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History
lesson: At 11 AM Saturday morning, there was
a visit to Eglise St. Roch, one of the most beautiful churches
in
Paris,
only
16 feet shorter than Notre Dame. The foundation was laid
by Louis XIV in 1653 when he was sixteen. Le
Notre was christened, married, and buried here.
His atelier was also located in the cupola. Its architect, Le
Mercier also designed the Sorbonne and the Square
Courtyard of the Louvre, among many other buildings in Paris. Admiral
de Grasse, the winner of the battle of Yorktown,
which was a decisive victory for George Washington’s
armies, is buried here also.
Afterwards there was a Champagne reception in
the Hotel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde. The palace
was designed by Gabriel and was originally where
all the royal crown jewels were stored. Since the Revolution, this
palace has housed the Ministry of the Navy. Louis XVI and Benjamin
Franklin signed the Treaty of Friendship and Trade between
France and the 13 independent States of America in the adjacent
building.
Saturday night. We left the hotel at
six for the drive out to Versailles for the big night – Le
Grand Bal du Bosquet “Un Reve Magique,” the American
Friends’ Grand Finale Celebration of the opening of the Trois
Fontaines – the first unveiling at 7 PM
Hundreds were arriving at the chateau, cars and buses lined up at the gates as
far as the eye could see. We walked across the marble court, into the chateau,
across the earliest galleries and out onto the terrace where long cart-buses
were waiting to take us on the half mile or so ride to the Neptune Fountain outside
the arbor where the Trois Fontaines is located.
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Becca
Thrash
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It
was a night of fashion. There were more than 400 Americans
present, the men in black tie and all the women beautifully dressed
often in bright pastels,
pinks, lavenders, and rose satins and chiffons. They came from all
over America: Texas, California, Chicago, Denver, Aspen, Michigan,
Philadelphia, New York – and all of Europe, including France – Doda
Voridis from Athens, with her granddaughter Katherine
Embiricos, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, the Comte
and Comtesse Mortemart, Jean and Sandy Yturbe, Edouard and Anne-Marie
de Ganay, Ariane Dandois and her daughter Ondine
de Rothschild, the Segerstroms from Newport
Beach, Patrick Coulson, Katie Stapleton from Denver, Terry
Butler from Aspen who came with an entourage of friends
including Chris Walling, Elizabeth Stribling and Guy Robinson,
Mark Fabry, Jonathan Marder and Gregory Grimes, Allison Lisk (who
did the flowers for the dinner), Barbara de Portago, Florence
van der Kemp, Matilde Stream, Mr. and Mrs. Christian Odasso, Francine
LeFrak-Friedberg, Judy and Peter Price, Mr. and Mrs. Stanislas de
Quercize from New York; Dottie Cherry, Mr. and Mrs.
Juan Pablo Molyneux, Lucia Bryan from Texas along with her
daughter Ashley Bryan and Brian Solon from San Francisco, James Fisher from Harvard and
Texas, the Maurice Tobins from Washington, D.C., Rita
Rome from Philadelphia, Marisa Berenson, Carole
Holmes from Michigan with her son Howard (Howdy) Holmes
IV, Mimi Stafford from New York, Arnold Scaasi and
Parker Ladd, Susan Gutfreund, Claude Roland from Paris, Bunky
Cushing from Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. John Lee from
Dallas, Mrs. McDermott from Houston, Steven
and Kimberly Rockefeller, Patty Hearst and her daughters Gillian
and Lydia, Sharon Hoge from New York, Amyn Aga Khan,
the Comte de Rohan, to name just a few off the top of my
head.
Waiters served trays of pink champagne by the pitcher, along with fresh orange
juice, sparkling water and white wine while we waited for the crowd to assemble.
About seven-thirty, they opened the gate for us to file up the long alley bordered
by tall hedges and tall green trellises up to the open triple terraces of the
fountains.
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Ariane
Dandois and Ondine de Rothschild
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Camille
Varlet and friend, Erin Till, Robert Atchison, Tennessee
Hamilton, Tammy Graham, Kimbel Hastings, and Nick Henderson
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Looking
across the Neptune Fountain en
route to the Trois Fountaines
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Barbara
de Portago
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Nancy
and Steven Crown
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Dottie
Cherry and Christopher Walling
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Mrs.
and Mr.
