Marie Antoinette's

Hmm.... What do you think? I LOVE the soundtrack! ;o)

"Here you are with Oscar at Versailles in 1682. An elaborate investigation awaits you. To solve it, you will need to put yourself into the skin of a 17th century gentleman (oh my!) and avoid the traps set for you by a mysterious enemy…

To achieve your goal you will need humour, logic and shrewd judgment. (sounds about right!)
Fight with a dagger! Dance the Menuet! Use your catapult as in these old days. The Sun King, Vauban, Seignelay and over 30 fun, sinister and brilliant characters accompany you! Valets, Marquesses and knaves, they are all there to help you, to entertain you, or to challenge you!

Discover the Château de Versailles in 1682, the King’s apartments, the gardens,
the menagerie and the town, as well as numerous other areas of Versailles, some well-known, others unexpected!"

Marie Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon-Orléans was the first daughter of Philippe Charles, Duke of Orléans who was the Regent to Louis XV. Her mother was Madame Lucifer, and grandmother was Liselotte. She was born at Versailles on August 20, 1695.

Growing up she always had her own way and was a complete daddy's girl. She disliked her mother, as her father did. When she was only 9 she went on a hunt with her father, and their party noted her spoiled behavior.

When she was 15, her mother wanted her to marry the Duc de Berri, (the king's youngest grandson) however, her mother's sister the Princess of Condé wanted her daughter to be his wife. Although the Princess of Condé's daughter was very lovely, she was 2 years older than Louise Élisabeth and certain parties of the court preferred Louise. She knew she was in the running to marry such a prize as the duc de Berri. In the end things went Louise Élisabeth's way!

When her betrothal was announced, those against the marriage were quick to spread the worst rumors and gossip throughout Versailles and even Paris. The rumor that the duc d'Orleans and Louise Élisabeth had incestuous relations were talked about the most, a complete scandal to the family.

The wedding still happened, and the ceremony was lovely. Yet scandal continued to follow. After the wedding, as the new husband and wife were escorted to their residence, guests gathered to watch the lovely scene. Most of the fell victim to pick-pockets who mixed in by dressing as priest and ordinary invited guests!

The marriage to the duc was good for a few months, but before long the two were fighting in public, much to the displeasure of the king. Married in June, a scene in August left her husband very unhappy... She was at St. Cloud and had a little too much to drink. (Think Lindsay Lohan) She was so drunk that she blacked out and had to be driven back home before she could cause any harm to herself or expensive objects near her!

Sadly her husband did love her, but her progressive actions made the love cool over time. A catty girl, she picked a fight with her sister-in-law the Duchess of Burgundy. The fight cooled the relationship between her husband and his brother. This was fine until the Dauphin died making the Duchess of Burgundy the Dauphine and her husband Dauphin! Louise Élisabeth was totally loathed at court!

Louis XIV scolded her in a way that said 'he did not want to have this discussion again,' being the ultimate mortification anyone could receive. As a result many at court avoided her all together. Eventually she began to ignore her husband, and any love he had for her died. She mocked him publicly and made fun of his beliefs. He was so unhappy he even considered asking his grandfather (Louis XIV) for a separation! And all this was before he knew of her affair!

She had been sleeping with his first Chamberlain, and was trying to convince the man to steal her away to Holland! He was too cowardly to go through with it (someone had a head on their shoulders) but the scandal spread through the court and we can only assume the duc de Berri heard it too. Shortly after the scandal broke when a scene was reported, that in front of a large group of people the duc "took his wife by the neck and kicked her bottom repeatedly, threatening to shut her up in a convent for the rest of her life."

I received a What Would Marie Do question that I thought was so fun I would leave it open for all of you to help answer! Let's see how many solutions and ideas we can get here! Leave your ideas in the comments section! Links to pictures are welcome!!

Welcome to the Gossip Party!

Below please enjoy the wonderful bits of gossip submitted by YOU! I have enjoyed reading the entries all week, so I hope you have some pink champagne and queen cakes to indulge while you read. Also, I wanted to thank everyone again for visiting the site and contributing your knowledge and wit! I always look forward to hearing from you!


Marie says: Did you know that Marie Antoinette had a kind of love affair with her stable boy before she moved to France? She did not have a hot and heavy romantic affair but more of she fantasized about him because of his physical appearance (especially because how bad the dauphin looked). Their affair was more of a deep forbidden unspoken love.

Paris Atelier says: A certain mistress of the King has been said to have been a prostitute and used wicked whiles to coerce him to bed her. All the while finding other prostitutes to pacify him while she held her position in the court and over the King.....hmmmm, sounds like scandal to me!

