Four years have gone by. Marie-Antoinette is now the Queen and she has a passion for games. She plays backgammon or “cavagnol”, a kind of bingo. Sometimes she plays for money, although the King has prohibited gambling because huge fortunes have been lost that way before. But who can resist the young Queen?
“What about a game of lansquenet or pharaoh?” she asks. “The King gave me permission to have one last game!”
The gambling went on for thirty-six hours! The Court played non-stop until the morning of the next day. When the King heard about this endless game the Queen quipped, “Your Majesty allowed me one game, but did not specify how long it could be!” Her lovely smile would melt the toughest heart. Laughing, the King replied “Go on, you’re naughty ruffians, the lot of you!”
The Queen also loves horse races, a new fashion imported from England. But her favourite game is billiards. She keeps a table in her private chambers where she can retire and play away from the crowd. Sometimes she enjoys the visit of her good friend, the painter Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.
“Try not to move too much your Majesty” says the artist as she paints a portrait of the Queen playing her harp.
Marie-Antoinette smiles. She loves the company of her charming and talented friend.
The Queen is also very busy redecorating the Palace, selecting fabrics, furniture and novelties, and then there are her new dresses and hairstyles that need to be constantly reinvented. So many things to lessen the boredom of her life in Versailles! And why shouldn’t she be the most elegant woman in France? Marie-Antoinette is brimming with ideas!
In her sweet-scented yellow sitting room, Marie-Antoinette is chatting with her favourite hairdresser, Léonard.
“Let me crrreate for you a towerrring hairdo, as tall as my rrrespect for my Queen!” says the hairdresser, rolling his R’s. In order to give her hair more volume he crimps it up over a pouf. The artist gives his royal client a mask to protect her face with whilst he powders her hair with starch to make it white.
“Oh, Monsieur” jokes the Queen, “you look like a floured piece of fish, ready to be fried!”
Fixing those puffy cushions on top of her head is a complicated task!
“Ouch! Your pins hurt me, good Monsieur!”
“Parrrdon me, my Queen, I shall be morrre carrreful.”
Léonard adds the final touches to the royal hairstyle with a translucent gauze, sublime feathers, ribbons and flowers…
“Your Majesty looks rrravishing!” says the “purveyor of capillary grace”, holding a mirror for the Queen.
Soon all the ladies at Court are flocking to Léonard’s to get the most impressive puffed-up hairdos. They wear fantastic hats and extravagant headdresses with fancy names, like “ostrich-feather pouf” or “pageant of emotions pouf”, as well as elaborate ribbons from which roses cascade down.
Even current events like the Independence of America are inspiring hairstyles. The “Belle-Poule” headdress recreates a frigate that won a famous battle at sea! How odd to see a full battleship perched on a lady’s head…
“Phew… it’s heavy!” mutter the ladies under their breath. Some of these creations are over three feet high, and the wearers end up looking like a wedding-cake or that new invention, a hot-air balloon… They can’t even sit in their carriages anymore, and have to crouch between the seats. Was there ever a sillier fashion? Where will it stop?
But what would you do if you had to spend your life moving from castle to castle, from party to party, subjected to the terrible boredom of etiquette and the cruelty of Court gossip? What can you do when you’re excluded from politics, from the problems of the kingdom, and have no children to love yet?
This may be why fashion has become Marie-Antoinette’s main preoccupation. Every morning, the keeper of the wardrobe hands the first chambermaid a large book where patterns of fabric are pasted with sealing wax.
The Queen selects her outfits for the day by sticking a pin in each patch: one for the morning dress, one for the informal afternoon dress and another for the full evening dress that she’ll wear at a card game or for supper.
The frivolous Queen can’t resist the gorgeous dresses, the sumptuous fabric and the magnificent jewels that are constantly offered to her.
“What shall I choose? A pannier dress, the “impertinent pleasures” dress or the “love’s cradle” one? What delightful creations!” she exclaims, looking at the embroidered silks and fine laces.
