The Beginning and the End of Marie Antoinette

On October 16, 1793, the blade fell and ended the life of Marie Antoinette. Today, 233 years later, she remains one of the world's most popular figures. This autumn, two exhibits have opened at the Château de Versailles and Fontainebleau, and stacks of books dedicated to her sell in nearly every bookstore worldwide in every imaginable language. 

Of course, the myth of the former queen often expands far past who she really was. And today, when people rarely have an attention span beyond 20 seconds, the memory of who Marie Antoinette was keeps changing. 

In this week's episode, we dive into the myth and the story of Marie Antoinette from her beginning as a young princess in Austria to her final day. 

Transcript

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Bonjour, bonjour, and welcome to Paris in Blue Blanc Rouge. I am Claudine Hemingway coming to you from beautiful Paris. It is autumn. It is gorgeous and it is chilly. It just all of a sudden one day it was like 75 degrees, and the next morning it was 40 something, and it was already cold, but it is beautiful. It is blue sky, the leaves are changing. It's the best time to be out early in the morning in Paris and walking around because the sunrise isn't that early. It's around eight o'clock, and it's just gorgeous. It's my favorite thing to do. I wish I could do it every morning, but alas, that doesn't usually happen. But it's the best time if you come to Paris. Do do it at least one time because it's just it's just so peaceful and calm. And even especially do it on a weekend on a Saturday or Sunday morning. But even on a Monday morning, Tuesday morning during the week, it is still, if you're out there at like 8 a.m., between 8 and about 8:45 is like the sweet spot. It's just perfection. And it's if you're in the sun, it's still a little warm. It's just fantastic. But this is, we are into October. And this week, the story I want to share with you is the story of a very, very famous queen that lost her life 233 years ago this week. And that is, of course, Marie Antoinette. Somebody that everybody has heard of, pretty much, or knows a little bit about. And no, she never said let them eat cake. That's usually the one thing. If people don't know who she was, they know that she lost her head and they'll let them eat cake. And that was actually not her that said that. So, but she is a she is a pretty famous figure. I don't know if uh important figure in French history, important just because of her notoriety. But I'm gonna tell you this was all gonna be about her death. But of course, as I start doing these things and I start putting my notes together and making a list of all the things I kind of want to talk about, uh, it always goes in a different direction. Pretty much every single episode I do this. And so this one I decided to kind of talk about the beginning of her and then of course the end of her. And it's just a very tragic and sad story, and how she's viewed today is very different than how she was viewed back then. And I kind of wanted to start with it from the beginning and a little bit about the beginning of her life and how she came to France, because that had so much to do with her ending. So it was on October 16, 1793, that the blade fell and ended the life of Marie Antoinette. Today, 233 years later, she remains one of the most popular figures. This autumn, two exhibits have opened at the Chateau de Versailles, dedicated in all around the 20th anniversary of the famous Marie Antoinette movie. And at Fontainebleau, the exhibit is about Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and their time spent at Fontainebleau. And I'm gonna go see both of those exhibits here in the next two weeks. And then there's also stacks of books dedicated to her in every imaginable language and sell in just about every bookstore in the world. You'll find at least one. Of course, the myth of the former queen often expands far past who she really was, and in this day and age when people rarely have an attention span past 20 seconds, the memory of who Marie Antoinette was is constantly changing. Marie Antoinette Joseph Jean was born in Vienna on November 2nd, 1755, and she was the fifteenth of sixteen children of Empress Marie Therese and Francis I, who was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Francois I died on August 18, 1765, placing his son Joseph II on the throne, but Empress Marie Therese made the moves and pulled the strings. Marie Therese hoped to finally unite France and Austria and end years of conflict, something her husband was against. Before his death, little Marie Antoinette spent her days in the Schoenberg Palace running and playing with her brothers and sisters. Two years later, at the age 11, Marie Therese worked to unite her daughter with the next king of France, the Dauphin Louis Auguste. After the Seven Years' War, Austria and France finally united to fight Great Britain and Prussia. To pull off this marriage, Louis XV had a few stipulations. She must first speak French, and he was concerned about her style, her teeth, and her hair. After sending Father Vermont to Vienna to work with a future queen, the court announced in