At the Pleasure of Marie-Antoinette and Joséphine Bonaparte.
Queen Marie-Antoinette and Josephine Bonaparte were exceptional garden patrons. Picturesque Voyages Founder and Tour Guide Susan Taylor-Leduc, an art historian whose scholarly career has been dedicated to the queen and empress, designed these tours to share her knowledge of their fascinating careers and unpredictable destinies.
Then & Now: Each tour begins with an iBook presentation of images selected from historical archives, providing a comparative context for viewing Paris today. After the tour, you can add your own photos to create a personal souvenir of your Picturesque Voyage.
Picturesque Voyages Tours Adhere to Recommended Health and Safety Guidelines
- All tour participants are required to wear masks. Masks can be provided upon request.
- Tours are limited to 6 persons. Family groups may be larger.
- All garden and walking tours maintain social distancing standards.
Contact us to plan a personalized itinerary for a most memorable, life-long learning experience.
Marie-Antoinette at Versailles
Half-Day Tour: Grand and Petit Trianon and Gardens (150€ per person, entrance fee included, private transportation recommended)
We have designed a special Marie-Antoinette tour entirely dedicated to the queen’s gardens at Versailles. Our tour begins at the Grand Trianon, the summer retreat three kilometers from the chateau, and then moves to the Petit Trianon, where will see how the queen redecorated her villa, developed her English garden, and then created her own village and private hamlet, learning how the queen’s gardens became the most enchanting and misunderstood sites in French history.
Please note, there is limited access to the interiors of the Hameau and reservations must be booked at least three months in advance. Please let us know us if you would like to include a visit to the interiors as part of your tour so we can arrange the reservation.
Joséphine Bonaparte at Malmaison
3-Hour Garden and Museum Tour (150€ per person, entrance fee included, private transportation recommended)
Located 12 kilometers outside Paris, Malmaison was bought by the Empress Joséphine who transformed the grounds into a flourishing English-style garden. The house museum provides a glimpse into the private life of Napoléon and Joséphine, whose passionate love affair, marriage, and divorce captivated contemporaries. Joséphine found solace and amusement at Malmaison, where she dedicated herself to her garden and natural history (she raised black swans and kangaroos on the estate), and passionately pursued floriculture. Over 200 plants were acclimated to France for the first time at Malmaison, including purple magnolia, tree peony, hibiscus, camellias, and dahlias. She also collected more than 250 varieties of roses. Some of these varieties continue to bloom in the gardens.
Bagatelle: A Wager with the Queen
3-Hour Garden Tour (120€ per person, entrance fee included)
The gardens at Bagatelle were born from a gambling wager: the Comte d’Artois bet his sister-in-law, Queen Marie-Antoinette, that he could build a pleasure pavilion and gardens in less than three months’ time. Hiring over 800 masons, builders, and gardeners, he won the bet, offering a surprise party to the queen. She discovered the sumptuous pavilion and gardens ironically inscribed with the motto “small, but suitable.” The gardens include formal parterres and an extensive English-style garden. The gardens were expanded in the 20th century by Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier, who planted an extensive rose garden.
One of the four botanic gardens of the city of Paris, Bagatelle has an exceptional collection of trees and flowers. Rare irises and roses bloom in late May and June.
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