Tea at Trianon: An Iris from Trianon

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, August 31, 2013

An Iris from Trianon

From the gardens of Marie-Antoinette. To quote:

Things people think about when they hear the former Queen of France’s name include eating cake, Sofia Coppola films, and guillotines. One thing that doesn’t automatically come to mind, for some reason or another, is Marie Antoinette’s appreciation for exquisite gardens. A shame, because after taking over the residence of Madame de Pompadour (yes, the inspiration for the famous haircut) in 1774, the famous Petit Trianon, she transformed the grounds into an enchanted landscape with few comparisons.

Sadly, you don’t get the actual experience of seeing and smelling the Madonna Lilies or picking strawberries in the Queen’s Hamlet by flipping through Marie-Antoinette’s Garden (Flammarion/Rizzoli), but through the impressively researched book by Elisabeth de Feydeau, we get an idea of how the grounds were laid out, and some of the plants and flowers the Queen saw on a daily basis, thanks in part to illustrations of the herbarium by botanist and painter for Marie Antoinette’s cabinet, Pierre-Joseph Redouté. (Read more.)