Versailles Complex To Include Luxury Hotel

If you've ever dreamed of staying at the Palace of Versailles you may soon get your chance. Not at the actual palace alas, but at the Hotel du Grand Controle, a smaller outbuilding that is the traditional home of the chateau's treasurers. The building will become a 23-bedroom luxury establishment with views out onto the Orangerie or the ornamental lake. The AFP reported that a concession has been granted to the Belgian company Ivy International SA. The company will renovate and develop the satellite building. The company is also working on a similar project in the Brittany area of France.

The building was built in the 1680s by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart and served as an officers' mess until 2006. Reports say that the venerable building isn't in the best shape. Ivy will pay for the renovations which are estimated to cost $7.3 million and the company will pay Versailles an annual fee to lease the building. The move is part of a new way that France is looking at its treasures, finding ways to get them to generate enough money to pay for their upkeep. The new hotel is expected to open at the end of 2011.