Versailles shows Marie Antoinette's "country life"

VERSAILLES, France, June 27 (Reuters) A fake village, a grotto and a theatre where the queen herself performed.

Visitors to Versailles will be able to trace Queen Marie Antoinette's romantic vision of countryside life when her private retreat is finally opened to visitors on July 1.

The inauguration of ''Marie Antoinette's Estate'' comes amid a surge of interest in the queen sparked by the recent release of Sofia Coppola's film about the tragic royal who was beheaded in 1793 at the height of the French revolution.

Set in the vast Versailles park, the estate is centred around the Petit Trianon chateau which Louis XVI offered Marie Antoinette as a gift, and includes pavilions, gardens and buildings which were previously closed to tourists.

''This place carries the spirit of Marie Antoinette,'' said Christine Albanel, director of Versailles.

''Marie Antoinette struggled to follow court etiquette, with its very strict rules, in a company that she hadn't chosen herself.

Here, she chose herself, she chose her friends and her pastimes,'' Albanel said.

Marie Antoinette was brought to Versailles from her native Austria aged just 14 to marry the heir to the French throne and took theatre lessons to improve her French.

At the Petit Trianon, she decided to build her own theatre.

In the small gilt-clad auditorium hidden behind trees, the queen took to the stage with aristocratic friends, pretending to be maids and farmers and exchanging roles with the servants.

Inspired by romantic ideals, Marie-Antoinette had a village built in her park, with rustic exteriors featuring gardens and sheep and luxurious interiors.

''It might seem a bit artificial because everything was reconstructed but it was an attempt to find nature,'' said Pierre Arizzoli-Clementel, Versailles' general-director.

''It wasn't real life ... She didn't really know life in the country. It was a life sheltered from criticism,'' he said, standing near a grotto with a waterfall.

Versailles officials made no secret of the fact that they hoped Coppola's pop portrayal of a misunderstood queen would draw tourists to the parks.

''The images are magnificent, the costumes are superb. Maybe not for the French, but for Americans, Chinese or Japanese, it's a rediscovery,'' Arizzoli-Clementel said.

Reuters SY GC0907