Josh Berman
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Barbara
Main
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Angel
Milou and Rita Rome
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Mrs.
and Mr. Juan Pablo Molyneux (center) and friends
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Marisa
Berenson
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Margaret
Jurka, Michael Levin, and Susan Gutfreund
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Bunky
Cushing and friends
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Jimmy
Buffett
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Claude
Roland with Princess and Prince Michael of Kent
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Katherine Embiricos
and Doda Voridis
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Marisa
Berenson with Lee and Berna Huebner
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Curry
Glassel-Roberts and Anne-Marie de Ganay
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Olivier,
Vicomte de Rohan and Libby Horn
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Arnold
Scaasi, Judy Price, Parker Ladd, and Peter Price
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Bunky
Cushing and Susie Forstmann Kealy
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Susan
Gutfreund
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Jules
and Liz Stiffel
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Catharine
and David Hamilton
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These
fountains were inaugurated for Louis XIV in 1677 when
he was forty years old. Already suffering from gout, he moved around
in what we now call a wheelchair. The terraces were designed by
his man Le Notre (aforementioned re the Eglise de Roch) who designed
the fountains, and he made sure that the stone steps had (the first
handicap access) ramps so that the King could move
upwards or downwards to view the fountains in action. Louis loved
fountains.
Many were
different
in visual
function, which amused the King. They were the 17th-century version
of the Video Game: something to see, to intrigue, to amuse.
There were hundreds of fountains at Versailles, maybe even a thousand in its
heyday. More fountains than they had water pressure for so that when Louis was
heading for a fountain, they turned it on, and then when he left to tour another
fountain, they turned the previous one off. The French learned conservation early. |
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The
first unveiling of the Trois Fontaines Bosquet. Saturday night
at 9:00 PM. |
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As
I’ve written in earlier pages about this trip, the Trois
Fontaines fell into neglect during the reign of Louis XVI, a
century after they’d been built for the Sun King. By the
end of the Revolution, at the beginning of the 19th Century,
they had disappeared and were consumed by overgrowth. This night
was the first time in more than 200 years, thanks to Catharine
Hamilton and her devoted band of volunteers and the
generous gifts of many of the Americans present on this night,
that the fountains were completely restored and working
again.
It must have
been close to nine o’clock, and still very light out when
we saw them – beginning on the top terrace, slowly spurt and burst, and
shower and flower, and then fall to the second and then the third, on the ground
level.
This restoration is a tribute to the donors, the artisans, gardeners and technicians
who worked to recreate Le Notre’s concept of a baroque fountain where the
sky, the water and the earth all come together. The horns blew, the crowd applauded
and the waters danced. |
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The
entrance to the Orangerie
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Afterwards
we moved on to the orangerie – another architectural
feat – the largest and grandest in the world, where dinner,
created by the famed traiteur Potel & Chabot was to be served.
I’d never been in the Orangerie before.
Photographs do not
convey the mammoth proportions of the gardens or the Orangerie
with its doors and windows two and three stories high (so that
the palms and orange trees can be easily moved in and out according
to the seasons). Bars were set up in the garden serving more champagne,
wine and water. I am not a champagne drinker by habit and although
I may be imagining it, the champagne in France – all of it – is
different from the champagne we get here in the United States.
You could drink it all night and hardly notice except for the pleasantly
mild buzz. |
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The
Orangerie from across the grounds
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ten o’clock we went into the Orangerie for the dinner:
Verrine Melon Glace, Raviole de Langoustine, Crème de
Corail, Molleux de Veau “Gremolata” aux
asperges, and Dessert des Trois Fontaines. Alex Donner and his orchestra from
New York played. After dinner (for 600), everyone moved out into the garden
again for a display of fireworks, in the style of the Sun King (who loved his
fireworks almost as much as he loved his fountains). After the fireworks, back
in the Orangerie, Mr. Jimmy Buffett who had flown over from Palm Beach in his
jet, wearing black tie and flip-flops, looking like a very prosperous Palm
Beach banker, took the center stage with his guitar and gave us a concert of
his hits along with the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There,” which
got everyone (of a certain age) singing. And then the dancing resumed under
the baton of Mr. Donner. |
Fireworks
in the style of the Sun King |
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left the party about one-thirty but I heard that it was three
AM before the Sun King’s Orangerie really began to empty
out and the fancy folk from all over the world got into their
cars and buses and returned to Paris. |
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Looking
across the vast Orangerie
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Dancing
to the Alex Donner Orchestra
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Henry
and Elizabeth Segerstrom (right) and friends
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Steven
and Kimberly Rockefeller
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Anne-Marie
and Edouard de Ganay
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Alexandra
Pinto, Lydia Hearst, and Alexis Tobin with her
brother
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Francine
LeFrak and friend
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Joan
and Maurice Tobin
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Paula
Crown with her daughter
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Ondine
de Rothschild
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Mrs.
Kerry Ciardelli-Olson and her daughter
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Sharon
Hoge
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Christine
Albanel
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Maria
Manetti Farrow
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Diana
Hall
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Florence
van der Kemp and her son
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George
Sheinberg and Marie Gabrielle Lesne
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Libby
Masterson
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Jimmy
Buffett "rocking in the house of the Sun King"
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