Tea at Trianon: Salon of the Grand Couvert

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Salon of the Grand Couvert

Where the Royal Family dined in public. To quote Madame Delors:

The Salon of the Grand Couvert is part of the Queen’s Grand Apartment. Couvert means place setting in French, and this is the room where the royal couple took its formal dinners. The King and Queen sat on armchairs, facing the audience. Duchesses had the privilege of sitting on a row of stools arranged in a semi-circle a few feet in front of the table. Further away stood the rest of the courtiers and the public, for anyone decently dressed was admitted to the palace.

lara77 said...: I saw photos recently of the restoration of the Queen's Grand Couvert. It is simply beautiful;though much of the original decor and furnishings are gone the curators still give you a splendid ensemble. I was amazed that the Louvre owns the King George III silver service. I would have thought that was part of the Queen's Royal Collection. The monarchs eating in public just proved how the French Monarchy "belonged" to the people. I personally would have agreed with Queen Marie Antoinette. THAT was a true invasion of privacy.; November 21, 2010 at 9:17:00 AM EST