The Queen invents funny names for the latest fashionable colours: “flea stomach”, “Dauphin’s pooh”…
She wants her dressmaker, the formidable Mademoiselle Bertin, to create dresses that will make all other women swoon in envy. “I’ll have this one!” decides the Queen.
“It will be just perfect to dance at the Bal de l’Opéra!”
The extravagance of her two suppliers knows no bounds. Ribbons here, ostrich feathers there… The bills of Rose Bertin and Léonard are staggering. Marie-Antoinette’s taste is terribly expensive.
“Who cares! I’ll be serious later. Now let’s have fun!” retorts the Queen to those who would like her to be more careful.
It is quite a feat to walk through the grand halls of Versailles, wearing those long, cumbersome court dresses, without stepping on another lady’s hem.
Do not lift your feet! You must glide elegantly along the polished floor of the majestic Galerie des Glaces. If you don’t know how to dance, watch your step! The Queen has mastered this elegant art and all eyes are set on her gracious Majesty.
When the King and Queen walk by, a mob of courtiers rushes to the scene. They all want to be seen and ask for favours, so they elbow their way to the front, hoping to get a single word from the sovereign. It’s a real free-forall, but what honour when after days or months, one finally gets a little royal nod! This is what court life is all about in Versailles…
Marie-Antoinette wants to get away from the formalities of the Court. When her husband, King Louis XVI, is not away hunting, he spends hours locked in his workshop, creating intricate mechanisms. It’s his real passion!
One day, the King gives his young wife a present beyond her wildest dreams.
“You love flowers, don’t you” he says cheerfully. “Well, I have a bouquet for you!” and he gives her a sumptuous key, set with five hundred and thirty one diamonds…
“Oh! What a charming, delightful present!” she exclaims, dazzled by the sparkle of this magnificent gift, glittering like countless tiny suns.
“This is the key to the Petit Trianon”, he adds. Marie-Antoinette jumps for joy and kisses her blushing husband. Finally, she will have a real home, where she can be herself without being constantly watched by the whole Court.
The renovation work begins “by the Queen’s command”.
The garden is expensively redesigned. Little hills, waterfalls, large rocks and even a small river are constructed! “Wouldn’t it be charming to have a pretty little temple of Love, on an island full of roses?” No sooner said than done. An army of gardeners stands ready to fulfill the Queen’s every wish.
Inside, the Trianon is decorated in soft pastel hues: green, lilac, white, gold. Furniture and ornaments are inspired by the rustic themes the Queen likes so much: bird cages, flower baskets decorated with pretty ribbons. This is Marie-Antoinette’s own style, and it is exquisite!
Soon parties, shows and operas are organized there. On the stage of the small Trianon theatre, with its cardboard sets, Marie-Antoinette plays shepherdesses or servant girls with her “company of Lords”. Everyone claps enthusiastically when she appears. The Queen seems to relive part of her happy childhood.
After the show, all her guests are invited to share a fine supper. “Let’s eat and be merry!” Marie-Antoinette tells her little group of select friends. But this kind of privacy goes against the stately life of the Court, and people begin to disapprove and resent her lack of attention. Tongues are wagging in Versailles!
“Have you ever seen such a thing? How dare she scorn the Court like that! Let’s leave. Paris has become much more fun!” Little by little, the courtiers abandon the Palace of Versailles, leaving Marie-Antoinette and her favourite companions by themselves.
Marie-Antoinette has finally become a mother, and it is her greatest joy. She brings up her children herself, with the help of a governess.
She still lives in the fantasy world she has created. She has built a charming hamlet, with a farm, a dairy and a lake… How romantic! The Queen wants to live close to nature, and has taken to dressing in a very simple fashion, letting her hair hang freely on her shoulders.
“A light muslin dress, a little scarf and a pretty straw hat, that’s all I need!” she muses.
Marie-Antoinette loves to walk in her private gardens with her family, picking flowers, playing blind man’s bluff…
“Come on children, let’s go and fetch milk from the dairy farm!” The children laugh. They have so much fun riding in their little cart drawn by sheep. But a storm is brewing… and they all run to the shelter of their home. Soon history will catch up with them. But that is another story…
