SH Comments
Reged: Feb 16 2004
Posts: 1056
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This thread is for comments and feedback about Dispatches from Planet France: Châteaux, Part I, by Susannah Mandel.
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bthogg
Copy Editor
Reged: Jan 14 2004
Posts: 20
Loc: Nottingham, UK
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I enjoyed that very much! The etymological digression about circumflexes and defenestration gave me one of those "who's stolen my brain?" moments, as those are some of my favourite little corners of language too. Also, the bit about feeling oppressed in Versailles gave me a very strong flashback to reading (and being more scared by than is fitting at the age of twenty something) China Mieville's novella The Tain (in which the creatures that live inside mirrors see Versailles as the ultimate prison).
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Aliette
New user
Reged: Jan 10 2006
Posts: 2
Loc: France
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I never really thought of the difference between chateaux and chateaux-forts...Though for me Versaille is a palace, in spite of everyone calling it a "château". It's like the Louvre--no moats, virtually no defensive abilities (the Louvre did have moats, but they were filled in and have been unearthed only recently).
Your first impression of Versailles was spot-on:
Quote:
what I found was an oversized formality that upset and intimidated me
That's what Louis XIV built Versailles for: to intimidate his troublesome nobles. As a child, he'd seen all too well how noblemen could run France--"La Fronde", a civil war that involved armed bands of noblemen terrorising the countryside and defying royal power, had forced the child Louis to flee his own palace.
Louis XIV found that the only way to keep his noblemen in check was to put them in one place (the newly-built Versailles), to have them awed by the glory of the king, and to put into place a rigid court protocol that left place only for small court intrigues (such as who would be privileged enough to see the king rise in the morning) instead of big, kingdom-destabilising ones. Versailles' only goal was to intimidate.
Though I have to admit it's not my favorite part of French history either. Much too pompous and formal. Louis XIII was more fun.
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