Marie-Antoinette

I adore and admire Marie-Antoinette.

No, she wasn't perfect. But in most ways, she was everything my alter-ego could ever want to be. She came to France at age 14 as the Dauphine with not a lot of education but a warm heart and obedient spirit. She made friends easily, laughed, adored the arts, and saw through the stiff traditions of the court. She was the type of girl that lit up the room when she entered and attracted all eyes. Later in life she was loyal to duty and to her family. She was devout in all meanings of the word. She was also caring. She remembered names and cared about those who served her. Her heart ached for the less-fortunate.

My last trip to France was partially a pilgrimage in her honor. I bought her biography, written by the august Lady Antonia Fraser, at the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. I just finished reading it yesterday and I have spent the past two days completing my pilgrimage. I wept at the final chapters, not only because of the fates of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, but also because of the barbaric ending of those who were close to the queen and most other monarchists. After finishing the book, I sat at the piano and played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which I'm just learning how to play. It is a mournful piece and that moment called for mourning. Then I watched The Scarlet Pimpernel so I could feel that there was some justice for Monarchists at that time. Then, today I watch the ever indulgent film by Sofia Coppola, Marie-Antoinette, which words can't describe how much it is my favorite movie and how often I listen to the soundtrack. Basically you all should know that I am and always will be obsessed with Marie-Antoinette. And Sofia Coppola changed my life.

When I was studying French civilization as part of my minor at BYU I was asked to write a paper where I had to choose a side: Revolutionist or Monarchist. I really thought about it for a while, because I do believe in Republican rule, and I value my American citizenship and heritage, which only came to be after rebellion and violence against a sovereign (and would not have been successful without the aid of the French, which contributed to the massive debt incurred by the Bourbon rule and which Louis XVI and M-A suffered the consequences). But I chose Monarchist, because I'm a conservative, traditional, religious person who dislikes violence and  rebellion. I remember my teacher, who was brilliant and inspiring and incidentally not LDS, was surprised that so many of us chose Monarchy over Revolution, especially because it was revolution that made France what it is today. The whole time I was reading M-A's biography I was reminding myself that France wouldn't be what it is today without these things happening. Well, I've come to this conclusion: Nothing can change the past. What happened happened. But I don't believe that the hatred, violence and complete disrespect of life needed to happen in order for a revolution to occur. Shame on those who contributed to the horrendous acts that accompanied these deaths. I will spare you the details, but a lot more happened than just the work of Madame Guillotine. And the Monarchy was reinstated shortly after the Reign of Terror anyway, so it makes me feel like it sure was a waste of a lot of lives. But I do acknowledge it made great strides in building a republic.

 I don't know of any record of M-A saying these words to her two surviving children before she died. She was in a cell and did not get to see them. They didn't even know it had happened until months afterwards. She wrote a letter to her sister-in-law who was with the children at the time and she may have included these words in the letter, but that letter was confiscated and was rediscovered 22 years later. I do know that in that letter some of her last words admonished her surviving family members to forgive.

The bodies of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI lie in the Saint-Denis Basilica. Bremen and I stayed in its shadows the second half of our trip. We walked past it and through it many times, and each time I thought of Marie-Antoinette. 

This is a working list of places to visit in order to have a Marie-Antoinette pilgrimage of your own:

*Vienna and the Habsburg residences

*Versailles including Petit Trianon and the Hamlet

*various sites in Paris

* The Tuileries where the family lived after being taken from Versailles

*the "temple" metro stop in the 3rd Arrondisement which is the location of the former Temple fortress where the royal family was imprisoned until Louis XVI's death and beyond until M-A was taken to the Conciergerie

*the Musee Carnavalet which exhibits some last artifacts that the Royal Family kept with them until the end and also one of M-A's last portraits done while she was in captivity

*Conciergerie, where M-A was imprisoned until her death

*Place de la Concorde where Marie-Antoinette was executed on October 16 1793.

*a small park with monument to the monarchy at the former cemetery off rue d'anjou near Galleries Lafayette. This is where the King and Queen were first hastily buried.

*The Basilica of Saint-Denis where their bodies were reinterred in the Bourbon family tomb.