Tea at Trianon: The King's Passage

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

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The King's Passage

Here is the private hallway at Versailles used by Louis XVI when visiting Marie-Antoinette's bedchamber. The Dauphin's room can be seen to the right. As soon as the royal couple were moved to the Tuileries they had another private passage built, connecting their apartments. The Queen fled down this passage the night of October 5-6 when the mob was trying to kill her. Share

4 comments:

The North Coast said...: Too bad that this passage has been so remorselessly clean-walled and modernized, that we can have no idea what it really looked like from this photo. I appreciate that this was all done to make the palace more tourist-friendly and easy-to-maintain, and maybe letting visitors view the historic rooms through glass is better than having them tramp through them, but I hope this was not done to too many spaces in Versailles.; July 9, 2013 at 6:16:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: From what I have seen, they really do try to restore everything at Versailles to exactly how it was. Other than the electric lights, I don't think it is too modernized. The windows were already there, I'm pretty sure, to add natural light to the passage.; July 9, 2013 at 8:18:00 AM EDT
ImportanttoMadeleine said...: I've stood in Marie Antoinette's bedchamber and gazed through the door leading to this hallway many times, wishing I could go through it. That doorway is, to me, one of Versailles' most compelling places. I've been fortunate enough to have a private tour through rooms in the Petit Trianon and Versailles
that aren't open to the public and have even stood on the stage in Marie Antoinette's private theatre, but my dream is to stand in this hallway and try to absorb the aura. Maybe next visit. Thanks for posting the picture.; July 9, 2013 at 10:07:00 AM EDT
May said...: I love all the tidbits you post about Louis and Antoinette!; July 9, 2013 at 1:05:00 PM EDT