Tea at Trianon: A Day at Château de Fontainebleau

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, March 12, 2016

A Day at Château de Fontainebleau

A book review from Anna Gibson:

A Day at the Château de Fontainebleau is a fascinating illustrated guide to the château de Fontainebleau, one of the most well-preserved, historically rich châteaus in the whole of France. It boasts more than 1,500 rooms and currently welcomes more than 500,000 visitors every year; visitors can enjoy not only the rich historical rooms of the château but its expansive and elegant gardens as well.

Fontainebleau is more than just a lavish palace: it is a historical site which Napoleon himself once described Fontainebleau as having "the shape and color of time." His poetic description is apt: eight centuries of history have passed through these highly decorative walls, which have housed everything from Renaissance kings to political prisoners to emperors and so much more. The early history of the palace is somewhat unclear, but during the reign of Francois I, the palace was transformed from just 'another' royal residence to a true cultural landmark. Francois I was a significant patron of the arts and this showed in the attention he lavished on Fontainebleau.

Despite several periods of stagnation due to war and economic troubles, Fontainebleau continued to be developed and cultivated by the French kings and their royal families. In 1665, Pierre de Bourdeille wrote regarding Henri IV's massive refurbishment of the palace: "Our great king Henri IV has since decorated and enriched this residence a hundred times better, so that it is now changed beyond recognition from its former state ... in short, a little paradise in France." Under the regency of Anne of Austria, even more lavish projects were undertaken at the château; the furnishings in her personal bedchamber, for example, were all hung with real cloth of cold, while her chairs were upholstered in cloth of gold embellished with silver flowers. (Read more.)