Behind the state rooms that tourists file through in their thousands, Versailles had an entirely different set of smaller, more personal spaces. The petits appartements du roi — the King's private apartments — were Louis XV's real living quarters: a suite of small, intimate rooms on the upper floors of the palace, decorated with extraordinary care in the latest 18th-century taste. This is where the king actually spent his time.
Louis XV retreated from the formal grandeur of the state rooms, which had been designed for Louis XIV's absolutist theatre rather than comfortable daily life. He created a series of small rooms — a private dining room, a study, a library, small salons — decorated with the light, subtle taste of the rococo: pale panelling, gilded mouldings, parquet floors, and clocks, watches, and mechanical curiosities everywhere (Louis XV was deeply interested in horology).
Access to the petits appartements requires a guided tour, which must be booked separately from the main palace ticket. The tours are worth it: these rooms give the most intimate portrait of royal life at Versailles, far more so than the state rooms, which were designed to impress ambassadors rather than accommodate a human being.