Tea at Trianon: Paris in Winter

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, December 11, 2010

Paris in Winter

My first trip to Paris was in the middle of winter, and so I was glad to see the post by Madame Delors, as well as an article in the Mail Online. To quote the Mail:

We peddle down the Champs Elysees and around the Place de la Concorde, where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed during the French Revolution, and, with a swing left, are on the Pont des Invaldides - and rewarded with a superb view of the Eiffel Tower bathed in wintry sunshine.

You never really need an excuse to be in Paris but we are here ostensibly because Paris is celebrating the life of one of its most famous sons, Claude Monet, father of the Impressionist movement. The exhibition at the Grand Palais is the most important Monet show for more than 30 years. The organisers have collected some 200 of his paintings from galleries around the world. They are hung along thematic and chronological lines, following a career spanning 60 years.

Thanks to Eurostar, getting to Paris could not be easier. But hurry. You’ve got until January 24th next year to catch Monet at his comprehensive best.