February that she would marry the heir to the French throne. Marie Antoinette's mother was strong-willed and tried to instill the virtues her daughter needed to be queen. The young lady, still essentially a child, was reluctant to participate and had a short attendant span for anything she didn't like, a problem that would haunt her until her last days. On April 17, 1770, Marie Antoinette renounced her ties to the Austrian throne, just two days before her marriage by proxy. In the early morning of April 21st, now 14 years old, Marie Antoinette left her family home and life behind and headed towards France. On May 7th, after two weeks of traveling, Marie Antoinette and her procession arrived in the city of Kiel, Germany. Sitting opposite Strasbourg and separated by the Rhine was the perfect place to mark the exchange. Dating back to the Ancien regime of the 15th century, the surrender of the wife ceremony had to be a frightening moment for this young teenager. On the Ilzel Api in the center of the Rhine, they built a temporary wooden pavilion for the ceremony. It was far grander than the tent that was depicted in that fantastic Marie Antoinette movie, and plans for this lavish yet temporary pavilion began on January 5, 1770, and also included updating the roads to and from the island, as well as the Pavillon Roin in Strasbourg, where she would spend the night. The Duc de Choisiel and Comte de Noyer oversaw the young lady's transfer and arrival in the creation of the pavilion. This wasn't just a plywood shack in the woods. It was grand, had windows, and the inside was decorated like a mini Versailles. The crown's furniture handpicked by the Duc de Choisiel came from the Garde Mouble in Paris, and the Gobelins selected tapestries and carpets to cover the temporary walls and floors. A few days before the grand affair, a few young German men snuck inside the pavilion in the middle of the night. What they found shocked them, the large tapestries chosen to cover the walls in the center of the pavilion depicted Greek mythological scenes. The tapestries made from the cartons of Raphael depicted the story of Jason, Medea, and Cruz. Jason was the leader of the Argonauts who met the beautiful princess Medea and became captivated with her. The two married, had children, then Cruz came into the picture. Jason leaves Medea and intends to marry Cruz. Medea accepts the wedding, or so they think, and sends her two sons to their father's wedding with gifts for the new bride. The gift of a gown and a crown seemed to be a lovely offer, but were covered in poison. Once Medea's sons returned to her, she killed them, a scene also depicted by Delacroix. Basically not the scene you want hanging on the walls as a new young bride is being presented to the future king. Hey, at least she didn't burst into flames when she was dressed in her new French gowns. The young German boys that made this discovery were shocked. They were the pieces chosen, also noted by Johann Wolfgang von Gothe in his own telling of the events. The pavilion included five large rooms used for the ceremony itself, as well as eight smaller rooms used for the guards, the staff, and to hold her clothes. When Marie arrived, she entered through the Austrian antechamber on the German side of the island. Marie and her ladies continued into the Austrian Grand Cabinet, where Marie removed all her clothes, jewels, and anything else she brought with her. She then stepped into the large central pavilion filled with dozens of French dignitaries, representatives of the king and court, and the new ladies of the Dauphine. A throne awaited her before she moved into the French Grand Cabinet where they finished dressing her into the rest of her French clothing and jewels, including a few new pieces from her mother. They were the only things she was allowed to bring with her into her new life. With more than eighty people in attendance, they walked out the French antechamber and she stepped into a French carriage and into her new role as the Dauphine of France. Marie Antoinette spent the night in the Palais Roanne, now the Musee de la Ville de Strasbourg. It's a beautiful place to visit. On May eighth, she headed towards the Chateau de la Mouette, where she would finally meet the Dauphin on May 15th. In the very early morning of May 16, 1770, she left the chateau and headed to Versailles for the very first time. Arriving at 10 AM, she entered the Golden Gates and was taken to the Queen's apartment to get ready. A beautiful dress of silver fabric was waiting for her. Silver was the customary color for the dauphine to be married in. However, her dress was a bit more lavish. Her mother, Empress Marie Therese Dotrice, had sent a trunk of diamonds and jewels to be attached to the dress. There was only one small problem. The designer had guessed at the measurements of the future queen, and when she put the dress on they couldn't lace up the back. It was more than two sizes too small, and her wedding was less than an hour away. She would usher into the royal life with her corset visible through the back of her dress. Louis XV and his grandson Louis XV waited in the king's apartment. Louis XV was dressed in gold and wearing a diamond covered habit