like dora, but better

let us wander through these other lands!
May 2
Today we stood in line for two hours to get in to Versailles. Just to know what I was getting into, I did some research on why Versailles was so important: Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles by 1682, because he wanted a place to organize and control the government. So, Versailles became a hugely important center for control, and contributed to Louis XIV ever increasing absolute power. He mandated that nobility had to spend a part of their year at Versailles, so that they couldn’t develop power in their own regions; Louis XIV, due to his political prowess, thus insured a deep investment in the centralization of the government to his benefit. However, the place I was most enamored with was the hamlet of Marie Antoinette. It seemed so out of place. Just like her, I suppose: No one knew what to do with Marie Antoinette after her husband was executed.Some advocated her death, others exile, and still others as an exchange for French prisoners of war. A Committee of Public Safety called for a trial, and she was separated from her son, Louis Charles. In October she was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, though the whole process was a sham. She was accused of many things she did not do, including incest (her son was coached to accuse her). She was so distraught by the accusation that the market women who had called for her death began to call for her freedom. Yet, the trial’s outcome had already been fixed by the Committee, and on the 16th of October she was declared guilty of treason. Marie Antoinette’s execution on 16 October 1793. Her last words were, “Pardon me Sir, I meant not to do it,” to a man whose foot she stepped on before she was executed by guillotine. Her hamlet is on part of the grounds near the Trianon; it seems very rustic but the inside of each dwelling was endowed with all the latest technologies of the time. In 1784, she also had a farm built, and the farmers supplied her with her daily eggs, butter, cream and cheese. Apparently, she used to decorate the nearby sheep with bows and dye them blue and pink according to their sex.


Today we stood in line for two hours to get in to Versailles. Just to know what I was getting into, I did some research on why Versailles was so important:

Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles by 1682, because he wanted a place to organize and control the government. So, Versailles became a hugely important center for control, and contributed to Louis XIV ever increasing absolute power. He mandated that nobility had to spend a part of their year at Versailles, so that they couldn’t develop power in their own regions; Louis XIV, due to his political prowess, thus insured a deep investment in the centralization of the government to his benefit.

However, the place I was most enamored with was the hamlet of Marie Antoinette. It seemed so out of place. Just like her, I suppose:

No one knew what to do with Marie Antoinette after her husband was executed.

Some advocated her death, others exile, and still others as an exchange for French prisoners of war. A Committee of Public Safety called for a trial, and she was separated from her son, Louis Charles. In October she was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, though the whole process was a sham. She was accused of many things she did not do, including incest (her son was coached to accuse her). She was so distraught by the accusation that the market women who had called for her death began to call for her freedom. Yet, the trial’s outcome had already been fixed by the Committee, and on the 16th of October she was declared guilty of treason.
Marie Antoinette’s execution on 16 October 1793. Her last words were, “Pardon me Sir, I meant not to do it,” to a man whose foot she stepped on before she was executed by guillotine.

Her hamlet is on part of the grounds near the Trianon; it seems very rustic but the inside of each dwelling was endowed with all the latest technologies of the time. In 1784, she also had a farm built, and the farmers supplied her with her daily eggs, butter, cream and cheese. Apparently, she used to decorate the nearby sheep with bows and dye them blue and pink according to their sex.