Our “Versailles Imagined” experience in a luxury hotel
Since 2019, we have been developing our universe “Versailles Imagined”. We give you the opportunity to join the Court of Marie Antoinette to fully experience a vibrant period of French History.
After COVID, we were forced to change our goals, our ways of working, our distribution channels. Versailles Imagined went online for a while with our services “The Young Ladies of Versailles online”. We took this uncertain time to develop our business skills and build a community as well as a solid professional network. One person in this network is Philippe Hertzberg of Secret Journeys. He became a valuable partner: it is especially thanks to him that we were finally able to find an exceptional venue to offer experiences from this historical universe.
This magical place is a luxury hotel in Versailles that offers diverse and varied experiences around the location and its Château, but they had not yet created experiences with actors to portray historical characters. Philippe proposed our services to them and they were interested, and they had us do a “test experience” to understand the nature of our services. They are committed to impeccable quality for their high-end clientele, something we fully adhere to.
We therefore mobilized to do the “audition” at the hotel by giving them two examples of possible experiences: Having Tea with Marie Antoinette and the Duchess of Polignac followed by The Game of the Goose with Marie Antoinette.
Elena had taken beautiful fresh flowers from her garden to place in the actresses' hairstyles and she brought the costumes, props and wigs. She also prepared to play the Duchess of Polignac.
Frances, straight from Pau, helped ensure the smooth running of the event: both in discussing with Philippe and in establishing solid business relations with the hotel’s team and potential collaborators. Maddy had created a beautiful custom prototype of our Game of the Goose and helped the actresses prepare. She played the role of conductor both by providing all the necessary historical information to the actresses and explaining the flow of the experience.
Philippe was responsible for bringing gifts to offer participants at the end of the experience. Rachel Calvo, one of our favorite photographers with whom we regularly collaborate, took photos of the event for (potential) promotion.
Jolene, our exceptional makeup artist and hairdresser, used her talent to prepare, makeup and beautify the actresses, while taking to heart her role as a “test client”. Indeed, she also had to play a client, because despite the participation of the hotel team, we wanted a trusted person to help make the experience lively and interesting, especially if other participants were shy. Victoria and Pauline, our two Marie Antoinettes, prepared well to play the queen with much charm and authenticity.
We were ready!
We went through the hotel under the enchanted gazes of tourists and employees to arrive at a terrace where “the clients” awaited us with rose tea. The Duchess (Elena) arrived first to explain to them how to behave with the queen. Then, she gave them their noble identities and introduced Marie Antoinette to the guests (Victoria). While having tea, they chatted, posed and answered questions, and the fun was had. The Queen finally took her leave and the Duchess led the participants to another room, where they were able to play the Game of the Goose with Marie Antoinette (Pauline) who told them stories about her life throughout the game.
The director and his accomplices were delighted and immediately expressed their desire to collaborate with us. Our whole team was over the moon!