The Salon de Compagnie

This salon was the liveliest room in the Petit Trianon — here Marie Antoinette herself played the harp and sang.

Court etiquette of the time dictated that whenever the queen entered a room, everyone present had to stop what they were doing, rise, and bow. In this room alone, Marie Antoinette ordered that no one do so when she came in. Musicians kept playing without pause, women kept sewing, and men kept at their billiards. It seems that here, if nowhere else, she wanted to set aside the role of queen and simply exist as herself.

By modern standards this might read as refreshingly down-to-earth, but conservative nobles of the day saw it very differently. Accustomed to having their own standing affirmed through the ritual of paying respects to the queen, they took its absence as a personal slight — or worse, as the queen undermining the very authority of the crown. What began as a comfortable informal custom ended up twisted into rumors of impropriety.