My least favorite thing about Fontainebleau is that this is where Louis XIV promulgated his infamous Edict of Fontainebleau on October 22, 1685, ordering relentless and brutal persecution of the Protestant minority in France. He prefaced this edict with a few kind words for his grandfather, Henri IV, “King Henry Read More …
Since the French King Louis XIV was so obsessed with expanding and embellishing his palace at Versailles, you might have thought he spent all his time there. But no, he had several other Royal Palaces as well, and at least until 1682 he divided his time among them. In her Read More …
The Basilica Saint-Denis, which since 1966 is also a cathedral (meaning it is now the seat of a bishop), is not as outwardly impressive as the cathedrals in Paris or Reims, but it is important as an early example of Gothic church architecture and especially as the burial place of Read More …
Saint-Cyr-l’École (meaning “Saint-Cyr-the-School”) is a town just west of Versailles. In fact it borders directly on the southwest corner of the Versailles Palace Gardens. The town is called Saint-Cyr-l’École to avoid confusion with other French towns that were also named after the same saint, such as: Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d’Or Saint-Cyr-en-Val Saint-Cyr-sur-Morin Read More …
She was born in jail, where her father was a prisoner and her mother was a jail keeper’s daughter. To make matters worse, her father was a Huguenot (Protestant) and her mother was a Catholic, in a century when these religious differences were taken very seriously. Although her grandfather was Read More …
From its beginnings as a defensive fortress in the 13th century, the Château of Maintenon was gradually transformed by various owners into a comfortable aristocratic residence. Françoise d’Aubigné, the future Madame de Maintenon, bought the entire estate, including the château, land and farms, in 1674, with money given to her Read More …
On February 27, 1654, the poet, novelist and playwright Paul Scarron signed a rental contract for this house at the corner of Rue des Douze-Portes (now Rue de Turenne) and Rue Neuve-Saint-Louis (now Rue Villehardouin). This is where he lived for the last six years of his life with his Read More …
For nearly four decades in the 17th and 18th centuries, this inconspicuous building on Rue des Tournelles in the Marais district was the home of a remarkable lady called Ninon de Lenclos, a courtesan who in her younger years had had numerous affairs with some of the most prominent men Read More …
One of the features of Madame de Maintenon’s school in its early years was that the girls were allowed to perform plays, to improve their public speaking abilities and expose them to great literature. This was common practice in boys’ schools at the time, but was unheard of in girls’ Read More …
Starting in 1683, when she was 48 years old, Madame de Maintenon lived in an unusual and contradictory situation. She was the lawfully wedded wife of the ruling French monarch, King Louis XIV, but she was not the queen. They had been married by the Archbishop of Paris (and the Read More …