of the order of the Holy Spirit. Just before noon he met his bride and took her hand. The two walked through the hall of mirrors on their way to the royal chapel. Her gown and all its jewels shone brighter than the mirrors themselves. In the royal chapel they knelt before the Archbishop of France, Monsignor de la Roche Aymont. The Archbishop blessed the rings and thirteen gold coins before Louis placed the rings on her tiny finger. The wedding was followed by a lavish feast in the royal opera attended by the court. On the night of May 16th, following a long day of ceremonies and parties, the young couple took to their bed. The bed was blessed by the archbishop while members of the court watched. Closing the curtain, the two were left somewhat alone. However, nothing would happen. Nothing would happen for seven years. The issues in the bedroom were the talk of France had even passed its borders. How can the new king rule from the throne if he couldn't even give the country an heir? Marie Antoinette's mother was also quite concerned and let her know what her role was and how important it was. During this time, to avoid the constant rejection of her husband, she turned to friends, parties, and all night gambling. The rumors began to turn to her how she spent her time. Finally, after seven long years, the marriage was consummated and the next year their first child was born, Marie Therese Charlotte, born in 1851, not the male heir apparent, but a beautiful baby girl, spending the days with her mother at the Petit Trienon in the Hameau, living a quiet life away from the watchful eyes. Upon the death of Louis XV on May 10, 1774, the young couple was crowned king and queen of France. Inheriting the crown also meant taking on the country's swiftly mounting debt and resentment of the monarchy. The quiet Louis XVI was more focused on religious freedom and foreign policy than the plight of the citizens and wanted to be admired and loved by the people. From the start, Marie Antoinette was looked as a foreigner, or as she was often called. The French still hadn't moved past her distrust and hatred of the Austrians and pinned all that onto her tiny little shoulders. Throughout their marriage, she was blamed for anything and everything that the people thought the crown was doing wrong. Horrible and even very pornographic pamphlets were created depicting her in all sorts of acts. Don't Google it. Given the nickname of Madame Deficit and Madame Vito, just to name a few. While Louis XVI was quiet and spent most of his time in his books and his locks, she carried the brunt of the people's anger. Blamed for lavish spending on clothes, shoes, and wigs, but in reality, Monsieur Philippe, the fabulous brother of Louis XIV, spent four times more in any given year than Marie Antoinette ever did. Because of the way Marie Antoinette was judged in the press and by the people, a massive scam was able to be waged against her, putting one of the final nails in her coffin. It was 1785 and the tensions were high in France and the Austrian queen was a subject for pointed criticism. Her appearance of lavish spending would be used by a woman named Jeanne de la Motte to her advantage to exact her revenge on the crown. Jean de Valois, Saint Remy, Comte de la Motte, started out life being told she was descended from royalty. Her father, Jacques de Valois, was the illegitimate grandson of Henry II and his mistress Nicole de Sapigny. Henri was involved with her when he and Diane de Poitiers took a break, never recognized that they constantly lived far beneath where they believed they should be, and by the time Jean came around, she wanted to do something about it. In 1772, King Louis XV wanted to have a necklace made for his mistress, Madame Duberry, and asked the jeweler Beaumont and Bassage to create a lavish gift. Taking years to gather the more than six hundred diamonds needed, Louis XV would die before it was finished. Left with a very expensive necklace on their hands without being paid, they reached out to Louis XV, thinking he wanted to buy it for his queen. With a very high price tag, the queen refused, telling her husband we have could have more than twenty four ships for that amount. However, it could also be that she never liked Madame Duberry and didn't want to have anything intended for her. Jeanne was a mistress of Cardinal Rohan who had a falling out with the Queen and her mother and was desperate to get back into her Gregoric's. Jeanne told him she was friends with Marie Antoinette, and if he wrote her a letter she would get it to her. Jeanne had another agenda. She answered the letter herself, posing as the queen, and when he begged to have a private meeting with the queen, she hired a prostitute at the Palais Royal to impersonate the Queen and met him in the Grove de Venise of Versailles. Once word had spread throughout Paris, the jeweler reached out to Jean in hopes to appeal to Marie Antoinette and to buy the necklace. Jean told Rohan that the Queen wanted the necklace but needed someone to get it for her. Jean forged a letter and a purchase order for the necklace and he took it to Bonard. Handing over the necklace to Rohan, he then took it to meet Jean and what he thought was