13 November 1687
From the Journal of the Marquis de Dangeau
On this day, Louis XIV takes to the road:
“The King left Fontainebleau early with Monseigneur, Madame, and Mesdames les Princesses. He came to dine in Essonne, whence Madame departed to join Monsieur in Paris. After dinner, the King got into his calèche with Monseigneur and the 2 princesses and arrived at Versailles at 3 o’clock. Madame la Dauphine went to receive him at the bottom of the staircase. Afterwards, His Majesty went to see his building at Trianon. He found it well advanced and quite beautiful. He is very pleased with it. He took with him Mesdames de Maintenon and de Montchevreuil. In the evening there was a comedy. Madame la Dauphine felt a little unwell and sent her maids of honour with the Comtesse de Fiesque and Mademoiselle’s maids of honour.”
Commentary:
The court had been at Fontainebleau since the first week of October. Louis XIV usually stays there for 4 to 6 weeks every autumn. The King’s brother, Monsieur, was ill in bed at the Palais-Royal, which is why Madame, his wife, goes to Paris rather than returning to Versailles with everyone else. The 2 princesses are the Princesse de Conty and the Duchesse de Bourbon, the King’s daughters by, respectively, Mlle de La Vallière and Mme de Montespan. A calèche is a small, light vehicle drawn by 2 or 4 horses and seating no more than 4 passengers, one of whom holds the reigns. Being so light, it can go very fast, which is why the royal party arrives at Versailles so soon after dinner. The King is evidently eager to see the progress of the construction work at Trianon.
Pictured: A view of what we now call the Grand Trianon from its garden, my own photo taken in April, 2018.
The “building at Trianon” is the Grand Trianon as we know it today, or as it will be when it is finished. It is simply called Trianon at this date because there is not yet a Petit Trianon from which it needs to be distinguished. The previous building on the site was demolished earlier this year; much smaller than the new structure, it is now remembered as the Trianon de Porcelaine. We know it only from illustrations. Never meant to be permanent, it was built in 1670 with a wooden skeleton and was clad in painted ceramic tiles, hence its name.
For those just joining us, it should perhaps be explained that Monseigneur is the King’s heir, the Dauphin, and the Dauphine is Monseigneur’s wife. Mademoiselle is the King’s unmarried cousin, the eldest daughter of his late uncle, Gaston, Duc d’Orléans. These appellations are all explained in the glossary. Like the King and his brother, she is a grandchild of Henri IV. Sometimes called la Grande Mademoiselle, she is the richest woman in France, her mother having been a great heiress.
The translation from the French is my own. Images that are not my own are in the public domain; I only explicitly credit images when the uploader has made it a condition of sharing his/her work via Wikimedia Commons. Words in italics in the body of the post or bold italics in verbatim translations and image captions are in the alphabetical glossary. If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary or the glossary, please ask in the comments.
I first read, on the photo, "from my garden"!