Tea at Trianon: A Visit to Château de la Villedubois

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, May 23, 2023

A Visit to Château de la Villedubois

From Victoria:

Set on a picturesque plot near the town of Mordelles, France, Château de la Villedubois has been the home of de Farcy kin for generations, dating back to 1647, when Jacques Annibal de Farcy bought the property from the Huchet de la Bédoyère family. The structure was made by filling in a wooden frame with local stone mixed with sand and clay, then coated with lime and sand. On the east wing, the wisteria draping gracefully across the façade replaced the grape vines that grew there until the start of the twentieth century. While the château opened its doors as a bed-and-breakfast inn a few years ago, it is still very much a family home, with three generations sharing these historical quarters. Commissioned by Henri de Farcy in 1904, when he was just under thirty years old, the library is housed in a square tower built between the horse stables and the east wing. Henri devoted himself to books and the archival papers that consumed his attention, storing his collections in this handsome space, which features gleaming wood paneling and walls of bookcases. Among the many treasures found here is the original deed of acquisition for the estate. (Read more.)