There’s no better place to sleep like a king than at the Palace of Versailles, and now travelers might just get their chance.
NPR reports that a building at the cherished cultural landmark, home to the French monarchy since Louis XIV, will soon be turned into a five-star luxury hotel. The luxury hotel will stand about one hundred yards from the main palace.
“Known as the Hotel du Grand Controle, the mansion was built in the 1680s to serve as the offices and home of the king’s treasurer, where he lived with his family and servants. The Hotel du Grand Control was evacuated, along with the rest of Versailles, during the French Revolution. In the 19th and 20th centuries it fell into further disrepair,” Mikael Hautchamp, deputy administrator for the Palace of Versailles, told NPR. The story goes on to say that Versailles turned toBelgian hotel company Ivy International to fund and renovate the mansion into a 23-bedroom luxury hotel.
While there’s certainly some concern about turning a treasured monument into a hotel, opening a luxury hotel in Versailles would give travelers with a passion for history a chance to ‘live’ at Versailles, if only briefly.
The hotel, which will be called Hotel de l’Orangerie, is slated to open in January 2012. Rumor has it when the hotel officially opens, guests will be given champagne and access to stroll the famous gardens of Versailles, which haven’t been strolled in some 300 years.
[For the full story, read the NPR article]