On a wooded plateau west of Paris, Versailles turns open farmland and former hunting grounds into a stage-set town. Louis XIII built a lodge here in 1623–24; after 1661 Louis XIV rebuilt it into a palace and, in 1682, drew the court and ministries to this new centre of absolutist administration. In 1789 the Estates-General met nearby and the Tennis Court Oath signalled the break with monarchy; the Hall of Mirrors later framed the 1871 German proclamation and the Treaty of 28 June 1919, binding Versailles to Europe’s state system.

Today Versailles is a commune and the prefecture of Yvelines within Île-de-France, with the château a national museum and UNESCO World Heritage site. The city’s economy mixes public-sector jobs, education and commuter services with heritage work that keeps court art, garden craft and ceremonial architecture in daily use; the French Parliament still meets here in Congress for constitutional sessions. A middle-class, largely francophone population lives between regimented avenues and the market halls, where Île-de-France produce, Brie and butter-rich pastries keep local taste tied to the surrounding plain.