Living Like a Queen - Marie-Antoinette’s World in Paris and Versailles

Arrive in Paris and hop in a taxi/Uber to our fun and beautiful hotel in the heart of the 2nd district of Paris - the Hôtel Square Louvois. Taxis are easy at the Paris airports, but if you'd prefer a private car, we can arrange that for you (at your cost).

This evening, in the courtyard of the hotel, we'll meet up to enjoy some champagne, get to know one another, and learn a bit about Marie-Antoinette. After our champagne, we will enjoy a stroll through the Marais and a lovely dinner at the classic Bofinger.

After breakfast, we'll begin our day in the Marais with a stroll through the magnificent Place des Vosges and a visit to the Musée Cognacq-Jay. Ernest Cognacq, founder of the world-famous Samaritaine department store, and his wife, Marie-Louise Jay, were art lovers. They particularly loved the art of the Age of Enlightenment. Throughout their lives, they gathered more than 1,200 European works, all reflecting the taste in vogue in the 18th century. The museum is now in the extraordinary Hôtel Donon, a sixteenth-century townhouse in the heart of the Marais.

We'll have lunch at Camille, a lovely, elevated bistrot Parisien.

After lunch, we'll have a very special visit to the perfumerie, Buly. Buly was founded in 1803 when there were no fewer than 139 perfumers located in Paris, and according to the city’s Préfecture, the toiletries trade was the second largest employer in Paris! Buly is a veritable bastion against the disappearance of France’s beauty heritage, inspired by the excellence and virtues of the past while committing to the best of the present.

Before free time, we'll participate in a floral design class about colors and different flowers.

For dinner, we will stroll to the lovely Dessance, a modern restaurant housed in a seventeenth-century mansion in the Marais. Even if you're not a vegetarian, their vegetarian-tasting menu is worth a try!

This morning, we'll visit the gardens of Paris. The first stop will be the stunning Bagatelle Gardens, constructed in 64 days after a wager between Marie-Antoinette and her brother-in-law. A private garden expert and guide will join us. She designs the flower arrangements for the American Embassy and is a rose judge at Bagatelle. Lucky for us, we’ll be visiting during rose season!

We'll stop for lunch at the lovely Le Camondo.

After lunch, we'll take a short tour of the Parc Monceau, a garden built by Marie-Antoinette’s cousin, before exploring the elegant Nissim de Camondo Museum with its exceptional eighteenth-century furniture and decorative arts.

We'll have some free time to relax at the end of the day. In my opinion, there may be no better way to spend a few hours than in a French cafe with a coffee and a Pastis, watching the fashionable Parisians go by.

Dinner tonight is something a little different. We are going to a Cheese and Champagne Workshop. 

After breakfast, we’ll visit the Chapelle Expiatoire. Called perhaps “the most remarkable monument in Paris” by Chateaubriand, La Chapelle Expiatoire is one of those hidden gems that blends history, art, and architecture and offers a quiet oasis not far from the bustle and hustle of the Grands Boulevards. The chapel is dedicated to Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI and was constructed at the exact point where they were buried after their execution by guillotine in 1793.

We’ll enjoy lunch at the Le Café Lapérouse in the Hotel de la Marine.

After, we’ll visit the Hôtel de la Marine, with its magnificent views and beautifully restored eighteenth-century interiors. As we overlook the Place de la Concorde, the site of the guillotine where Marie-Antoinette was executed in 1793, our discussion about the French Revolution will come to life!

Tonight, you’ll have a well-earned night off. Enjoy dinner at one of the many cafes and restaurants in the Marais or stroll over to the left bank.

This morning, we'll leave for Versailles, one of the greatest achievements in French 17th and 18th-century art. Louis XIII's old hunting pavilion was transformed and extended by his son, Louis XIV, when he installed the Court and government in 1682. A succession of kings continued to embellish the Palace up until the French Revolution. It's one of the most majestic, awe-inspiring palaces you'll ever see.

Susan, our expert on Marie-Antoinette and Versailles, will lead us through the public rooms of the king and queen.

We'll have lunch at Ore, one of Alain Ducasse's restaurants on the grounds of Versailles.

After lunch, we'll have a special visit to the queen's private apartments (You know who!) before checking in to our luxurious Trianon Palace Hotel, where we will have some free time to relax and enjoy the beautiful grounds.

This afternoon, we truly will feel like queens. We'll dress up in costumes the ladies in Marie-Antoinette's court would wear and take tea and pastries. Our photographer will be on hand to document the entire spectacle! Your Instagram accounts will never be the same!

This evening, we'll meet for dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, Le Veranda.

Today, we discover the gardens of Versailles. The gardens cover some 800 hectares of land, much of it landscaped in the classic French formal garden style perfected here by André Le Nôtre. You'll never complain about tending to your backyard garden again! We'll also visit the fantastic water show.

We will have a light lunch at the Flottille in the gardens.

After lunch, we'll visit the Petit Trianon, an elegant neo-classical building that the queen redecorated as her private residence. She was so intent on having a ‘private’ retreat she even built moving mirrored walls to prevent the curious from looking inside! We then stroll through her private English garden gardens to the Hameau, her pretend village, where they once performed comic operas.

We'll return to the hotel to rest and relax. This is a great time to book an optional spa treatment -  after all, Queens need pampering!

This final evening will feature an extraordinary dinner at Alain Ducasse’s restaurant in the Versailles Palace.

After a sumptuous and leisurely breakfast, we'll check-out and depart back to Paris. Arrangements can be made to get you to the airport or your hotel. You may want to fly home first class - coach is too much of a letdown for a queen.