Tea at Trianon: Castle For Sale

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, November 14, 2020

Castle For Sale

From Insider:

A literal castle is on the market in France, and it can be yours for a mere $3.3 million. The massive property once belonged to the Rochefoucauld family, according to luxury real-estate agency Patrice Besse, which holds the listing. The Rochefoucaulds are among the oldest and most famous families of the French nobility. The property, a protected historic monument, "has been in the same family for 1,000 years, and it is like a work of art that has never been on the market," Patrice Besse, the founding president of the real-estate agency of the same name, told The New York Times.
Despite being first built roughly 1,000 years ago and extensively damaged in the Hundred Years' War and during the French Revolution, the home is in excellent condition, having undergone several restorations and renovations over the centuries. It's even been outfitted with a few modern conveniences, including new windows and central heating in some parts of the castle, per the listing. The current owners — Sixte de La Rochefoucauld and his wife, Ingrid, who are both in their mid-sixties — told The Times of London that they need to sell the property on the public market due to Sixte's declining health and because "maintaining the building is costing a crazy amount of money." They were unable to find someone else within the surviving branches of the Rochefoucauld family to buy the castle.
Take a look inside the historic home. (Read more.)