Alain Ducasse To Open Restaurant At Versailles
France is already home to some of the world's highest-end restaurants, and it could soon be getting its poshest operation yet, because guests will get to dine like Marie Antoinette when Alain Ducasse is opens a restaurant at Versailles.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the board of directors of the Versailles Château voted to rent some of the castle's buildings to become a high-end boutique hotel and an haute cuisine restaurant helmed by chef Alain Ducasse.
The building in question is known as the Grand Contrôle compound, which is on the left of the main palace building and overlooks the orange gardens. It once housed the French Finance Ministry under Louis XVI, but now is reportedly in very poor condition and not much remains inside that is leftover from its glory days.
French hotel group Lov Hotel Collection will reportedly invest $28.5 million to restore and renovate the buildings, and will then run an ultra high-end boutique hotel with 20 rooms, a spa, and an underground swimming pool on the grounds of Versailles. They'll pay the palace rent of one million euros a year. The hotel and restaurant could be open in 2018.