HOTEL DE POLICE

"Police Headquarters" is an elegant term for the main police station of Versailles. The expression seems even more overrated when you know a little about the history of the premises on Avenue de Paris. The beautiful Jeanne du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, stayed a few numbers away in a pretty mansion with sumptuous gardens. The Police Headquarters was located in Madame du Barry's crew hotel, a beautiful imposing Italian-style building built on the Mautbauron hill by the Marne contractor for the first valet of the Dauphin. In 1775, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, at the request of the favourite, added a wing for the stables overlooking the Avenue de Paris! Poor Madame du Barry was guillotined in 1793.... The fact remains that the judicial police settled there in 1970. While police stations rarely rhyme with good news or lightness, it is not every day that one can file a complaint in a 17th century building where the echoes of the favourite's crews still resonate!