By: Katie Petersen<\/p>\n
In France, Princeton Dean Rebecca Graves-Bayatizoglu says, \u201cthere is a much greater distinction between public spaces and private spaces.\u201d This cultural norm appears to have deep roots, as even Marie Antoinette was\u00a0desperate for that division, according to head curator of the Museum of the Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles and of the Petit Trianon Bertrand Rondot.<\/p>\n
Rondot explains in the stairway of Marie Antoinette\u2019s Trianon that the queen longed for privacy \u2013 naturally, he says,\u00a0because \u201cthis was the center of family life in the time of Marie Antoinette.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is where she raised and educated her children, put on plays for them and others in the family theatre, and taught them about the nearby-country lifestyle. She was eager to give them a normal childhood, and the house matched her aims: architect Gabriel-Ange Jacques had constructed the residence beautifully but unassumingly, as its original inhabitants were first one, then another king\u2019s mistress.<\/p>\n
Antoinette even had movable mirrors installed that could open to let the sunlight in during the day and then close to keep out prying eyes at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe royal family was seeking privacy from court-goers,\u201d Rondot explains, who were just a short walk away at the main palace.<\/p>\n
But nothing was truly private for the royal family. \u201cPaparazzi didn\u2019t exist at the time,\u201d Rondot says, \u201cbut people were always watching the royal family.\u201d For instance, when Antoinette moved in and disliked the \u201crevealing\u201d paintings in the hamlet, she commissioned new paintings of the courts in her home country of Vienna. According to Rondot, the Parliament heard of these plans and stepped in: ultimately, the members did not allow Marie Antoinette to remove the originals. The paintings, bared breasts and all, remain in the Trianon today.<\/p>\n
Rondot concludes, \u201cit was a nightmare to live in Versailles\u201d for Marie Antoinette. \u201cIt was a public life every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Katie Petersen In France, Princeton Dean Rebecca Graves-Bayatizoglu says, \u201cthere is a much greater distinction between public spaces and private spaces.\u201d This cultural norm appears to have deep roots, as even Marie Antoinette was\u00a0desperate for that division, according to head curator of the Museum of the Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles and of the Petit Trianon … <\/p>\n