Not a whole lot happening here at the moment. Still waiting for the last remains of snow and ice to be washed away, and for some proper signs of spring to show up. Thinking that I've already published enough photos of puddles and melting snow, today I decided to go time-travelling on my blog Greetings from the Past instead.
Not much has been happening lately on that family history blog of mine lately either; but this week's Sepia Saturday prompt happened to inspire me to go re-visiting the Versailles Palace museum in Paris, France, together with my great-aunt Gerda. If you want to get (re)acquainted with Gerda, and see the full set of old yellowed postcards from Versailles, click on the Greetings link above.
If you're content to just take a quick peek at a few bedrooms belonging to really famous people from the past, you'll find them copied below. All of them rather more spacious than my own, I have to admit. Personally I do think I prefer a more "cosy" style, though...
PS. There's a permanent link to my Greetings from the Past blog in my sidebar, always showing the headline of the latest post. I don't usually double-post, but thought I might give Sepia Saturday a bit of a "boost" today...
Goodness! This would be way too large and fancy for me! How could anyone sleep in a room that looks like a guilded ballroom? Well, maybe Trump. Nevertheless, I prefer something kind of cottage cozy.
ReplyDeleteGinny, I suspect that each of those rooms may be bigger than my whole apartment...
DeleteWow those photos are so elaborate! No wonder the people were jumping up and down.
ReplyDeleteAmy, your comment had me puzzled at first - but I suppose you're referring to the French revolution?
DeleteI like Cosy, which describes my current home quite well, but I also wish I had more room to move around without bumping into or dodging furniture items.
ReplyDeleteRiver, ah, there is that, of course... We have a convenient word in Swedish, "lagom", which means that something is just right - neither too much nor too little.
DeletePalaces have never been about cosiness, have they! It‘s all meant to impress and inspire awe in the lower ranks… I have read that the absolutist kings usually had a properly private bedroom elsewhere in their palaces, the public one meant for their courtiers and important guests to be present at the ceremonial start (and sometimes end) of each day in the king‘s life.
ReplyDeleteMeike, you're right of course, that the very word palace indicates the opposite of "cosy" ;)
DeleteI thought pretty much the same as the first commenters, but also thought, Napoleon must have been a really short man, his bed is almost child size.. certainly not cozy, but elaborate. When I see TV shows that show movie stars houses, none of them are cozy. Cozy is for poor folks like me.
ReplyDeleteSandra, I asked AI and was told that Napoleon actually wasn't really short, in today's measurements he was 1.68–1.7 meters (roughly 5'6" to 5'7"), which was over average in his time. You're right about the bed in this photo looking very short, though. Not sure whether that's an illusion, or perhaps it wasn't where he actually slept. On the other hand, as an army officer he was probably used to less comfort compared to kings and queens...
DeleteIt is surprising that no leather whips, sex toys or kinky boots were visible in Marie Antoinette's bedroom. Perhaps she stored them under her bed. Regarding Napoleon, I never realised that he was a dwarf but he must have been judging by the size of his bed.
ReplyDeleteOh... Now I see that you have addressed this issue above but maybe the 1.7 metre claim was propaganda.
DeleteYP, when googling it I got the impression that it was the other way round. His enemies seem to have liked to spread the rumour that he was short, while in fact he was "normal" height. The origin probably also had something to do with French vs British measure units differing back then.
DeleteMonica, I had to look back to find out about Gerda. She led a very interesting life.
ReplyDeleteJanice, she's certainly the most interesting person in my family history research so far - because of having worked for some rather famous people, and because postcards written from her to her brother having been preserved, and a photo album. She never mentioned names, and her photo album has no notes and the photos are in no logical order. But postcards from different places that she sent to her brother (kept by him, and then inherited by my grandmother, my father, and me) have been helpful - and also some unexpected comments from strangers I got while using blogging as one tool to try and put her story together "piece by piece".
DeleteI bet some of those huge bedrooms would have been cold even with a real fire to heat them
ReplyDelete