summer fête for marie antoinette
(collage above by artist Mme de Côme)
i’m supposed to be in france right now but at the last minute had a change of plans. if i’d remembered that marie’s party was in full swing i may have gone just for it. quel dommage! well, if you’re there, let us know how it was and for those of us stateside, i did a little research so we’d at least have some eye candy and cake. anyway it was a great excuse to get lost in her world for awhile.
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
3, avenue du Général Eisenhower
75008 Paris
Métro: Champs-Elysées Clemenceau
Tel.: 01 44 13 17 17
Closed Tuesday
Documentaries shown in the auditorium Wednesday-Monday at 2 pm
Feature films on Friday and Saturday at 6pm
if you can’t go you can see a bit here via Suzy Menkes
there’s a special area for kids
boutique (what a selection! some faves below)
it’s inspiring to share a marie antoinette passion with so many. surfing for pics led me to flicker where i found lilidebretagne’s photos
and she led me to this sensational artist below was featured on the same site. her name is Mme de Côme but i haven’t been able to find out any info on her. do you know her?
ohh la la i love these!
ok when you start looking up stuff for marie it just gets to be an all out obsession:
here are a couple links with great pics and then that’s it, i have to work!
the paris apartment 
Cindy replied:
What gloriously beautiful photos Claudia!! Thank you for such a lovely post.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend~
Cindy
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May 17, 2008 at 9:43 pm. Permalink.
Charlie replied:
Claudia,
How amazing are those gowns! I loves this pictures, they are so beautiful! I feel like dressing up! Thanks so much for sharing!
Charlie
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May 17, 2008 at 10:52 pm. Permalink.
Charlie replied:
BTW Have a lovely rest of your weekend!
Charlie
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May 17, 2008 at 10:54 pm. Permalink.
Fifi Flowers replied:
I just read about this exhibit on the official Versaille website last week… I would love to see it too… and maybe pop out to the palace and see the latest restorations and feel the royal vibe!
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May 18, 2008 at 4:55 am. Permalink.
Lisa replied:
Yeah, it definitely bothers me that in that one collage picture (the fourth from the bottom) Marie Antoinette’s face has been superimposed over that of the far superior style icon Madame Pompadour. The picture has been adapted from Maurice Quentin de La Tour’s pastel “Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour” which dates to 1755, the year Antoinette was born. Pompadour’s impact was more significant than Antoinette’s as an 18th century tastemaker, cultural figure, political influence, & champion of art & literarture, even though she was only a royal mistress & never officially queen. I guess I just find the picture insulting to Madame Pompadour.
This is the de La Tour pastel:
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May 18, 2008 at 6:58 am. Permalink.
~Amy replied:
I want to wear those fabulous dresses! I shan’t look at the price, of course! LOL
I am in love with those bed steps. I’ll bet the little dog is grateful, eh?
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May 18, 2008 at 4:10 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
Thanks for the heads up Lisa, I think it’s really wrong to superimpose MA’s face over Mme Pompadour! She handed down the Trianon to Marie Antoinette and was the forerunner of all things pretty, but gets no credit. I love this website:
http://www.madamedepompadour.com
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May 18, 2008 at 8:19 pm. Permalink.
Rosemarie replied:
Wish I was there!
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May 18, 2008 at 8:29 pm. Permalink.
Lisa replied:
Love the beautiful dresses. Lovely pictures to browse and imagine what it would have been like to wear them.
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May 19, 2008 at 8:55 pm. Permalink.
kayellen replied:
Ohhhh, so pretty!
What a wonderful collection of photos to share! Looks like a wonderful Tour.
I feel like having tea, a petit four and dressing up:)
Love stopping by to see your blog!
So happy you have returned.
Merci Beaucoup,
KayEllen
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May 20, 2008 at 12:39 am. Permalink.
le petit cabinet de curiosites replied:
I love these collages !
I couldn’t go there but I’m very sad about it . thank you for the tour.I like Marie Antoinette , even if I prefer La Pompadour
have you read my post about a painting I found ? :
http://enseignedegersaint.typepad.fr/provence/2008/04/lucky-me.html
You would love this painting
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May 20, 2008 at 9:12 am. Permalink.
le petit cabinet de curiosites replied:
Claudia , just read your comment about LA pompadour !and I see we share this idea !
I love this website, thank you for the link
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May 20, 2008 at 9:20 am. Permalink.
Kris replied:
What a spectacular selection! I never get tired of pure glamour and fabulousness. But Lisa, those collages are art. Don’t get your panties in a twist, however glamorous Madame Pompadour certainly was.
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May 20, 2008 at 3:51 pm. Permalink.