Sandra says: To think that the "Belle Murphy" is now trying to replace Madame de Pompadour as maîtresse-en-titre! Miss O'Murphy is a "graduate" of the Parc aux Cerfs, the brothel Madame de Pompadour set up herself for the king's pleasure. Casanova may have been impressed with the girl but she has definitely overstepped her bounds.

Elyse says: Pst, did you hear that that Voltaire has moved in with the marquise du Châtelet ... and that Émilie placed before him in a essay competition on the nature of fire?

Lucy says: Seems that back in the 18thc., chocolate was loved for more than its obvious reasons…it was also great for masking the taste of poison… In 1774, Pope Clement XI, who feared being murdered after having disagreed with certain Jesuits, mysteriously died after drinking a cup of chocolate brought to him by his favourite confectioner- who, by the way, also died later that very same day. Coincidence? All the hype was disproved by an autopsy…Regardless; the rumor stuck.

Dana says: Rumors can now be put to rest regarding the recent and continuously scandalous activities of Lady Sarah Lennox. For behavior most unbecoming a lady and great-granddaughter of a king, Lady Sarah has left her dowdy of a husband, Charles Burnbury for the safe haven of her lover, Lord William Gordon. Lord William Gordon is believed to be the father of her young daughter Louisa.

Mary says: Felicite de Genlis, mistress of the duc d'Orleans, had the ultimate revolutionary accessory: a polished shard of the fallen Bastille made into a brooch. Her stone was set in a wreath of emerald laurel leaves tied at the top in a jewelled tricolour rosette, and inlaid with the word 'Liberte' in diamonds.

Jessica says: My all time favorite gossip about Marie Antoinette would probably be the affair of the diamond necklace. It was commissioned by Louis XV but he died without being able to pay for it causing the jewelers to be on the verge of bankruptcy. This is why they tried so many schemes to get Marie Antoinette to buy it and ultimately ruined her popularity with the people of France because she was spending all of France's money on diamonds.

Cathy says: The Duc de Lauzun is quite delicious my dear, but he is completely besotted with Lady Sarah Bunbury, you know the one the English king threw over to marry that plain little Princess Charlotte What’s Her Face. They say Lady Sarah’s husband is more interested in his horses than his wife and even brought that nice young Lord Carlisle with them here to Paris to keep her entertained, but I do believe Lauzun is going to beat Carlisle to her bed. Shall we wager on it?

Anabel says: This was a very interesting gossip: "When Madame du Barry was femme de chambre to the widow La Garde her two sons ended up falling in love with her. She was a temptress and trotted around knowing just what she was doing. The brothers fought tirelessly and violently over her until the poor widow, already heart broken over the loss of her husband, had to force Jeanne to leave her house!"

Katy says: I heard that Comtesse de Provence gossiped about the Queen of France herself and smelled HORRIBLE to boot.

Tina says: The Danes do it... with physicians! The Queen of Denmark, that poor Caroline Matilda, is having an affair with her husband's physician, Johann Friedrich Streuensee! She is totally besotted with him, flaunting their relationship openly for everyone to see, riding stride through the park and using men's clothes and now she is pregnant with the Doctor all the while that wild German Quack is administering drugs and ice cold baths to King Christian every morning and very busily taking over the country from the poor insane man! They're already calling it the Era of Streuensee and he is officially the King's maître des requêtes and quite in the middle of a mania of reform, issuing several cabinet orders a day and offending every local sensibility he can manage!

I enjoyed all this gossip so much!! I really think we should do this more often, just sit down and dish it all! So thank you again for entering!
OK, what you have all been waiting for I am sure, these are the winners of the Give Away!

The lucky winners selected out of the good old Hat (software!) are:
Anabel - Queen of Fashion
Lucy - Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France
Allisa - Marie Antoinette, DVD
Eliza - Marie Antoinette, DVD
Congrats!!! Send your info along to me, I will contact you all if I do not hear from you!
Enjoy the weekend and have some Champagne for us!

Louis ruled over France for 10 months before his coronation ceremony at Reims, naturally many wanted to see the new king and his queen! When he was crowned he never formally greeted the crowds of people who came to see him, but he did take the time to lay a stone at the University of Reims...

Afterward they newly crowned king and his lady traveled to Louis-le-Grand, (not Fedde-le-Grand!) where they were to hear a speech at the University of Paris. It was raining though, so they didn't get out of their carriage for the speech! I mean, they were dressed to impress!

Needless to say some people were kind-of bummed out...