Tea at Trianon: La Maison de Frédéric

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, July 27, 2025

La Maison de Frédéric

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An English country house in France. From House and Garden:

‘I always say that it’s an English country house in France,’ says Utah-based Kyong Millar when describing La Maison de Frédéric, her charming holiday home in the south of France. If the English influence seems unexpected for a couple from Salt Lake City, Kyong – founder of clothing boutique Koo De Ker – explains that years before buying their holiday home near Uzès, she and husband Donnie almost moved to the UK. In preparation, many trips were made to the Cotswolds, taking design notes from National Trust houses and poring over issues of House & Garden.
Their transatlantic move fell through, but the couple had already fallen in love with Europe, and Kyong in particular had discovered an affinity with traditional English decorating. She references those early lessons in room layout, arranging objects and layering patterns as being pivotal to her vision for La Maison de Frédéric.
Kyong and Donnie had holidayed in the south of France for a decade before their 2020 ‘now or never’ purchase. They loved the slow lifestyle, but the houses they rented always felt lacking in design or functionality, so the couple often mooted buying a place of their own. The fairytale villages of the Luberon didn’t appeal. ‘We wanted to learn to speak French in a working town where people actually live,’ says Kyong. Uzès, 40 kilometres west of Avignon, felt like such a community, and so it became the central point of their search. (Read more.)

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