The Edict of Fontainebleau, 1685
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 Read More …
Tag: Françoise d’Aubigné
The Royal and Imperial Palace of Fontainebleau
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 Read More …
Queen for a year
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 Read More …
Saint-Cyr-the-School
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 Read More …
Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
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 Read More …
The Château of Maintenon
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 Read More …
The Scarrons’ House of Impoverishment
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 Read More …
Ninon de Lenclos and Françoise d’Aubigné
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 Read More …
Racine’s Esther in Saint-Cyr
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 Read More …
Madame de Maintenon in Saint-Cyr
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, Read More …