the Queen's valet. It was Jeanne's husband who promptly took the necklace, broke it apart, and sent the jewels around Europe to be sold, and never found again. Months went by, and when Momar still had him paid, he went to court with the order signed by the Queen, or so we thought. She had never seen it before. Roan was arrested in the Hall of Mirrors and would go on trial and be found innocent. For the Queen, who was innocent in the plot, it was too late. It only fed into the rumors of her excess. People even thought she orchestrated the entire thing to get back a Rohan. The affair of the diamond necklace led to her final fall that was to come in just a few years. Jean de La Motte would also be arrested, and at a trial she was convicted, and her sentence included life in jail, and her shoulders were branded with the letter V for veluse, French for thief. A year later she broke out of prison, dressed as a boy, and fled to London. On August 23rd, 1791, in an attempt to evade creditors, she fell out of a window and died. The reports say that she was terribly mangled, her left eye cut out, and her arm and both legs broken. Today the necklace would be worth over fifteen million dollars and hold 2,800 carats and six hundred and eighty-five diamonds. When I saw a replica at the exhibit at the Conciergerie many years ago, I gasped. But then again, I love a statement piece. Sadly, I thought about this necklace and this incident exactly a year ago next week after the theft of the Glouvre Crown jewels. The last straw would come at the start of October in 1789. On October 1st and 3rd, 1789, King Louis XVI threw a large dinner party for the King's Guards and the Flanders Regiment. While the people of Paris were starving and unable to get bread, a lavish dinner at Versailles was the final straw. Before dawn on October 5th, a large group, mostly comprised of women from Leal, met in front of the Hotel de Ville. Breaking in and stealing more than 600 weapons, the group marched from Paris to Versailles. In the pouring rain for over five hours they walked in the mud, finally arriving at the chateau. They demanded to be led into the National Assembly. Their spokesperson, Stanislav Maillard, read the demands for wheat, flour, and an end to the blockade of the route into Paris. With all an agreement, the order was taken to the king to sign and enact, but it was too late. We would be done with the story, but we know it doesn't end there. Overnight, the crowd gathering outside grew restless after endless hours without any news, prompting the guards to push back. The angry mob rushed the palace, killing the Queen's guards and calling out her name through the gilded halls of the palace. The royal family finally agreed to go with the crowd back to Paris, leaving Versailles on October 6th and the life they knew behind. Their prison was at the Palais de Tuileries where they would be watched closely, but still live a life of comfort for over two years. On June 21, 1791, the king and queen of France attempted a last ditch effort to escape from the watchful eyes of the Tuileries. The king had been cooking up this idea for over a year and discovered that the French town of Montmedy, near the edge of Luxembourg, was an area that still supported the idea of the monarchy. Axel von Fursen, Marie Antoinette's close friend and lover, worked on the route, plans, passports, and a carriage for the family. Axel first met Marie Antoinette in Paris on january thirtieth, seventeen seventy four at a mask ball. Behind the mask he had no idea he was talking to the future Queen of France. The two would meet again after his return from America, and the two remained very close until the end. Historians have often wondered if there was more than that, but recent deciphering of their private letters that come out every few years give evidence to the fact that the two were also lovers. Farrison borrowed 300,000 pieces of gold from a wealthy woman to help assist in the evacuation of the family and had a lavish carriage made for the royal couple, complete with a toilet. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their two children, and Madame Elizabeth, the sister to the king, were armed with fake papers that they were now the staff of the Baroness de Corf, a Russian widow on their way to Frankfurt. On the night of the escape, the family left behind their former attire and dressed as servants. At 10 50 PM on june twenty first, seventeen ninety one, Furson took the royal children out of the Tilleries and safely tucked them into the awaiting coach. At 11 30 PM, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette said their goodnights and went to bed. Louis had spent most of the day hidden away writing a 16-page political will, a declaration that would later seal his fate. At twelve ten AM on June 22nd, Louis and Marie left the Twilleries out separate doors and alone. Louis found his way to the nearby Rue de la Chelle where his children Furson and the governess were waiting. They all found the coach quickly, but Marie Antoinette got lost on the way and arrived 90 minutes late. The distance from the Twilies today to where the coach was was less than seven minutes. When the family was finally together, they