Tea at Trianon: Le Bristol

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, March 31, 2020

Le Bristol

From Harper's Bazaar Arabia:

Although surrounded by elegance on Paris’ Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Le Bristol stands proudly in the knowledge that it is the main attraction. The Parisian palace is rich with century-old stories and is bursting with furniture plucked straight from Marie Antoinette’s mood board (presumably).

You wouldn’t know it was a family-run hotel by the opulence that fills each and every room – the only giveaway would be Fa-Roun, the live-in Burmese cat, sleeping atop the concierge desk. Through Le Bristol’s gleaming double doors, held open by staff with equally gleaming smiles, you’ll find the pièce de résistance: a courtyard so perfect you would almost be shocked to learn the grass wasn’t cut by hand. (Read more.)