The Palace of Versailles hosted the Montgolfier brothers’ first balloon flight carrying animals.
On 19 September 1783, a Montgolfier balloon lifted a sheep, a duck, and a rooster from the palace grounds. The demonstration was arranged before King Louis XVI and members of the French court. Its purpose was to investigate whether living passengers could endure the conditions of balloon flight.
The animals survived, and the result encouraged the next stage of development: carrying people. Versailles was therefore the setting for the first celebrated animal flight, rather than the first public demonstration overall.
The earlier public launch took place at Annonay, while the first free human ascent occurred in Paris in November 1783. These three locations are frequently confused because they all belong to the same rapid sequence of early ballooning milestones.