headed to the Quai de Louvre where the carriage was to meet them along with a team of local soldiers. Although they were already close to two hours late, they had to wait for another hour for the carriage to arrive. This delay would cost them immensely. The governess was not in the original plans, but she refused to leave the children. Her job was to care for the royal children until her death, and she was not backing down. She took the place of one of the only factions in the group that knew the roads of France. The men chosen for this voyage were also selected for their loyalty to the family, not necessarily for their abilities, another foolish mistake. Firston stayed with them until Bondy, where he was replaced with a new driver, not to add too much suspicion back at the palace. Along the route, royalist supporters were strategically placed to change out the horses and protect them. But with no way to reach them and close to three hours behind, many left fearing the worst. Once on the road, now three hours late, they arrived at the Pont de Saint Mavelle, southeast of Rams. At the next town, Montmoral, at eleven AM, the king was recognized. Meanwhile, back in Paris at 7 AM, it was discovered that the family was gone, and all that was left behind was the king's political will, which enraged Lafayette, who was to watch over them. He immediately let it be known that they were gone and issued an arrest warrant. Just before 8 PM in Saint Emanol, Jean Baptiste Douet thought the peasant woman looked a little bit like Marie Antoinette. When he saw the king's profile in the window of the carriage, he knew it was a Louis XV. It matched the fifty note coin in his pocket. As they arrived in Varennes at 10 50 PM, the writers were not there to meet them. Twenty minutes later in front of the church, the citizens demanded they exit the carriage. At 1110 PM, not even twenty four hours since their escape, they were arrested. On the morning of June 22nd, the National Guard was on its way back to Paris. The route would take four days. They drew it out so the people could be. Gas see the route and be taken once again to Paris. From Chalon en Champignon on the twenty second, Epernay on the twenty third, and to Meuve for the night of the twenty fourth. On june twenty fifth at seven AM they left Meuve to head back to Paris. Hundreds lined the streets to welcome them home. They were told if they cheered for the king, they'd be beaten, and if they yelled insults, they'd be hanged. People behaved until they saw the queen, who was always a brunt of their anger, yelling and chasing the carriage down the Champs Elyse until they entered the Twilleries. Now more closely watched with their movements limited to their bedrooms and dining room, while the people outside the palace became angrier and angrier. Had they not escaped, the family would have spent the rest of their life in the prison of the Twilleries. At five AM on august tenth, seventeen ninety two it came to a boil. The Twilleries were stormed, the Swiss guards were killed, and the royal family ran for their lives through the garden. More than one thousand people were killed on this day, the palace was looted and the interior destroyed. Arriving at the assembly on the edge of the garden, the former stables used for Louis XV, where the king would be tried in just a few short months. The king was given wine and treated like the king. Marie and her children were put into a small locked room. That night as they ran the monarchy slipped through their fingers. On august thirteenth, they were sent to the temple prison, a cold, dark tower. The king and his valet Jean Baptiste Clary were separated from his wife, children, and his sister, but still able to visit each other. A month later on september twenty first, the monarchy was abolished. At nine AM on Monday, january twenty first, seventeen ninety three, Louis Capet left the temple prison and his family behind. The slow drive through the city, he was held inside a Verwagon carriage, and it took over an hour. The people lined the route, yelling and proclaiming victory for the revolutionists. Two hours later the echoes of cannons and the cheers of the crowd carried through the prison walls. Marie Antoinette, her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, and her two children knew instantly that the king was dead. Seven months later, in the dark of night, on August 2nd, the Queen was taken from her children and moved to the Conciergerie, also known as the Antechamber of Death. It was now her turn. Her trial began on October 14th before a courtroom filled with people who had already decided her fate. The prosecutor Antoine Canton Fouquet Tonville accused her of sending money to Austria, depleting France's treasury, treason, and even incest with her son. For two long days she endured every accusation without the chance to defend herself. Her composure never wavered. Her fate was already sealed. At 4 30 AM on October 16th, she was sentenced to death, and it would happen within a few hours. In her cold, dim cell, she wrote a final letter to her beloved sister-in-law, Madame Elizabeth, asking her to care for her children. The letter was never delivered. Elizabeth's life would also