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map-generator.net Several months before my trip to France and Italy, I entered into an email exchange with a series of press agents and academicians in an effort to obtain a private, curator-guided tour of Marie Antoinette's Private Apartments within t he Château de Versailles.  After providing my writing credentials and answering a questionnaire as comprehensive as any CIA screening, I was told a curator would be made available to take me on a tour of the apartments.  I was instructed to "reestablish contact a week before" my arrival in Paris to "receive a rendezvous time."  I printed the email and hung it on the bulletin board in my office, grinning like the Cheshire Cat each time I looked at it.  In fact, I spent the months leading up to my V isite Officielle imaging myself walking in the hidden rooms and corridors once traversed by my beloved queen, Marie Antoinette.  I felt like Alice in Wonderland - a humble human permitted entran...

I am thrilled to bring you a very special posting today!!  Noted French Photographer, Stephanie Gaveau Mounts , has graciously allowed Titillating Tidbits to publish several of her stunning photographs from her Versailles Portfolio.   In the article below, Mounts shares the inspiration behind the photographs ( SGM ) and journalist Leah Marie Brown explains the historical significance of the places featured( LMB ).  Mounts also shares the technical details of each photograph so budding photographers can attempt to reproduce similar images. The Dauphin's Chamber SGM :   "This room attracted me for several reasons:  the vibrant shade of green on the walls, the way the scarlet bed curtains contrast yet complement the walls, the way the light came through the massive windows.  It was an inviting and cozy space in spite of its large size." Technical Details:   Nikon D90, f/3.5 at 1/25 sec, 2...

"How delightful were these groves scented with lilacs, peopled by nightingales . . . the queen spent most of the fine season there." Baroness Oberkirch remarking on the grounds of Petit Trianon In, Rainy Morning with a Master , I told you about a sweltering summer day in 1978, when a frazzled librarian gave a biography about Marie Antoinette to an inquisitive, loquacious child. From that day on, I became obsessed with the tragic queen and with the notion of visiting the Chateau de Versailles. I imagined myself gliding through the  Hall of Mirrors, sunning myself on the green grasses of Le Hameau, inhaling the earthy scents that permeate the air in the Orangerie. Twenty-two years later, my dream of visiting Versailles came true.  Was it magical?  Did I feel exhuberant?  Not exactly. The moment I walked into the chateau I felt an overwhelming sadness, as if I had donned a mantle of meloncholy.   The gloom persisted through t...

Melanie Clegg, also known as Madame Guillotine , is a successful novelist, avid blogger, and a self-proclaimed gin-swilling Victorian prostitute.  She is also the author of The Secret Diary of a Princess , an exciting new novel about Marie Antoinette's early, carefree years in Austria.  The Secret Diary of a Princess offers Antoinette-enthusiasts a fresh pair of spectacles from which to gaze at her, painting the portrait of a fun, charming, light-hearted girl.   Ms. Clegg was born in  Forres, Scotland on October 10th (the day French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, stood before the National Assembly and declared he could invent an efficient, humane killing machine.  Hence, her moniker, Madame Guillotine).  She has an Art History degree from the University of Nottingham. She bravely agreed to place her neck in the lunette, making herself vulnerable to my razor sharp questions.  (I can hear yo...