This Tuesday in Paris, we’re heading to the ballet. But I’m not taking you to just any old ballet, in just any old venue. I am taking you to the Marie-Antoinette ballet at THE opera house in Versailles Palace. The very same opera house where THE Marie Antoinette attended ballets.
The performance takes place after normal visiting hours.
First staged in 2019, this ballet chronicles the life of the infamous last Queen of France.
Watching her life events unfold in the same rooms where they took place is an immersive and transporting experience. Not to mention, totally surreal.
Apparently, Marie Antoinette met her lover for the first time during an opera performance at Versailles. I’m sure she never, in her wildest dreams, imagined that such an intimate moment would be dramatized on its very stage 235 years later.
After you wrap your head around that, you’ll have to contend with the sensory overload that comes with attending a ballet in Paris. The sheer beauty is almost overwhelming. At least, it is to me. The dancing is breathtaking. The costumes are exquisite and, well, French. (The dancer who portrays Madame de Pompadour, King Loiuse XV’s famous mistress, wears a crimson dress with her naked breast exposed. So French!) And the setting is King-Louise opulent. In other words, it is dripping in gold and ornamentation.
Inaugurated in 1770 for the wedding banquet of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, this magnificent space was only used 40 times before the Revolution.
Since then, the Royal Opera has seen a lot, but not many performances.
Napoleon III occasionally used the room to entertain, such as hosting a banquet for Queen Victoria in 1855. However, after the fall of the Second Empire, the National Assembly used the grand space for government meetings. But by the end of World War II, the opera house was nearly in ruins. Thankfully, it was restored and, once again, inaugurated in 1957. (in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, no less)
Nowadays, it is open to the public for special performances. However, please note that you may not visit the opera house during a tour of the Palace. If you want to see this part of the Chateau, you’ll have to attend an opera or a ballet.
Likewise, if you’d like to see the Royal Chapel, you’ll have to attend a concert.
(or peek in as you walk past it on your way to the opera house -as I did)
And if you’d like to experience this specific mind-blowing event firsthand, make plans. Because the Marie Antoinette Ballet will be staged at the Versailles Royal Opera again next summer: July 9-12, 2026.
See you there?
