Cerise went to #Paris for research, discovering tidbits @ #Josephine, #Napoleon, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

Fontainebleau, Grand Courtyard of Main entrance

   Travel is a wonderful way to do historical research for novels. Time-consuming, it is an intriguing way to put drama into your day...as you eat and drink you way around your chosen paths!

   My biggest kicks come from standing in the very spots that others infinitely more interesting than I have stood. Reflecting on how they must have felt at certain points in their lives—or seeing what has become of those places long after they have passed sends ripples of ennui down my spine.

   Here, hopefully tickling your need to feel the same sort of ripples, are a few from my recent trip to Paris in October. Note the dates I have put in bold. Many are poignant coincidences of time, place and people.

Closeup of front steps of Fontainebleau

   One of the places we visited was Fontainebleau. (If you wish to read more about that famous grand hunting lodge expanded to a palace, do scroll below in my blog for previous posts about my recent Paris trip.)

Napoleon signing abdication papers
in Fontainebleau, April 1814

   Here you see the grand staircase outside. Why is this an interesting view? Well! Not only was this the main entrance to the palace during the Ancien Regime, but also one used by Napoleon and his coterie. On these very steps, Napoleon emerged from the palais in April 1814. The previous night he had attempted suicide, swallowing a poison which proved ineffective. (I wish I had a picture of his bedroom where he slept and the room where he signed his abdication from imperial power. Alas, the ones I took were terribly out of focus! It's what comes of being too enraptured and soaking up the scenery instead of tending to the camera! Do see the painting which is very accurate decor.) Greeting many of his generals and troops who were gathered in the courtyard below (see next picture), he bid them farewell. He boarded a coach, escorted by a small French retinue and a few Englishmen to assure his departure, and left for Elba. He arrived there May 30, 1814.

The Golden Courtyard where Napoleon's troops would have heard his farewell in April 1814
before he departed for Elba. Here you have the view Napoleon had as he addressed his troops.

   Months later in February 1815, encouraged by news from France that the restored Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, was misusing his power, renewing high taxes and stripping the soldiers of their honors, ranks and pay, Napoleon sailed from the small island of Elba and returned to France by way of Cannes. He made his way north and in March, he returned to Fontainebleau! The palace, you see, is south of Paris. (Today, you can get there on the RER, take a local bus and arrive almost on these front steps!) In 1815, he could take up residence there and be regarded as a threat to the capital city but not in charge of it...yet. Here he waited a few days and once the Bourbons had left Paris and the French army welcomed him, Napoleon took the hour long journey into the city which was once more his.

A small portion of Josephine's gardens blooming still
in October!

  After Napoleon's departure to Elba in late April 1814, the Bourbons returned to France to rule once more. But they came with those foreign officials (and armies) who had defeated Napoleon's army and forced him to abdicate. One of those in Paris at the time was the Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Taking liberty to visit Napoleon's second wife, Marie-Louise, who remained near Paris in the old chateau of Rambouillet, he also took a coach south to visit Josephine, former empress and first wife of Napoleon. She introduced him to her family, Eugene and Hortense. She had an entertainment prepared for him in her music room. (See picture here.) They strolled in her famous rose garden and then, days later, she took a chill. Developing a high fever, she took to her bed. She developed a throat infection, could not speak, and passed away in her home within the week. She died May 29, 1814, leaving her son Eugene the house and contents of Malmaison. When Napoleon returned to France in 1815, he went to Malmaison to mourn the woman he had loved so dearly.

Front entrance to Josephine's home, Malmaison on a rainy October day.

Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette at prayer,
representations in main chapel of Saint Denis

   Finally, for this post about "tidbits" that make me shiver, I give you the picture I took of the statues of Louis XIV and his wife, Marie Antoinette. These two kneel in prayer inside the famed cathedral of Saint Denis. Located in the Paris suburbs, this gothic cathedral is the first example of gothic architectural developments. A marvel to see (and I will post in future a complete blog about our visit to this stunning church), Saint Denis was redone in gothic form beginning in the early 12th century. The other reason you want to take the Metro to view this marvelous cathedral is that it is the church where all kings of France are buried. Yes, all. Many are accompanied by their queens and children, some very young and others older.