end at the guillotine seven months later. At 8 AM, the executioner, Charles Henri Saint Saint, entered her cell. She dressed in a simple white gown made by Rose Bretin, her trusted dressmaker, and slipped on her best black satin shoes. Her hair was cut short, her hands tied behind her back, and she was led to the court de May to face a waiting cart. Unlike her husband, who had been put into a carriage, Marie Antoinette rode in an open cart beside a priest, exposed to the eyes of Paris. The streets were lined ten deep as the cart made its slow journey through the city. In the widow of the Cafe de Lorgence on the Rue Saint Henri, the artist Jacques Louis David sketched her final image, pale, calm, and proud. More than thirty thousand people stood in silence as the cart rolled towards the Place de la Revolution, now known as the Place de la Concorde. The short journey that should have lasted twenty minutes took nearly an hour as the people strained for one last glimpse of their former queen. At the scaffold she accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot. Turning to him, she softly said, Pardon me, sir, I did not mean to. A moment later, at twelve fifteen PM, the blade fell. Her body was buried in an unmarked grave at the Madeleine Cemetery in 1802. The land was purchased by Pierre Louis Descalizeau, who had lived next to the cemetery since the Revolution and had quietly marked the resting place of the king and a queen with a weeping willow. When her daughter Marie Therese returned to France in 1814, she visited the spot every day, accompanied by her uncle Louis XVIII. Together they arranged for her parents' remains to be transferred to the Basilique Saint Denis, the resting place of the kings and queens of France. In 1816, the Chapelle Expertoire was built on the site of their first burial. It was dedicated to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and its creation was partially funded by Marie Therese herself. Inside the quiet neoclassical chapel, the Queen is depicted in marble by Jean-Pierre Cortot, supported by the figure of religion, her long hair flowing like that of Mary Magdalene as she looks upward in prayer. Her final letter to Madame Elisabeth is carved on the pedestal beneath her. Across from her stands Louis XVI, sculpted by Francois Joseph Bosillot, wearing his coronation robes as an angel points his way towards the heavens. Below in the crypt, a black and white marble altar marks the exact spot where they had once laid in the unmarked grave. A soft colored light streams through a single stained glass window, filling the chamber with quiet reverence. Every time I visit, I imagine their daughter standing there in that same spot, her heartbreaking, clinging to the last memory she had of the parents she lost too soon. On January eighteenth and nineteenth, eighteen fifteen, Marie Therese watched as the bodies of her parents were recovered from deep in the earth. On January twenty first, the twenty second anniversary of the death of Louis XVI, the couple was taken on their final route to the Basili Saint Denis. The procession of 3,000 people made up of military, ministers, and distant family, traveled north past the edges of the city. The boxes containing their bones of the king and queen were placed in a large carriage inside a grand sarcophagus. What a difference twenty two years makes, as now the people stood along the route for even the smallest glimpse of their fallen king and queen. Upon arrival at the Basilique, a large mass was held in front of the family and dignitaries before their bones were interred in the crypt below, alongside what is left of the past rulers that were recovered after the revolution. On April 24th, the king ordered the construction of a new chapel for the basilica dedicated to the couple, and Miguel was commissioned to sculpt the statues of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The chapel, as imagined, never came to be, but the statues can be seen today, and I'll never forget the first time I saw them. And since pretty much the entire church and all of the graves that are there at the Basilie Saint during the revolution were opened and everything was pulled out because they were stealing the jewelry and gold, anything that was left in the tomb in the coffins. They had two huge holes, one for the Valois and one for the Bourbons, and they threw all the bones in there. So essentially the only graves in there that actually have bones of that person are the ones of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, because they were buried after the fact. So it really is a really incredible place to go, and you really should. I have a lot of people that have said they've gone before, and it's not in the best area, but let me tell you, I went last summer and fall, quite a few times. I was actually there the morning of the theft of the of the crown jewels, and it is completely, it is fantastic. It's I I had gone before when it maybe wasn't the greatest area. I just felt very uncomfortable. I had some people like following me, and it was a little, that was a little strange, but now it's like completely night and day. It's the metro stops completely all cleaned up. Around it is just