Yes, Tuesday was Mardi Gras, yesterday was Ash Wednesday and we have now entered the season of Lent. An opportunity to look back at last year’s posts on these topics: – The boisterous celebration of Carnival in Paris, – The hardly more decorous happenings in Versailles, where, under Louis XV, the Ball of the Yew […]
Versailles étiquette may sound daunting, but it fell by the wayside on special occasions. Such was the case during a masquerade in the Hall of Mirrors on the 25th and 26th of February 1745. It was given in honor of the Mardi-Gras period that precedes the Lent fast, and in celebration of the marriage, two […]
Today is Mardi-Gras, Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent. Before the French Revolution it was the occasion for bawdy, sometimes lewd masquerades. Raucous parades filed through the streets of Paris, like the promenade du bœuf gras (“fat ox parade.”) A young boy, called “King of the Butchers” with a gilt crown, sword and scepter, […]
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