Menus-Plaisirs du Roi

The Menus-Plaisirs du Roi (French pronunciation: [məny pleziʁ dy ʁwa]) was, in the organisation of the French royal household under the Ancien Régime, the department of the Maison du Roi responsible for the "lesser pleasures of the King", which meant in practice that it was in charge of all the preparations for ceremonies, events and festivities, down to the last detail of design and order.

[2] But Louis-Marie-Augustin, duc d'Aumont (1709–82), appointed premier gentilhomme de la chambre in 1723, a position he held until the king's death in 1774, was a noted connoisseur of objets d'art and the arts of life, though not, apparently, of paintings.

[4] For most of the reign of Louis XVI, the intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi was Papillon de la Ferté, whose journal (published in 1887) throws a great deal of light on the organization of court ceremony.

Architects like Leonardo, Giulio Romano and Inigo Jones were engaged in projects that were of great moment in expressing the prestige of the court, but which have left little behind, except designs and some commemorative engravings, produced under the supervision of the Cabinet du Roi.

[6] The architect Charles-Nicolas Cochin worked for several years for the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, 1735–51, making detailed renderings for the engravers of architectural designs by the Slodtz brothers.

In the later reign of Louis XIV, the architect in charge of the Bâtiments was Jules Hardouin-Mansart, but the wholly independent artistic force at the menus-plaisirs until his death in 1711 was Jean Bérain, whose brevet in 1674 covered his responsibilities "for all sorts of designs, perspectives, figures and costumes that it would be required to make for plays, ballets, chases at the ring, carousels..."[8] The purview of the Menus-Plaisirs did not normally extend to furniture, but among its expenses in 1692 were "the furniture and the silversmiths' work for the apartments of the King".

The appointment of the neo-classical architect-designer Michel-Ange Challe in 1764 marked a turning point: through his designs for the Menus-Plaisirs, neoclassicism was introduced at the French court.

After his death, the structure was enlarged and converted into a site for spectacles and concerts, taking its new name, and served to house members of the imperial family: here the future Peter the Great received his elementary education.