ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 provides data collected through the hermeneutical analysis (Mugerauer 1995) of the architectural and heritage narratives of the Petit Trianon contained in its contemporary heritage interpretation since the 2008 restoration. The chapter focuses, in parallel, on the principles guiding the heritage interpretation of the site as well as various issues connected to the heritage industry and its links with tourism. Furthermore, through an analysis of the extensive 2008 restoration, which marked a significant shift in how the site was interpreted, as well as its perception by the visiting public, the chapter elucidates two major issues from a heritage interpretation perspective: how dissonant heritage was handled by those in charge of the interpretation of the Petit Trianon, and where this restoration has placed it within the range of sites – theoretically analysed in Chapter 2 – which span 360 degrees of heritage authenticity aimed at tourist consumption. Within the analysis, this chapter coins the term ‘alchemical dissonant heritage’, which not only refers to fitting a piece of counter-memory into the official national discourse, but moreover, through an alchemical process, renders the heritage commodification of Marie Antoinette a highly lucrative commercial proposition.
