos, but on the whole the book is great, and the drawings are fantastic. I actually like the paper and cover and the fact that it is a little different from every other book. I have 8 or 9 books on Versailles and this one is the equal of all the others. I have also purchased all of the Flammarion series that started with the Ambassador's residence and this is equal to them...different...but equal. If you love Versailles you will love this book. GUARANTEED!

After decades of seeing books published on the château and the Petit Trianon, it is a welcome addition to the Versailles canon to finally see a lavishly illustrated and gorgeously designed academic book on both Trianons!As a curator and architectural historian, I particularly appreciate the beautifully reproduced 17th and 18th century drawings and renderings, which, I suspect, have never been published before. These illustrations, together with the magnificent new photography, add so much to our understanding of the original concept of the Trianons, especially Grand Trianon.

I bought this great book after seeing it featured in the January issue of Veranda. I'm a huge Versailles fan and this book is simply stunning. The photos are beautiful and feature many aspects of the Trianon gardens that are never shown in other books I have on Versailles. The author is the head architect at Versailles and a real expert on the evolution of the Grand and Petit Trianon and the beautiful little farm created by Marie Antoinette. He has contributed years of experience and specialized research to the book and it is filled with beautiful engravings and garden drawings. Fantastic!

I recently bought this title to add to the many books I already have on Versailles.As a student in nearby St. Germain-en-Laye with the Alliance Francaise in the late 1970s, I spent one term visiting Versailles one day a week to better understand its history and its importance to French decorative arts. We were fortunate to explore areas not open to the public, as they are now, including many of the upstairs smaller rooms in the Palace as well as both the Trianons and discovered the other Chapel and Marie-Antoinette's Petit Trianon Theatre. This was all incredibly exciting.Despite the majesty of the Palace and my admiration for the Grand and Petit Trianons, I really fell in love with the simplicity and beauty of the Hameau (in this book called the Queen's Hamlet).This book is a great addition to my library. There has obviously been a great amount of restoration in the last thirty years, readily apparent from the numerous images shown. The main text is by Jacques Moulin, head architect of Versailles and its gardens, who recently restored the Hamlet. His text is the result of restoration research made before the works and is both informative and extremely readable. It is great to get a sound grounding in the development of the rest of the Versailles estate from Louis XIV through the revolution and its current renovations.The book is extremely well designed and printed. Other books by the same publisher (Flammarion) are on a glossy paper, unlike the uncoated paper stock used here. Uncoated paper sometimes appears to soften images but in this book works well and shows the many plans and watercolour illustrations in the book at their best. Alongside what I assume to be some earlier archival photography, the book includes splendid new photography by Francis Hammond, the same photographer from an earlier book Versailles: A Private Invitation to which this is a splendid companion.