Napoleon letter auctioned

 A hand-written letter from Napoleon denying his role in the kidnapping of Pope Pius VII in 1809 was sold by Osenat on 27th April for €26,360.

Remembering the abolition of slavery in the Grand Est

An exhibition at the Musée Schoelcher in Fessenheim, running from 27th April to 11th May 2025, commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Grand Est regional initiative which forms part of the UNESCO sponsored Memories of the Abolition of Slavery (Mémoires des Abolitions de l'Esclavage).

New Biography of Maria-Theresa

Richard Bassett's Maria Theresa Empress: The Making of the Austrian Enlightenment is published by Yale University Press is on 25th February.

Maisons de plaisance (exhibition)

 The exhibition "Pleasure houses in the Parisian countryside from Louis XIV to Napoleon III" runs at the  Museum of the Royal Domain of Marly, from 11th April to 31st August.  

Artists and Models - BBC vintage docu-drama

BBC4 is currently repeating the classic 1986 series Artists and Models, directed by Leslie Megahey, which dramatises the careers of David, Ingres and Gericault.

Comte d'Angiviller (book)

A study  of Charles Claude Flahaut, Count of Angiviller (1730–1809),  director of the Batîments du Roi under Louis XVI  is published on 15th April.  The authors are by Monelle Hayot and Antoine Maës (in French)

The Revolutionary press

The Communist for 27th March features an article by Jonathan Hinckley on French Revolutionary journalism, one of a series which discusses the development revolutionary press. 

Marie-Antoinette's eating habits

 The American website Tasting Table publishes a short post on "What Marie-Antoinette ate in a day, according to historians".   Not that much at all, it would seem....

Chairs in high places - the trial

The high-profile case involving Bill Pallot's fraudulent sale of fake 18th-century chairs has finally come to trial.  He has apparently confessed all - wonder what his sentence will be?

Lynn Hunt on the Revolutionary self

Dr.Lynn Hunt publishes a new book, The Revolutionary Self: Social Change and the Emergence of the Modern Individual, 1770–1800 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2025).  Available in the UK from 25th March.

Portrait of Louis XV on display at Versailles

 The Château de Versailles announces a special display of its recently acquired pastel portrait of Louis XV by Rosalba Carriera. The work, purchased in July 2024, can now be seen in the former apartments of Madame de Maintenon.

Reconstruction work at Saint-Denis

 Notre-Dame is not the only Parisian church scheduled for renovation! At the Basilica Saint-Denis the tower and north spire, dismantled for safety reasons in 1846, are to be reconstructed.