The Petit Trianon Fantasy

Marie Antoinette's retreat at the Petit Trianon was Rococo at its most extreme — an artificial village where the queen could play at being a peasant.

The Hameau de la Reine had a working farm, a dairy, and thatched cottages that looked rustic outside but hid luxurious interiors. Antoinette and her ladies dressed in plain muslin and straw hats, performing a fantasy of rural simplicity that cost more than a real village. This gap between aristocratic fantasy and popular reality turned lethal: pastoral playacting while France went hungry fed the rage that eventually sent her to the guillotine.