The Grille Royale is the gilded iron gate that separates the Cour d'Honneur from the Place d'Armes. The original gate was built under Louis XIV but was melted down during the Revolution — along with most of the palace's gilded metalwork — for the metal. The current gate is a restoration completed in 2008, based on 18th-century drawings and surviving fragments, using traditional ironwork and gold leaf.
The gate is over 80 metres wide and stands 12 metres high. It cost €5 million to restore, funded partly by subscription from European companies and individuals — an unusual exercise in private fundraising for a state monument. On a sunny morning it is genuinely brilliant, the gold catching the light and announcing the palace approach in exactly the way it was designed to.
Walking through the gate into the Cour d'Honneur, the transformation from the public square outside to the royal forecourt is immediate and striking — the scale narrows, the buildings close in, and you understand that you are entering a space where every detail was calculated to impress and intimidate.