On this day, Louis XV sups in his private apartment after the day’s hunt. Afterwards, he walks on the roof with his guests. There is a chimney through which one can converse with Mme de Tallard in her apartment below. The King leaves the Prince de Soubise to talk to her there while he goes down indoors to surprise her, awakening a startled Swiss guard as he passes by. Mme de Tallard hosts a game of cavagnole, at which the King wins a hundred louis.
Commentary:
Both Louis XV and Louis XVI enjoy walking on the roof of the château. I have yet to find any mention of Louis XIV going up to the roof.
It is not surprising that Louis XV discovers the roof since his first set of private rooms, created in the 1730s and referred to as les petits cabinets, is on the attic floor of the north side of the Cour de marbre. The attic floor will be later converted into Madame du Barry’s apartment and the private dining room moves down to the first floor (second in North American English), where it can be seen today. That floor was used by Louis XIV to house his personal collection of art and artifacts, a function it loses entirely during the reign of his successor, who gradually transforms it into living space.
Pictured: A view of the north side of the Cour de Marbre at Versailles from the balcony of the King’s state bedchamber. The apartments on the ground floor directly below the King’s are at this date occupied by the Comtesse de Toulouse and the captain of the guards. Mme de Toulouse will later surrender her apartment to Mme de Pompadour. Own photo taken in January, 2020.
Mme de Tallard is the Governess of the Children of France, as the King’s offspring are called. Her apartment is therefore close to the royal apartments, presumably somewhere in the centre block of the château. It is good of Mme de Tallard to host the King and his guests in such an impromptu manner. Eleven years the the King’s senior, Mme de Tallard has known him all of his life; her grandmother, Mme de Ventadour, was his beloved governess. The old lady, whom he calls Maman Ventadour, is still creaking about the court and still comes to his bedchamber every morning to give him a kiss on the forehead.
Pictured: A portrait of Marie-Isabelle de Rohan (1699-1754), Duchesse de Tallard, Governess of the Children of France from 1735 until her death.
A louis is a gold coin.
Pictured: The 2 sides of a louis d’or from the reign of Louis XV. Credit — Norbert Roëttiers — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4488019
Alert readers will have noticed that the date given at the top is 6 July 1737 rather than 1739. This article is an unpublished post from 2022. We started following the memoirs of the Duc de Luynes from 1 January 1737 in January 2022 on the old Versailles Century microblog on Instagram, continued through 1738 in 2023 also on IG, and are now going through 1739 in 2024 on Substack. Luynes’s memoirs finish with his death in 1758. If I live long enough, you’ll be able to read his final entries in 2043.
If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.