Versailles, Invitation Privée

Doors to the Queen's Suite from the Queen's Guardroom

Bolt on Sofa Room door

Armchair designed for Marie Antoinette, 1770s

Lacquer puppy from Marie Antoinette's colleciton

Marie Antoinette's music room, the Gold Room, as redecorated in 1783

Carpet with French coat of arms, 1760s

Chair designed for Marie Antoinette for the Petit Trianon, 1787

Enfilade through State Apartments

The King's second anteroom, the Bull's-eye Room

Oval bull's-eye window

Service staircase in the Royal Theater, 1770

The Stags Court seen from the window of the King's dressing-cabinet

Informal bed for bathroom suite of Louis XVI, 1785

Insignia of Louis XIV, intertwined L-shapes, from a door panel

In 2011 the publisher Flammarion collaborated with Chateau de Versailles to produce A Book of intimate views, including parts of the palace seldom or never open to the public. Guillaume Picon wrote the text and Francis Hammond took the photographs. As coffee table books go, it would be hard to find a livelier one currently in print.