Today we went to Versailles. All we can say is, "Wow". The place is huge and an edifice to the glory of France. Originally a small-ish hunting lodge, Louis XIV expanded it and made into a great palace. We didn't get to see the whole place--just what was available to the public. However, what we did see was magnificent.
Melissa loves all things Marie Antoinette. After reading Antonia Frasier's biography, we've learned that she was a mere child when she married into the French royal family. She was thrown into a life that she didn't want, and didn't ask for and she eventually became the most hated woman in France. Nevertheless, she was a kind and loving mother to her four children,
Les Enfants de France, and she was loyal to France. She never told anyone to eat cake.
Melissa told me the sad story that this painting was made after her fourth child was born. Then the child died and they painted her baby out of the picture. You can see her son pointing to the missing child. The Dauphin, Louis Joseph Xavier Charles, who points at the deceased Sophie, also died. He succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of seven.
Despite Antionette's sad story, Versailles is a testament to France's political and cultural supremacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--and even the nineteenth. The decor was incredible, and reflected the importance of kings Louis XIV, XV, and XVI; madame du Pompadour and Marie-Antoinette. Even Napoleon I and Josephine made Versailles home.
Melissa loves all things Marie Antoinette. After reading Antonia Frasier's biography, we've learned that she was a mere child when she married into the French royal family. She was thrown into a life that she didn't want, and didn't ask for and she eventually became the most hated woman in France. Nevertheless, she was a kind and loving mother to her four children, Les Enfants de France, and she was loyal to France. She never told anyone to eat cake.
Melissa told me the sad story that this painting was made after her fourth child was born. Then the child died and they painted her baby out of the picture. You can see her son pointing to the missing child. The Dauphin, Louis Joseph Xavier Charles, who points at the deceased Sophie, also died. He succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of seven.
Despite Antionette's sad story, Versailles is a testament to France's political and cultural supremacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--and even the nineteenth. The decor was incredible, and reflected the importance of kings Louis XIV, XV, and XVI; madame du Pompadour and Marie-Antoinette. Even Napoleon I and Josephine made Versailles home.
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