In 1687 Jules Hardouin Mansart built the Grand Trianon, probably the most refined group of buildings anywhere in the domain of Versailles, on the site of the “Porcelain Trianon”, which Louis XIV had erected in 1670 to escape the pomp and rigid formality of court life with his mistress Madame de Montespan. The Grand Trianon
summer 2012.