Tea at Trianon: A Paris Pied-à-Terre

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

Monday, November 4, 2019

A Paris Pied-à-Terre

From Architectural Digest:

This 1,200-square-foot apartment in Paris’s 7th arrondissement was not an obvious choice for its owners, a Swiss-American couple looking for a pied-à-terre in the French capital. It had been a medical office for many years, which resulted in a strange layout that felt far from residential. But designers Laurent Champeau and Kelli Wilde of Champeau & Wilde, who participated in the house hunt, saw potential right away. “There was something special about this place, so we pushed them to get it,” recalls Champeau.“The light was fantastic and it had a terrace, which is kind of unusual in Paris.”

The location on the Carré des Antiquaires, a beautiful section of the Left Bank laden with prestigious antiques dealers, didn’t hurt either. Once the designers were done refurbishing the apartment, tearing down walls to create two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and a spacious living area connected to the kitchen via a double-sided fireplace—a layout that is known in France as an enfilade, or a series of aligned rooms—they scanned the surrounding streets in search of one-of-a-kind furniture pieces. (Read more.)