The Palace of Versailles, symbol of the French monarchy grandeur, is for the last hundred and fifty years a center of representation of the Republic. From Adolphe Thiers, pushed by the Paris Commune to settle in the royal city, to Francois Hollande, who keeps the flag of Lantern for presidential use, the actors of the French republican life, presidents, ministers, parliamentarians, visiting heads of state, helped to write the contemporary history of the area. Until 1953, the former royal welcomes the presidential elections in the great hall of the Congress and, from 1958, Parliament it meets to review the Constitution.

Crowned heads and heads of the most illustrious foreign state are invited to attend concerts at the Royal Opera, dine in the Hall of Mirrors to stay in the sumptuous apartments of the Grand Trianon. De Gaulle, who received the Kennedy in 1961, Mitterrand chose the castle for the G7 summit in 1982. But the estate of Versailles is also the favorite refuge of policies that we consider Giscard d'Estaing is organizing its fifty years family or Nicolas Sarkozy reserving the pleasures of the Lantern.

Two centuries after the fall of the monarchy, Versailles continues to be the theater of power, the Republic and its secrets.

Author : Fabien Oppermann
Editor : Fayard

ISBN : 9782213681269
Number of pages : 308
Date de publication: 2015
Dimensions : 13,5 x 21,5 cm 
Language : french