Exploring the Sites & Sets with 'Marie Antoinette's Production Designer

As the soap opera-like drama of Marie Antoinette’s second season plays out, you might not consciously take in all the details of the queen’s surroundings: the glittering chandeliers of Versailles’ grand halls; its imposing marble walls; the rich brocade upholstering of the royal thrones; the ornate furnishings. But rest assured, production designer Clovis Weil and his team paid attention, enveloping Antoinette and the other players in a fully realized world of sumptuous settings and gorgeous grounds. Weil graciously shared behind-the-scenes tidbits about filming locations, design concepts, and more.

Season 2 was filmed “never further away than 50km” from Paris, in and around the capital. Although Versailles is almost a character unto itself, filming directly at the famous castle proved difficult to arrange. They only had access on Mondays and therefore received minimal footage, as only a handful of days were spent on site.

“We shot in huge and famous castles like Versailles, Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte,” Weil told Telly Visions, “but also smaller castles or mansions, public or private, like Champs-sur-Marne, Balincourt, Crèvecoeur. We also shot some exteriors in the small town of Senlis.” Weil went on to say how difficult it is to shoot a period drama in Paris. “It is expensive, we usually can’t have many trucks around the set, we have very little time to dress and wrap the sets…”