Di Overton replied:
I wish you had written this post before I went last week. I went on Tuesday and it was SHUT. I still want to cry. I posted a picture of the interior of the exhibition, I found on the web, today – it looks amazing. Go and see the walls they are to die for.
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May 20, 2008 at 4:38 pm. Permalink.
Terri Pollhein replied:
Thanks for the very cool links.
Poor Marie has certainly become, oh, less villified in recent years hasn’t she? History is showing a little more compassion towards her then in previous times. Don’t you think?
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May 21, 2008 at 10:22 am. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
it’s interesting, our different takes on what’s art and what’s appropriate. Thanks for spicing up the discussion!
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May 21, 2008 at 1:22 pm. Permalink.
rochambeau replied:
How can I thank you enough for this post? Let me count the ways!!! ALL makes me HAPPY!!! VERY!!!
Must go now, but I’ll be back later to oooooh gul some more.
So sorry about your change of plans! ;-(………….
Hey, sometime this week I’m going to go check out Bodega and meet your buddy Mike. I’ll take Pix and share! I made him some Fantasia cookies too!
xo
Constance
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May 21, 2008 at 4:20 pm. Permalink.
DesignFlute replied:
thank you for this lovely post!
I had long back downloaded an image of marie antoinette’s shoe. And I wanted to do a small post but always hesitated. now I will post it.
Thanks again!
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May 21, 2008 at 9:05 pm. Permalink.
Betty Parker-Knowles replied:
I have just discovered your blog and it makes me miss Paris very much! My husband and I have just returned from our first visit to Paris and we did attend the Marie Antoinette exhibit at the Grand Palais. It was really beautiful, but really crowded! The gift shop did have some wonderful souvenirs, but our favorite part was that Laduree has a cart outside of the shop selling macarons! I bought six and since it was raining really hard, we took them to the “tearoom” upstairs and had them with espresso and tea and had our own little impromptu party in honor of Marie Antoinette! If you have any chance to get there before the exhibit ends at the end of June, please go! By the way, I have your book and I really love it! So happy to find your blog!
Betty
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May 22, 2008 at 7:25 pm. Permalink.
Cindy replied:
Hey Claudia~
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!!
Blessings~
Cindy
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May 23, 2008 at 1:26 pm. Permalink.
Laura Ingalls Gunn replied:
Marie is just one of my favorites. Check out my post that I did last month on her.
Your photos are beautiful.
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May 23, 2008 at 2:56 pm. Permalink.
The Deco Detective replied:
Hello Claudia,
Thanks for taking your time to make this post before working=) The dresses are beyond description. Wish I could go… And the interiors in the paintings – I must say that the interior designers in the olden days were a lot bolder than today. Should inspire us all to have some fun at home!
Have a nice weekend!
-DD-
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May 23, 2008 at 3:28 pm. Permalink.
Sher replied:
Ooooh la la! Luv these are gorgeous – I want to order from that Boutique but it’s in French! I wonder if there is a way….I’ll have to break out my French to English Handbook so I can decipher the language :) How are you doing?? Thinking of you C and hope you have a lovely weekend!
Oh those Marie Antoinette digital photos are to die for!!
Gorgeous!! Don’t you love Flickr!
xoxo Sher
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May 23, 2008 at 6:11 pm. Permalink.
Kathy Delgado replied:
Thank you for taking all the time to share these lovely pics. Mme Pompadour is my most favorite so I always enjoy seeing a shout out to her. I visited the Marie Antoinette exhibit very recently and while I enjoyed it immensely, it was far too crowded for me to linger. I was in and out as fast as I could. PS my two cents on what I can see on your new online shop redo: fab!
Always a sincere treat to see what inspiring photos you find to generously share with the online world! xo Kathy
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May 26, 2008 at 5:53 pm. Permalink.
courtney @ nesting instincts replied:
Hey Claudia – was just doing some Etsy browsing and thought of you…maybe you’ve seen the work of Paper Nosh before (I think I’ve featured them in a past Fab Finds post) but she’s doing artwork now in addition to just notecards. I think you would love it! Here’s the link to her shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5255972 and to her blog: http://lapinkpaperie.blogspot.com/ hope you’re having a great week! :-) Courtney
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May 29, 2008 at 12:34 am. Permalink.
Alkemie replied:
Claudia, What an Incredible spread about Marie Antoinette !! I really really enjoyed this post!
Karen
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June 22, 2008 at 9:03 pm. Permalink.
Glenna replied:
What an amazing and captivating posting! So much detail and so much wonderful work has gone into this. Thank you for such a glorious posting.
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June 27, 2008 at 1:41 pm. Permalink.
christina replied:
the pictures is very amazing!!!
i love marry antoinette!! ^^
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December 29, 2008 at 4:52 pm. Permalink.
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May 7, 2020 at 9:16 am. Permalink.