Royal Palaces and Parks of France

phyan - M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

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344 pages

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Publié par	phyan
Publié le	08 décembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	48
Langue	English

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The Project Gutenberg
eBook, Royal Palaces
and Parks of France, by
Milburg Francisco
Mansfield, Illustrated by
Blanche McManus
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with
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Title: Royal Palaces and Parks of France
Author: Milburg Francisco Mansfield
Release Date: June 19, 2008 [eBook #25842]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOKROYAL PALACES AND PARKS OF FRANCE***

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Terrace of Henri IV, Saint Germain Terrace of Henri
IV, Saint Germain (See page 286)
Royal Palaces and Parks
of France
By Francis Miltoun
Author of "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine,"
"Castles
and Chateaux of Old Burgundy," "Rambles in
Normandy,"
"Italian Highways and Byways
from a Motor-Car," etc.
With Many IllustrationsWith Many Illustrations
Reproduced from paintings made on the
spot
By Blanche McManus

BOSTON
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
1910
Copyright, 1910.
By L. C. Page & Company.
(INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved
First Impression, November, 1910
Printed by
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U. S. A.
WORKS OF
FRANCIS MILTOUN
Rambles on the Riviera $2.50
Rambles in Normandy 2.50
Rambles in Brittany 2.50The Cathedrals and Church
2.50
es of the Rhine
The Cathedrals of Northern
2.50
France
The Cathedrals of Southern
2.50
France
In the Land of Mosques an
3.00
d Minarets
Royal Palaces and Parks of
3.00
France
Castles and Chateaux of Ol
d Touraine and the Loire C 3.00
ountry
Castles and Chateaux of Ol
d Navarre and the Basque 3.00
Provinces
Castles and Chateaux of Ol
d Burgundy and the Border 3.00
Provinces
Italian Highways and Byway
3.00
s from a Motor Car
net 3.
The Automobilist Abroad
00
(Posta
ge Ext
ra)
L. C. Page and Company 53 Beacon Street, Boston,
Mass.
Preface"A thousand years ago, by the rim of a tiny spring, a
monk who had avowed himself to the cult of Saint
Saturnin, robed, cowled and sandalled, knelt down to
say a prayer to his beloved patron saint. Again he
came, this time followed by more of his kind, and a
wooden cross was planted by the side of the "Fontaine
Belle Eau," by this time become a place of pious
pilgrimage. After the monk came a king, the latter to
hunt in the neighbouring forest."
It was this old account of fact, or legend, that led the
author and illustrator of this book to a full realization of
the wealth of historic and romantic incidents
connected with the French royal parks and palaces,
incidents which the makers of guidebooks have
passed over in favour of the, presumably, more
important, well authenticated facts of history which are
often the bare recitals of political rises and falls and
dull chronologies of building up and tearing down.
Much of the history of France was made in the great
national forests and the royal country-houses of the
kingdom, but usually it has been only the events of the
capital which have been passed in review. To a great
extent this history was of the gallant, daring kind, often
written in blood, the sword replacing the pen.
At times gayety reigned supreme, and at times it was
sadness; but always the pageant was imposing.
The day of pageants has passed, the day when lords
and ladies moved through stately halls, when royal
equipages hunted deer or boar on royal preserves,when gay cavalcades of solemn cortèges thronged the
great French highways to the uttermost frontiers and
ofttimes beyond. Those days have passed; but, to one
who knows the real France, a ready-made setting is
ever at hand if he would depart a little from the beaten
paths worn smooth by railway and automobile tourists
who follow only the lines of conventional travel.
France, even to-day, the city and the country alike, is
the paradise of European monarchs on a holiday. One
may be met at Biarritz on the shores of the Gascon
gulf; another may be taking the waters at Aix or Vichy,
shooting pigeons under the shadow of the Tete de
Chien, or hunting at Rambouillet. This is modern
France, the most cosmopolitan meeting place and
playground of royalty in the world.
French royal parks and palaces, those of the kings
and queens of mediæval, as well as later, times, differ
greatly from those of other lands. This is perhaps not
so much in their degree of splendour and luxury as in
the sentiment which attaches itself to them. In France
there has ever been a spirit of gayety and spontaneity
unknown elsewhere. It was this which inspired the
construction and maintenance of such magnificent
royal residences as the palaces of Saint Germain-en-
Laye, Fontainebleau, Versailles, Compiègne,
Rambouillet, etc., quite different from the motives
which caused the erection of the Louvre, the Tuileries
or the Palais Cardinal at Paris.
Nowhere else does there exist the equal of these
inspired royal country-houses of France, and, when it
comes to a consideration of their surrounding parksand gardens, or those royal hunting preserves in the
vicinity of the Ile de France, or of those still further
afield, at Rambouillet or in the Loire country, their
superiority to similar domains beyond the frontiers is
even more marked.
In plan this book is a series of itineraries, at least the
chapters are arranged, to a great extent in a
topographical sequence; and, if the scope is not as
wide as all France, it is because of the prominence
already given to the parks and palaces of Touraine
and elsewhere in the old French provinces in other
works in which the artist and author have collaborated.
It is for this reason that so little consideration has been
given to Chambord, Amboise or Chenonceaux, which
were as truly royal as any of that magnificent group of
suburban Paris palaces which begins with Conflans
and ends with Marly and Versailles.
Going still further afield, there is in the Pyrenees that
chateau, royal from all points of view, in which was
born the gallant Henri of France and Navarre, but a
consideration of that, too, has already been included in
another volume.
The present survey includes the royal dwellings of the
capital, those of the faubourgs and the outlying
districts far enough from town to be recognized as in
the country, and still others as remote as Rambouillet,
Chantilly and Compiègne. All, however, were intimately
connected with the life of the capital in the mediæval
and Renaissance days, and together form a class
distinct from any other monumental edifices which
exist, or ever have existed, in France.Mere historic fact has been subordinated as far as
possible to a recital of such picturesque incidents of
the life of contemporary times as the old writers have
handed down to us, and a complete chronological
review has in no manner been attempted.
PA
CHAPTER G
E
I. Introductory 13
The Evolution of French Ga
II. 14
rdens
III. The Royal Hunt in France 43
The Palais de la Cité and T
IV. 61
ournelles
The Old Louvre and Its Hist
V. 75
ory
The Louvre of Francis I and
VI. 85
Its Successors
VII The Tuileries and Its Garde 10
. ns 6
VII The Palais Cardinal and the 13
I. Palais Royal 1
The Luxembourg, the Elysé 15
IX.
e and the Palais Bourbon 1
16
X. Vincennes and Conflans
8
Fontainebleau and Its Fores 18
XI.
t 0
XII 20
By the Banks of the Seine
. 3XII 21
Malmaison and Marly
I. 5
XI 22
Saint Cloud and Its Park
V. 9
X Versailles: The Glory of Fra 24
V. nce 4
X The Gardens of Versailles a 26
VI. nd the Trianons 0
X
27
VII Saint Germain-en-Laye
9
.
X
29
VII Maintenon
6
I.
XI 30
Rambouillet and Its Forest
X. 9
X 32
Chantilly
X. 4
X 34
Compiègne and Its Forest
XI. 2
36
Index
3
Fronti
Terrace of Henri IV, Saint G
spiec
ermain
e
The Louvre, the Tuileries an
12
d the Palais Royal of To-day
"Jardin Français—Jardin An
15
glais"
Henri IV in an Old French G
20