These wooden floors were originally conceived as a practical solution to the expensive and high-maintenance marble and stone flooring used in country estate homes, which often caused long-term damage to the underlying timber framework. Initially, triangular parquet tiles were glued to concrete and hand-scraped before finishing. Later innovations introduced long planks with tongue and groove systems, enabling intricate woodworking and elevating parquet flooring to an extravagant and sophisticated level of design. By the 1600s, parquet flooring had become synonymous with elegance, gracing manor houses, palaces, public buildings, schools, and factories across France. It wasn’t until the 1680s, during the reign of Louis XIV, the King of France, that parquet designs reached their zenith. Exceptional parquet designs, particularly the “parquet de Versailles” pattern found in rooms at the Palace of Versailles, catapulted this prestigious flooring style into a European trend. The grandeur of Louis XIV’s residence, which underwent extensive expansion and renovation spanning two decades, originally featured marble floors. However, in the 1670s, issues arose as the marble floors in the King’s Grand Apartment began to leak and rot the joists. In response, Louis XIV made the decision to replace much of the marble with the parquet de Versailles. This choice was undoubtedly influenced by the flooring’s aesthetics, durability, and geometric sophistication. Architect Nicodemis Tessin noted, upon the completion of construction in 1693, that “In Trianon, parquetry is quite like paneling. There’s one single room in Versailles which parquet is not by squares; the entire rest is diamond-shaped in the new style.” Louis XIV’s craftsmen introduced a distinctive pattern for the Versailles floors, featuring large squares of parquetry laid diagonally with interlaced diagonal squares within. This pattern, recognized as Parquet de Versailles, is most often crafted from plain oak. The popularity of parquet extended across France, with aristocrats incorporating various parquetry patterns into their chateaux, including Chantilly, Aremberg, herringbone, marquetry, and mosaic parquets. Parquet floors remained in vogue, serving as a superior alternative to marble for several centuries. However, in the 1930s, they experienced a decline in popularity as carpeting gained favor among contemporary European homeowners. Many parquet floors remained concealed beneath carpets until the 1980s when these architectural timber masterpieces were rediscovered, restored to their original splendor, and once again celebrated as vintage, timeless treasures.