Subsidiary structures of the Palace of Versailles revetment—tiles would fracture and detach from the surface of the buildings due to the cold weather. In 1687, the Trianon de Porcelaine was destroyed; but, as the location of favored by Louis XIV, the Grand Trianon was built on the same site. It has been said that Louis XIV built Versailles for his court, Trianon for his family, and Marly for his friends—and the Grand Trianon did serve the Sun King and his family. Built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the Grand Trianon is unabashedly one of his greatest works. Constructed of pink Languedoc marble between 1687-1689 in an Italianate-style, this two-story
Palace of Versailles the Queen and her friends to amuse themselves by playing peasants, and included a farmhouse with a dairy, a mill, a boudoir, a pigeon loft, a tower in the form of a lighthouse from which one could fish in the pond, a belvedere, a cascade and grotto, and a luxuriously furnished cottage with a billiard room for the Queen. The palace still serves political functions. Heads of state are regaled in the Hall of Mirrors; the bicameral French Parliament—consisting of the Senate ("Sénat") and the National Assembly ("Assemblée nationale")—meet in joint session (a congress of the French Parliament) in Versailles