Tucked away in the gardens of the Versailles, just 12 miles outside of Paris, is The Hameau de la Reine or The Queen’s Hamlet.

Most people associate Marie Antoinette with angering the French Revolutionaries with the saying of “Let them eat cake,” but that phrase was actually noted to have been uttered, before she even arrived in France, supposedly by Marie-Therese, the Spanish princess who married King Louis XIV in 1660 and also by two aunts of Louis XVI.

No, one thing that angered them greatly was that they were starving and she was spending lavishly on building a little peasant village within the palace gardens. Due to her uninhibited spending, she was nicknamed Madame Deficit by the people.

Rumors made they’re way around that she and her ladies maids would “dress up as peasants and pretended to be milkmaids and shepherdesses.” It was also rumored that she had numerous affairs with various counts and nobles there.

It is said that she defended the hamlet as a place for her to escape the demands of court life and a place that her children could learn what life outside of the palace was like. Part of the hamlet did include 2 dairies and a working farm.

I have walked through some the beautiful gardens of Versailles and had I known this little gem was there, I would have spent a day just sitting, watching and wishing the walls of buildings could whisper the truth of Marie Antoinette and her time there.