Marie Antoinette's

duc de Berry
dauphin of France
King of France and Navarre
Louis the beneficent
Restorer of French liberty
King of the French
Monsieur Veto
Louis Capet
Louis the Traitor
Louis the last

"My poor beloved hamster is gone!"
"Oh my god my guppy is dead!"

"Courage, Gallantry, Beauty, Honor: the standards of the eighteenth century always remained in view- through war, revolution, evolution, intrigue, and dishonesty- with etiquette and order the people's companion and guide.

Everything was a form of exultation and triumph...trumpets, bugles, fanfares, and banners...splendid architecture... escutcheons and trophies on palace walls and on rooftops...graceful interiors filled with objects designed to be as useful and as beautiful as the craftsman could make them...spreading gardens scented with the fresh smells of nature before petrol and pollution...fountains like huge jets of crystal...barges floating down canals beneath the stars, with musicians serenading pretty women... the language of the streets, the language of scholars.

Everything was emerging and growing-the whisper and murmur of change were everywhere. Villages were becoming towns, towns were becoming cities, cities were dominating nations. The eighteenth-century woman in Europe and America was born into a world of opening doors, of opportunity. She came forward, walking quite naturally into the vista of promise that lay before her, translating ambition into opportunity...and reality."

"Two of her curls had come unpinned...and her cloak...was flung half on and half off. Every creature turned back to star at her; she had a look of innocence and artlessness that made me quite sorry that she should be so foolishly negligent of her person."

FANNY BURNEY

He also had little tendencies that bothered Marie. One was his over eating at meals! And you know she hinted to it and let him know, because that is what ladies do! But one day Louis had terrible indigestion and Marie, ‘had all the dishes containing pastry removed from his table and peremptorily forbade any more pastry to be served until further notice.’

Ha!

"France will always need an aristocracy."

France suffered a harsh winter in 1775. When the New Year began there was plenty of snow covering the streets and gardens at Versailles and through Paris. The weather caused hundreds of people to catch the flu, and made necessities hard to obtain. Things were not at all easy.

The fluffy bed of snow did provide some pleasures, however. There was enough on the ground for sleigh-riding, and this was a fun tradition in Austria. Marie Antoinette was very happy at this opportunity to take pleasure in a familiar childhood activity. The tradition also existed in France, as Louis XVI’s father use to enjoy a winter sleigh-ride from time to time and there were an abundance of sleighs brought out during French winters. That January Marie wrote about it:

“There is so great a quantity of snow here that nothing like it has been seen for years; so we go in sleighs as we used to do in Vienna.”

Marie’s sleigh was decorated with feathers and little bells that jingled with the horses movements through the park at Versailles.

“We were driving yesterday, and to-day there is a great “course” in Paris; but as they have never yet seen a Queen take part in one, they would invent stories, and I would rather give up the pleasure than be bothered by more stories.”

MARIE ANTOINETTE, VERSAILLES 14 JANUARY 1776

Well she had right to worry about stories because it was not long before women of many different classes were taking masked sleigh-rides through Paris at night. People of course began to talk as sleighs drove by at night with masked passengers.

It could have been the Queen!
Did you see her!
Was that the Queen?
Who was she with!!

And a general idea that every sleigh that went by contained (or could have contained) the Queen incognito made fuel for troublesome stories of frivolity and fault.

It was not long after this Marie stopped going out on sleigh-rides.

Fashionable ladies from the past were, clearly, known to grace the tracks! In 1779, in England, few lady-patronesses graced the turf, but among the few you could sill find Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire!

In 1776 a horse track was built in France, near Fontainebleau, modeled after those in England. In a letter to Maria Theresa, Comte de Mercy described it as, “a puerile parody,’’ and goes on to explain that a special stand was built for Marie Antoinette to view the races from. Her stand was surrounded by a, “concourse of unsuitable persons, young and ill-clothed, making much confusion and noise.”

Well he was just not a fan of races!

"I went to the first race-day on horse back; and I took great care to keep in the crowd at some distance from the Queen's pavilion, into which all the young men entered, booted and en chenille [riding dress]. In the evening the Queen, who had perceived me, asked me, while at play, why I did not come up into her pavilion at the races. I answered, loudly enough to be heard by the many feather-pates present, that the reason I had not come was that I was in riding boots and dress and that I had never been accustomed to imagine one could appear before the Queen in such attire."

He was just as miserable on the second race-day, appalled at the Queen and Madame Elisabeth being there and at the Comte d'Artois (right) who was running about placing enormous bets and whining about how sick he was of always being cheated at both races and cards.

But how devoted were our fashionable ladies?

“Of Balls at the Opera, where the Queen stayed all night, came back to Versailles at half-past six in the morning and went off again at ten to the races.”

Dedication!

Well, I am off to the races now, (with a bit more than 3 ½ hours of sleep!)

"The Queen liked to be surrounded by the most agreeable young men that the Court could offer; she was far more willing to accept the homage that was offered to her as a woman than that which was offered to her as a Queen."

COMTESSE DE BOIGNE