Q 01/05

Roughly how far from Paris does the Palace of Versailles stand?

A) About 5 km

B) About 16 km

C) About 50 km

D) About 150 km

Answer · why

B) About 16 km

About 16 km: near enough for a crowd from Paris to march out in a day in October 1789 and escort the royal family back to the capital the next afterno...

Q 02/05

Decades before Louis XIV's palace, which king built the original hunting lodge at Versailles?

A) Henry IV

B) Louis XIII

C) Louis IX

D) Francis I

Answer · why

B) Louis XIII

Louis XIII hunted there so often that he probably wanted a base of his own, rather than riding back to Saint-Germain at night or sleeping at the area'...

Q 03/05

Which uprising of Louis XIV's childhood is often linked to his later move to Versailles?

A) The Jacquerie

B) The Fronde

C) The Camisard revolt

D) The Vendée uprising

Answer · why

B) The Fronde

The Fronde left the boy king feeling humiliated by the great nobles and unsafe in his own capital; in 1682 he settled court and government at Versaill...

Q 04/05

The 1973 'Battle of Versailles' at the palace matched French and American stars in which field?

A) Fashion

B) Cooking

C) Ballet

D) Painting

Answer · why

A) Fashion

Fashion: the gala raised money to restore the palace, with five Paris couturiers and five American designers on one bill, and Liza Minnelli opened the...

Q 05/05

Whose lavish 1661 fête at Vaux-le-Vicomte dazzled Louis XIV, weeks before the king had him arrested?

A) Nicolas Fouquet

B) Jean-Baptiste Colbert

C) Cardinal Richelieu

D) Cardinal Mazarin

Answer · why

A) Nicolas Fouquet

Nicolas Fouquet was already being undermined by his rival Colbert before the party; arrested that September, he spent the rest of his life in prison w...