If hospitality, the business of tourism, is the creation and maintenance of the fantasy that you are somewhere else, somewhere different, somewhere special, then the Airelles Le Grand Contròle in the Chateau de Versailles is doing its job well. The hotel, set within Louis XIV’s Royal palace outside Paris, takes the reflection of its own history seriously. Erected in 1681 by the king’s favorite architect, Mansart, it was the home of the court’s general finance controller; its last occupant before the French Revolution was Louis XVI’s treasury secretary Jacques Necker. In 2021, it was restored and reopened as the only hotel on the palace grounds, with a mere 14 rooms and suites and an Alan Ducasse restaurant in what was once Necker’s office.
But the play’s the thing here. Outside the hotel gate, costumed footmen greet guests, and every staffer is similarly outfitted. Guests can don costumes, too, and period hair and makeup if they wish, all the better to play princes and princesses on the sumptuous premises, which boast 18th Century furniture, candle-lit rooms at night, butlers, copious gold leaf, a jardin created by the palace’s head gardener, and door-scratching servants in place of wakeup calls. “We have 2,600 rooms, boats on the grand canal,” says Dominique Jego, the hotel’s guest ambassador, who used to worked at The Ritz. “It’s important for our guests to live in the times, except with proper bathrooms.”
The King’s bedroom at Versailles.
From horses to helicopters, the place actually provides it all. But the best amenity may be the daily private after-hours tours of the palace, reached via a special gate and grand stair beside the orangerie. Depending on the day, small groups of guests get to visit the King’s, Queen’s or Dauphine and Madame’s apartments with private multi-lingual guides—and best of all, no one else; they get the palace, which accommodates up to 15,000 visitors a day, all to themselves.
Though 15 people can take the tour, Mirella, our guide said our group of six was especially small. We felt even luckier as we passed from the state reception rooms into Mansart’s famed Hall of Mirrors—it bears repeating, alone!—and a ray of sun made the vast room sparkle. No matter that Mirella said it happens every evening, as if by order of the Sun King himself.
The reception desk.
“Imagine the silver throne at the end with Louis seated there,” she continued, pausing a beat before adding that imagination is required as “he melted it down in 1689 to finance a war. We had to wait for Louis XV to create a gilded wooden one.” She looked up. “The ceiling? We could spend hours. We could spend hours in the gardens.” In fact, we would spend an hour and half in the king’s seven private rooms before Mirella subtly checked her watch and nudged us out big doors that were promptly locked by the genial guard who’d accompanied us. It’s good to be the king, even if only for one stay.
Le Grand Contròle, 2 rue de l’Indépendance Américaine, 78000 Versailles, France. Rooms from €2,000.