lovely. There's like families and kids, and it's really a cool place to go because they have been rebuilding the actual tower and the front of the church. So it's really fun to be able to go and watch that. And it's gonna take years and years and years to do it. So I need to go out there again pretty soon because I said I wanted to come out at least once a year or every six months to go check it out. But it's an amazing place to go where the kings and queens are buried. It's just beautiful. It's the first Gothic church. It was there right before they started building Notre Dame. So it was like the first Gothic Rose windows, the Abbot Sujet. I should do a whole episode on it because it's really an incredible place to go. So definitely go and check that out. And of course, the Chapelle Expertoire. Um, you could go check that out, which it their hours are a little varied. It's not very far from the Madeleine Church. Nobody goes there as well. And other great places to go is, of course, the Carnival A, which is where they the City of Paris Museum, where they have a lot of stuff on the top floor. There's one room that kind of has some furniture, some things that belonged to them when they were in the temple prison, some paintings, the very famous painting of her being led up the stairs as she was getting taken to her cart. It's really fantastic. And usually there's like a little headscarf of hers and stuff. But when I was just there about a month ago, I think it's at an exhibit someplace. But also another fantastic place is on the edge of the Place de la Concorde in the Hotel de la Marine. It's a place I tell all my clients that they need to go to. It's so amazing, but they have a little room in there, and this little room is where they like signed her certificate. And it gives you a little history because it's literally had a front row seat. And this spot where they did where they were killed in the guillotine is kind of it's it's where the statue is in front of the Creon Hotel. There's a brass plaque right in front of the obelisk. And let me tell you all about the obelisk in a couple weeks. But the there's a brass plaque and it says, you know, in this spot, this is where they were killed. And I remember I used to always go there and look at it and be like, oh, take a moment and think about, you know, oh, you know, say a little, like shed a little tear for them. But then I learned that it's actually over in the corner where closer to the crayon is where the guillotine actually was. But these are all great places. If you want to do a walking tour when you come, I've done a couple of them. I've done them actually over like two days, do some walking tours around the city with all these spots. There's so many spots that are tied to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. But if you're gonna be in Paris this autumn into the winter, there's gonna be there's an exhibit that just opened at Versailles that's dedicated, as I mentioned, to the 20th anniversary of the Sophia Coppola Marie Antoinette movie, which is such a great one. I love that one. That is in the Petit Trainon. I'm gonna go check that out this week. And then at Fontainebeau as well is one, as I mentioned, dedicated to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in the time that they were there. And there's always stuff about, you know, every place you go. The Louvre has a few things of Marie Antoinette, not a whole lot because a lot of the stuff that did belong, there's only like one, there's no paintings of Marie Antoinette in the Louvre. There's one bust of her because most of the stuff is all at Versailles. And Versailles, if you want, if you really are really nerding out about Marie Antoinette, which I love to do, they do offer some private tours that you can book through Versailles that take you up into our private rooms. And I've actually done those a couple times. Just check their website because they don't offer them all the time, and they only put them out kind of like about a month in advance. And it's very, I mean, they're hit and miss. So if you are coming to Paris and you want to go do that, reach out to me because I could help you find that. But it's great, and it's only like a few, it's not even that much. It's like another 10 euros or something onto your ticket uh to do that. And you get to go up into our private spaces and even go like this is, you know, I went there and it was like this is the hallway and that's the door she went through. Thank you guys so much for listening and always love to talk about Marie Antoinette. But next week I'll be back because we will hit our one-year anniversary of the theft of the crown jewels. And this we're a week away, and I was I've been scouring. I'm really, really hoping that they're gonna put out any little nugget of news about the investigation. And I'm gonna keep looking all day long for any of that to share it with you. So definitely I will see you next week and join me for all of that fun information. And until then, make sure to follow me on Instagram or Facebook, Claudine Blue Blanc Rouge or Blue Blanc Rouge, as well as Substack. I'm gonna get better about posting more things on that too. So I will see you all next week. Albiento.