About Marie -Antoinette…

Today ,the little Art seeker has decided to tell you a few words about the Paris of Marie-Antoinette.

Though ,the queen lived in Versailles ,she enjoyed coming to Paris to attend balls,and Opera shows or visiting her dressmaker Rose Bertin!

Mlle Rose Bertin by Jean-François Janinet (c. 1780)

Mademoiselle Rose Bertin was from very modest origins but she was a wonderful creator and a very talented person who became very famous in a short time because of the originality of her creations.

She opened a beautiful shop ,le grand Mogol on rue Saint Honoré where the noble women of the court such as la princesse de Lamballe and the duchesse de Chartres came and arranged her meeting with the queen.

Marie-Antoinette became a very faithful customer of the dressmaker who invented for her the fashionable”robe de Gaulle”that shocked so much the court because the queen was represented in a very simple mousseline dress as a young sheperdess ,very far away from the court standards.

Rose Bertin’s shop in 1807

Marie -Antoinette wearing Rose Bertin’s creations

Marie-Antoinette en robe de Gaulle by Vigee le Brun

Marie-Antoinette was a very young girl when she arrived in France and she loved to have fun with the young people of her age .

She was very close to the comte d’Artois,her husband’s brother who was very cheerful and loved to invite her in masked balls nearby the champs Elysées at le Colisée.

Portrait of the Comte d’Artois

the Chinese feast at the champs Elysées

She was there incognito ,when the night surrounded Paris in a misty mystery.

The two young people had in common a taste for feasts,plays and laughters.

Marie Antoinette going to the ball with the comte and la comtesse de Provence

In October 1778 Marie-Antoinette will make a bet with him:To build a “folie” the last trendy fashionable house in the bois de Boulogne in less than 6 weeks!!!The estate will be called”Bagatelle and will request 900 workers.

The young Marie-Antoinette loved this incredible bet and thanked d’Artois of his boldness by attending the place at night making speak forked tongues about her unfaithfulness to her husband!!

the follie of Bagatelle in the “bois de Boulogne”

Later during the Revolution ,the queen and her family will be held as hostages inside the beautiful Tuileries gardens where the Louvre palace had an extension.

The people of Paris will reject her and she will be dubbed under the terrible name”l’autrichienne”until her final trial and her death in October 1793.

These are a few pictures of the places evoked in this post today .They are beautiful stops to follow to remember the Paris of Marie -Antoinette.

Building at the 26 rue de Richelieu that belonged to Rose Bertin

Palais des Antiquaires at the exact place of the grand Mogol:2 place du palais royal

Bagatelle gardens and the little”folie”built by d’Artois

The tuileries gardens

the Champs Elysées