The palace and beyond English version Dernier achevé d'imprimé : juillet 2023.A royal lookout in the heart of the city, a fireproof ministry, a garden built as an Anglo-Chinese folly, peculiar paving stones in front of the Palace entrance, hidden passageways and staircases, an amazing Room of Beauties,' an old wall in the roof space above the Hall of Mirrors, courtiers at the corners of a ceiling, the workshop of an ironworking king, a kennel in an antechamber, an eighteenth-century clock programmed to work until 9999, the desk which ended a world war, a giant underground water tank, a farm on the royal grounds, sleighs for sliding along the frozen Grand Canal, enigmatic female sphinxes... the curiosities and secrets of Versailles still have surprises in storeArt historian Nicolas Jacquet is an expert on architectural history. He is the author of Façades lyonnaises' (Éditions Les Beaux Jours, 2008).