Versailles, outside Paris, France, is one of the most famous palaces on Earth. What was the life of nobility like at court?
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00:00Pomp and splendor, but no toilets.
00:05Or were there?
00:06Walls with secret doors and many mistresses.
00:09Here's what you might not have known about the Palace of Versailles,
00:12the most famous place in France.
00:16Here are three secrets about the residence of the so-called Sun King, Louis XIV.
00:25Versailles Palace is located around 20 kilometers southwest of Paris.
00:29Every year, several million visitors come from all over the world to see this palace.
00:33But today, it's closed to the public, so we have it almost all to ourselves.
00:40Our first expert is Flavie Leroux.
00:43She tells us that, in addition to the famous kings, mistresses also played an important role at court.
00:49One of the most famous was Madame du Barry, the mistress of King Louis XV.
00:53She resided in these luxurious chambers in the palace and even had a bathroom with hot water, a luxury at the time.
01:01Her apartment was furnished with precious porcelain and sumptuous furniture.
01:05It was large, almost 350 square meters.
01:09She lived in this apartment for almost four years.
01:12The apartment was exceptional because of its size, location in the palace and its furnishings,
01:17as you can see from the magnificent golden decorations.
01:21Time for secret number one.
01:24Now I'll show you one of the secrets of this apartment.
01:28In this bedroom, this door in the wall leads directly to one of the king's private rooms, the library.
01:37It could be accessed through this small staircase.
01:44Our next expert awaits us here.
01:47Hello, I'm Mathieu Davignan, director of the Versailles Research Center.
01:52Our second secret is related to a basic human need.
01:55After all, even the most distinguished members of society must relieve themselves.
02:00But toilets as we know them today didn't exist in the 18th century.
02:07It is often said that there was a lack of hygiene in Versailles, but that was not the case.
02:12Here we have the king's real bidet, and you can see how the system works with the ceramic.
02:21This is really something special.
02:24You can also see that the ceramic inside the king's bidet has been beautifully crafted.
02:35Under King Louis XVI, there was even a toilet in the palace.
02:41This is a water closet system invented by the English in the late 1720s.
02:46This one is a reconstruction, but it's exactly what it looked like.
02:50The only thing missing is the flush, which wasn't reconstructed.
02:54This toilet flushed waste water directly into the underground sewage system.
02:58And on both sides of it, there were small compartments holding absorbent cotton, which you could use to wipe your bottom.
03:07Now it's time for secret number three.
03:10In addition to literature, Louis XVI had another passion, chemistry.
03:14He liked to carry out experiments in a small, hidden room that only his closest confidants knew about.
03:23We're here in the chemistry laboratory of Louis XVI, which was inaugurated in 1780.
03:29It's one of the many small scientific rooms around the marble courtyard.
03:33It's the reason why the floor is tiled.
03:37Previously, this room had a parquet floor like the others, but because chemicals were involved,
03:42it could have been dangerous when liquid substances splashed onto the floor.
03:47You can see that the ceiling is quite high, and there's a hole above the window in case chemical reactions occurred.
03:57There's also a kind of stove in the fireplace for experimenting.
04:06The Palace of Versailles certainly holds many secrets waiting to be revealed, but one thing is certain.
04:12A visit to this gem is sure to be a highlight of any trip to France.