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The Petite Trianon was given to Marie-Antoinette by King Louis XVI so
that she could distance herself from court life a bit. Not content with
merely that, Antoinette decided to downsize even further and had a
hamlet created that included a farm, cottages, and a mill. I think that
it is one of the supreme ironies of history that a Queen of France, living
at a palace complex greater than perhaps any in the world, would have
preferred to spend at least some of her time with the chickens and sheep
in Rousseauian simplicity rather than in royal grandeur. The only modern
equivalent I can think of would be if Bill Gates were to suddenly move
into a cheap motel and start flipping burgers at a local diner in order
to soothe his soul.
No matter what some may say about her, no matter how steadfastly she
tried to protect her husband's throne and her childrens' futures, it is
good to know that in her own way Antoinette chose to throw a healed
shoe at one of those Great Deceptive Mirrors that exist so beautifully
at the Palace of Versailles.
The Queen's farmhouse, Versailles.
This Insubstantial Pageant Faded 
Fascinating. Shame she came to such a bad end.
Yes, and a shame so many came to a bad end, on both sides. Not a pretty revolution.
Nice farmhouse.:heart:
Yeah, I know. I was thinking, boy, wish I could live the rustic life. :pAnd if she ran out of food she could just raid the palace pantry. :lol::heart:
Well, I've been living the rustic life for almost six months by now. Including shovelling snow. Including stirring up the septic tank. Including purchasing heating fuel and manually filling it into the tank – in -12 degrees Celcius. Including fixing the roof because the constant drift blew about a ton of snow through a hole not much bigger than a fist, and it started melting and came through the overhead interior dripping from the ceiling.But we survived.In times like that it's good we are blessed with something like this.;)
I am sure that Antoinette was not close to the rustic life she supposed. Which probably would have included her getting up and fixing a roof. :pWell, she made some effort to downscale at least. I won't say "sorry" about your difficult work at La Petite Maison, because I know that it is very much what you wanted. That is one reason I have never wanted to own a home — if something goes wrong in my apartment I don't have to mess with it, I just call maintenance. Hmmm, much as Antoinette would do herself perhaps. Maybe I don't realize the royal circumstances in which I am living! 😀
Her farmhouse is bigger than some of the hotels I've been. I guess space is not a problem when you are a king :DOriginally posted by edwardpiercy:
😆
Originally posted by gdare:
I read a novel by George Sand set in the countryside of France called The Devil's Pond. That was set about 60 years later, but assuming rural life hadn't changed that much then the size of house Antoinette had would have been the equivalent of that which an ordinary successful farmer would have owned. There were of course less successful ones. The people who worked the land were usually family members and lived in the main house, so what we are really talking about here is a house that represented family wealth and not individual wealth like our houses represent today. Those who worked a property who where not family tended to live in small cottages with other members of their own family. One interesting thing too is that where there were not enough workers for a particular farm, the farmer would often turn to other regions near them to find workers to come and work. In other words, immigrant labor so to speak.
Originally posted by edwardpiercy:
:up: 😀