Elisabeth de Feydeau
A horticultural tour of Marie-Antoinetteâ€™s domain, the lavishly constructed gardens at Versailles, accompanied by eighteenth-century archival illustrations. Plants, flowers, and trees were Marie-Antoinetteâ€™s passion; she transformed the Petit Trianonâ€™s gardens into an enchanted escape from the oppressive shackles of Versailles. Based on archival documents, this book meanders through Marie-Antoinetteâ€™s estate as the queen herself would have walked it: traversing hyacinths, buttercups, and anemones in the French Gardens, via winding paths in the Anglo-Chinese Gardens, through the conifers of the Belvedere Gardensâ€”where fabulous nocturnal parties were hostedâ€”past the entrancing aromas of the shrubs surrounding the Temple of Love, to the wildflowers of the Garden of Solitude. This fascinating reconstruction includes descriptions of the cosmetic and medicinal uses of the gardenâ€™s plants, anecdotes from the royal court, and watercolors of the herbarium.
History,Horticulture,Gardening,Nonfiction
From Marie Antoinette's Garden: An Eighteenth-Century Horticultural Album