Tea at Trianon: Elizabeth II in Paris

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

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Elizabeth II in Paris

From Tatler:

The Queen’s first official visit to France was in fact as a young newlywed princess, in 1948, when she and the Duke of Edinburgh made a four-day trip to Paris. They enjoyed the delights of the city, including a night at the Opéra Garnier, a visit to the Flower Market in the Ile de la Cité, and a romantic evening along Rue Pierre Charon, where Edith Piaf serenaded them with a rendition of La Vie En Rose. It was followed by official visits in 1957, 1972, 1992, 1994, 2004 and 2014.
There were state dinners, tiaras and meetings with politicians and members of the public alike; a small taste of what King Charles might also expect during his time en France. Here, ahead of the reported trip, Tatler looks back at some of Her Majesty’s most magical French moments. (Read more.)