Let Them Eat Cake

Fiancé and I just returned from a 5-day trip to Puerto Vallarta, where we quickly realized our hotel had 1) a swim-up bar; 2) bar service 24 hours a day, and; 3) a deck from our hotel room.

Upon realizing this and that fact that we didn’t particularly want to check out the Starbucks, the Outback Steakhouse and the two, count ‘em, TWO Hooters in downtown PV, I settled in with Marie Antoinette: The Journey, by Antonia Fraser.

About 5 days, countless banana daiquiris, a few plates of guacamole and chips later, I made my through all 544 pages.

Fraser provides a very sympathetic account of Antoinette, the French (Austrian) princess who married the Dauphin when she was just 14 years old. Her marriage to the Dauphin was not consummated for seven years, to great consternation of her meddling mother, the Empress of Austria. It was during these years that Marie Antoinette, a child raised to be a queen who had no idea about the value of money, became known for her extravagant expenditures on clothing and gambling.

The author DOES the myth (along with many other historians) that Antoinette could not have uttered the famous words “Let them eat cake” in reference to the bread shortage among the French lower classes. Antoinette was actually known among her family and friends as being over-generous to her staff and concerned about the many unnecessary positions at the Versailles court.

When Marie Antoinette and Louis XV1became King and Queen at in their late teens, they inherited a country in poverty due to wars that Louis XVI father and grandfather fought in. In addition, Louis XVI, not a great political thinker, was influenced by his advisors to help fund the Revolutionary War. The French citizens of course blamed the royalty for the nation’s ills, and most of their hatred was directed at Marie Antoinette, who was a foreigner in their minds.

A VERY confusing series of events known as the Affair of the Necklace, which I’m not even going to attempt to explain here (and believe me, do NOT rent the movie with Hilary Swank) was the final nail in the coffin for the French queen. I'll let you read about it here on Wikipedia.

Shortly after The Affair of the Necklace, a mob of angry French citizens stormed Versailles and demanded that the King and Queen (and their children) abandon the castle and move into the Tuilleries where they were held prisoner for several years before trying to escape the country. The escape plan was foiled and they were both charged with treason.

I think the rest is history….both King and Queen were beheaded. The Queen was treated particularly cruelly prior to her death; her best friend was attacked and literally torn to pieces by an angry mob and her dismembered head was paraded in front of the Queen.

That is an EXTREMELY condensed version of a 544-page book. I highly recommend this book for an excellent history lesson in French politics, as well as a fascinating account of life at Versailles, which was just completely over the top.