An immersive horticultural tour of Marie Antoinettes domain from the Queens personal archives the lavishly constructed gardens at Versaillesaccompanied by eighteenth-century illustrations. So you like flowers? Louis XIV said to his young queen, Well, Ive got a bouquet for youthe Petit-Trianon. And so Marie Antoinette took over the splendid former residence of Madame de Pompadour, transforming the gardens into an enchanted landscape. Using archival documents and architect Richard Miques original plans from 1777, Elisabeth de Feydeau recreates the fanciful herbarium, taking the reader on a journey through Marie Antoinettes estate, just as the queen herself would have walked it. The reader is invited to proceed from the French Gardens, with their beds of hyacinth, buttercups, and anemones, via the winding paths of the Anglo-Chinese Gardens, through the conifers of the Belvedere Gardens, where fabulous late night parties were hosted, and past the entrancing aromas of the shrubs surrounding the Temple of Love, to the wildflowers of the Garden of Solitude. Elisabeth de Feydeaus fascinating reconstruction plunges the reader into the eighteenth century, showcasing newly-discovered species and the cosmetic uses of many of the gardens plants, alongside anecdotes from the royal court. The volume is brought to life by delicate watercolors of the herbarium by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, a designer and painter for Marie Antoinettes Cabinet.
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