Tea at Trianon: A 19th-Century Paris Loft is Reborn

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, May 1, 2021

A 19th-Century Paris Loft is Reborn

From Veranda:

It was this exactitude that attracted the owners of a three-bedroom Parisian apartment between the Place de la Concorde and Élysée Palace. The Geneva-based couple (and parents of three young children) needed to secure the mid-19th-century loft structurally before furnishing it for their family as a pied-à-terre, and “Raphaël and Thomas’ attention to detail is undeniable,” enthused the husband. The flat’s former owner was an aristocrat who had installed wood paneling from a château in several spaces, including the master bedroom and bathroom. But despite the noble embellishments, there was evidence of severe structural problems. “In some rooms, there was a difference of seven inches in the floor level from one side to the other,” recounts Le Berre with incredulity. In addition to correcting this, the designers addressed a slightly idiosyncratic request from the owners. “They didn’t want to hear any noise at all,” declares Vevaud. “We treated the entire space with soundproofing. We joke that it’s like a panic room.” The layout was also significantly revised: The kitchen moved to the heart of the apartment, doorways and passageways were adjusted to create greater symmetry, and a large picture window was installed in the dining room to offer a view of the building’s garden from the entry hall. (Read more.)