Axel von Fersen the Younger the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. In contrast to Versailles, the dress and manners at the Petit Trianon were simple and down-to-earth; her guests were personally invited and treated equally, as friends. However, the private festivities often caused jealousy among those who were excluded from them. In the 1770s, the American Revolutionary War began with the passage of the Intolerable acts, and the battles of Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill. von Fersen told Beaumont that in France "it is the fashion to rhapsodize over the Americans' rebelliousness against England". France had officially declared war against her "natural enemy"
Subsidiary structures of the Palace of Versailles dining table to be lowered to the kitchen level of the house, thus eliminating the need for servants in the dining room. At this time, the "jardins botaniques" were removed to Paris and the "Hameau de la reine" constructed in their stead. Regarded by opponents as a folly of Marie Antoinette, the Hameau was a model bucolic village and farm in which advances in agronomy and animal husbandry were practiced. Owing to the association with Marie Antoinette's perceived excesses—such as the construction of a theater where she and her friends acted to private audiences—the Petit Trianon and the Hameau were