Saint Denis, main entrance, undergoing restoration

   What is interesting about this ensemble of Louis and his wife? The statues are representations, yes. But the two are not buried here. No. What is intriguing to learn here is that, while the two were guillotined during the Terror and both were buried in the cemetery of Madeline, their bodies were exhumed in May 1814 and sent to Saint Denis to be buried alongside their ancestors. The two now rest in the lower crypt beneath a huge black granite polished stone bearing their names. Alongside them are other members of the Bourbon family—some named, others not—in a gigantic mass grave.  Sobering to regard, this mass grave bears witness to the inhumanity of man to man.

Basilica of Saint Denis in Paris suburbs, undergoing major renovations,
is burial place of all French kings.

Cerise went to #Paris and came home in raptures over #Fontainebleau, Part 5

The main entrance

The wonderful bit about my latest trip to Paris was that so many of the sights we wanted to see had double or triple significance for my research.
   I know. I know. Your eyes glaze over. You want to get to the good stuff!
   Hmm. Licking my lips.
 

A closer look at the main entrance

Okay. One fine day, hubbie and I traveled to Fontainebleau. Gorgeous serene Fontainebleau at the end of an RER ride from our apartment in Montmarte was such a treat (at the end of a bus ride after the train). All worth the effort!
   We stopped before we entered the chateau to have lunch. In a cafe on the main street, we walked in to order champagne (because what else would you have, if not a bottle of Sancerre from the nearby Loire Valley). We each ordered the mussels, too. And let me say, OMG (like a screaming girl) I counted no less than 5 dozen mussels in my fabulous white wine broth. Served, yes, it was, with French bread . We were stuffed as we crossed the street and took our first look at this building.
   Famous for the attention given the original hunting lodge by Francis I, the chateau was occupied by many French kings and queens. Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, loved this palace and her receiving room and bedroom are grandiose examples of the sumptuous appointments in which French royalty lived.

Fontainebleau was also a favorite of Napoleon. In fact, in 1814, he abdicated his imperial throne from here and spoke harshly to his generals whom he felt had deserted him in his time of desperation.

The enormous tombs of Francis I and his wife, Claude of France in the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris suburbs.
This cathedral, one of the first examples of gothic architecture is where all French kings and queens are buried.
This relief is life size, which means Francis was at least 6 feet tall. 
And let me just say, his feet had to be size 15!

   From here in southern areas of Paris, Napoleon left for Elba in the Mediterranean for his first exile, but returned only months later to rouse the country to his cause. Arriving in March 1815 in Paris, he gathered troops but the latest alliance of Allies met him on the field at Waterloo in June 1815 and defeated him.
   The furnishings are scrumptious, many assembled from lesser castles and chateaux and restored. The friezes and art, including innumerable tapestries, take your breath away. But the sight that stopped me cold and kept me enchanted was the hallway you see pictured here.

This picture does little justice to the high relief of these whimsical plaster casts. They fairly leap from the walls.
This was a hallway constructed by Francis I to allow him to meet with his advisers easily, passing from the far part
of the monarch's residence to that used more by his ministers. The art is high Rococco, 
glorious in depiction of humans and animals.

   Other rooms, many of them redecorated by Napoleon, Josephine and the emperor's second wife, are as stunning for their color and form. In the enfilade type of French architecture, where one room empties into another, you also gain the sense that no one had much privacy. Nor heat! That, too, is another reason why people died young and/or suddenly of horrible maladies.

Napoleon's throne room with his famous imperial bees decorating the canopy.

The side apartments to the left of the main entrance where
attending ministers and servants lived when the king or emperor was in residence.

   Originally a hunting lodge, successive kings of France enlarged Fontainebleau into a sprawling entity, requiring hundreds of staff and enormous amounts of money to run.
   Seeing the gilded splendor on the walls and door knobs, the richness of Aubusson carpets and fine Sevres china on the tables, you do understand why and how the French ultimately revolted from a system that favored the few above the many.

The far gate, looking away from the cobblestoned main entrance, adorned with Napoleon's imperial Eagles.