We now veer sharply into titillating details of Marie Antoinette’s marriage.
A proxy marriage ceremony was carried out in Vienna and a game of one-upmanship between Austria and France shifted into high gear. Receptions of the utmost splendor were held at the Belvedere and Liechtenstein Palaces. Full-dress military reviews, theater galas and much more filled the itinerary. And while all this was taking place in Vienna, frantic preparations were under way at Versailles, including the construction of a new opera house.
The duc de Dufort arrived in April 1770 to attend the wedding and to escort the blushing bride to France. This was not going to be a quick road trip. The train of wagons and coaches required 340 horses, plus two traveling coaches of “fabulous splendor, especially designed and constructed for the occasion by order of the French King.”
This was the public face of the wedding. Behind the scenes, things were even more complicated. And not at all amendable to being fixed by a command from a king or queen. This was a binding of the two most powerful dynasties of Europe. The Hapsburg and Bourbon families were ancient. They bowed to no one. Including each other. Which presented a unique problem.
“So tell me about this friend of yours,” Harmony said. “Is he a geek?”
“He’s an ex-con.”
“Oh boy. Should I ask what he did?”
“Once you meet him, you won’t have to.”
Yeah, I went over the limit, but not by much.
MizB of Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesday. Grab your current read, open to a random page, share a couple of “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. Go see Should Be Reading for more detail.
Here’s something to keep you entertained for a little while, because I still haven’t straightened out my guest blogger traffic snarl yet. It will probably be a couple of weeks.
She’s always doing that; saying something but not enough so we know what she really means. Always hinting of something deeper. But if you ask, she says it’s nothing.
Monkey Man hosts the 160 Character Challenge. See what you can write in 160 characters or less, spaces included.
Don’t stand there on the cliff edge
Telling yourself there is only one way.
How can there only be one,
when I have called to you for so long,
waving and pointing to all the other ways
to leave this precipice?
My voice is hoarse. My arms are tired
But I’ll keep standing here
Waiting for you
To stop telling yourself lies.
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Flash Fiction 55 is hosted by the G-man, a host with the most.
1. It’s been a cool summer here in Montana. Only in the last few weeks have we sweltered.
2. I took my fancy new camera to the 4th of July celebration in town and got these shots. It was my first attempt at night photography with this camera. Considering I’m still learning, I thought they came out pretty good.
3. Cold, crisp watermelon in the afternoon. Yum.
4. My new cell phone is great. It can go on the internet.
5. I’m having fun with the quilt. Want to help me make some decisions? I have poll up.
6. I got my Welcome page set up for Blogmania. Yes, I’m still basking. I like basking, even if it isn’t exactly “in glory”.
7. I nice swimming pool with no one else in it.
8. A whole bunch of people are sponsoring me! I feel so pretty.
9. I love the gab badge I made for blogmania. Every day I switch out the pictures in the middle. Fancy, eh?
10. Ice cream.
11. What? I need to say more? Fine. Ice cream in the cone or in a sunday, or vanilla ice cream mixed with a little yogurt and berry syrup. Root beer floats. Malteds…..
12. Vacation. I’ve got one coming up in about a month. I intend to blog from the road. Which leads me to my latest happy discovery.
13. Wireless hot spots in libraries, camp grounds, grocery stores, and motels. Yeah!
Mr. Al’s take on Marie Antoinette, as seen by her mother, continues.
I must beg forgiveness of all my readers for a mistake that I made last week. I said that Marie Antoinette was not born to be Queen of France. This was quite true. However, she had been pledged to to wed the Dauphin at age eleven. This should have given mom plenty of time to prepare her except for the fact that she actually got married when she was barely fifteen.
Those few years might have been enough for most girls to acquire at least enough knowledge to wing it until they got their “sea legs,” so to speak. But, alas, Marie Antoinette was a Hapsburg. And, as many historians have noted, Hapsburgs were not, as a group, the sharpest pins in the cushion. Marie Antoinette was not dumb, but she had much to learn, not much time to learn it, and a personality that disinclined her to learn anything.
Maria Theresa was an anomaly, although no one would have ever mistaken her for a genius in the conventional sense. It was probably one of Maria’s bigger mistakes to believe her children could rise to the occasion as the situation demanded because, well, that’s what she did. She should have known better.
Comment on next Monday's post for a chance at this signed copy.
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Hey, I’m in the mood. 
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