What it doesn’t look like, inside or out, is a home. (For that we need to look at the “guest house.” Better size, better day-to-day amenities, etc.) Sadly, the main house (if the floor plans are to be trusted) has abysmal kitchen and bath facilities, with but ONE bathtub in the entire place! All that marble, and only one bathtub… (O_o) Retrofitting anything inside such a pile of rock (maybe even structural masonry?) would not be easy or cheap.

Another oddity – the google streetview, with a 2014 copyright watermark, shows nasty looking weeds on the public sidewalks. Other lawns in the area are well kept, so I don’t think it’s the city dropping the ball. Also, the large amount of ivy on the facade seems dead. It’s obviously not winter in the pics so, again, what gives? If they can’t be bothered to mow the weeds, what else has fallen into (perhaps much more expensive) disrepair?

Not an easy place to live in, let alone feel at home in, and possibly not well kept. No thanks. I’ll wait to enjoy it for just a few hours (and just a few dollars) until it opens as a museum.

Q: “What is the meaning of the word ‘Trianon’?”
A: “It doesn’t really have a meaning, it is an actual name, though in either French or Spanish, “Trianon” suggests a special place with pleasant surroundings, beauty and balance.”
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_the_word_Trianon

According to the specialty site Tea at Trianon, The Trianon was a pre-existing tea house built by Louis XIV for his mistress, which was redecorated in the porcelain-clad style of a famous tea house reported on by some of the first official visitors to return from China. The idea caught on and soon everyone wanted one, even if they didn’t have the means. The Mercure Galant, the first periodical geared towards women’s interests, noted that even those much further down the social ladder (burghers) tried their hand. The MG article used the faddish term “Trianon” in jest to refer to these inferior attempts. It then became synonymous with “Hermitage” which in actuality referred to a rustic retreat used for contemplation, a la hermits. – http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2008/02/trianon-de-porcelaine.html

We still don’t have a derivation for the term, but we do now know why it may sometimes be used to label something different than that for which it was originally intended. But then again, The Hermitage in St. Petersburg ain’t too shabby itself.

On account of, if this is a little one, I wouldn’t want to be run over by a big one, ne cest pas. [<Ignorfrench for "No sirree."]