A watercolour and bodycolour drawing of carriages and horses arriving at the Maison du Seigneur in the grounds of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. In the centre, in front of the house, the Queen seated in a carriage with the Empress, and many other figures. The band can be seen playing on the left. A pond with swans and boatmen on the right. Signed and dated at lower left: KARL GIRARDET 1855.

In August 1855 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert spent ten days in Paris, on the invitation of Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie. The historic state visit was intended to celebrate the military alliance between Britain and France in the Crimean War, and followed a visit by the imperial couple to Windsor in April that year. The party stayed at the château of Saint-Cloud, to the west of Paris, which was later destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War. On 21 August they visited Versailles, lunching in the grounds of the Maison du Seigneur at the Petit Trianon, one of a rustic suite of Norman-style cottages erected in the gardens by Marie-Antoinette between 1783 and 1787. Queen Victoria described in her Journal listening to the Bande des Guides.

Karl Girardet, who exhibited at the Salon, made an oil sketch for the watercolour that is now in the collection at Versailles.