MARIE-ANTOINETTE'S CELL REPLACED BY A TABLET

HER LAST DWELLING WAS A CELL IN THE MEDIEVAL PALACE

TURNED PRISON 

(THE "CONCIERGERIE")

The portal where carts waited for the condemned.

"The Conciergerie was the prison reserved to the most dangerous political criminals; inscribing a name on the list of entries was a death certificate. One could leave Saint-Lazare, the Carmes, the Abbaye, all the other prisons alive, never the Conciergerie [...]. Marie-Antoinette and the world necessarily knew (and it was wanted that they know) that transfer to the house of the dead was the first measure of the danse macabre that would come next." 

-- The Conciergerie, "Marie-Antoinette" by Stefan Zweig, 1938 (my translation)

• If you read French, you may find this imagined account of the queen's stay and a real attempt to have her escape hard to put down. 

Most of the personages are existed, and the royalist writer vividly evokes the stench, cold, noise, intrigues and corruption.

-- The Seventy-Six days of Marie-Antoinette at the Conciergerie 

by Paul Belaiche-Daninos, 2006 / zoom

As well, Stefan's study cited above:

Marie-Antoinette at the Temple, J-L Prieur, 1793 / zoom

"...one recognizes with difficulty the queen of pastoral plays, the goddess of rococo, the proud and vigorous fighter she had still been at the Tuileries. On this painting of harsh outlines, Marie-Antoinette with her widow's veil and hair turned white from suffering, is already an old woman, though she was only thirty-eight. The spark of life is gone from the eyes that had been so mischievous, she is there, defeated [...], ready to answer any call, whether it be the last one." 

-- The Last Solitude in Stefan Zweig's study mention above

The queen's tragedy is the main reason for visiting, as this panel at the entry suggests:

It is a detail of the painting shown below, at the Musée Carnavalet.

Marie-Antoinette Leaving the Conciergerie on October 16, 1793 by George Cain, 1885 / zoom 

A reconstructed* cell poignantly evoked her fate...  

*The original was transformed during the Restauration.

The guard recalls the lack of privacy that made the three-month imprisonment worse. Sightseers would even bribe the director to have a look at the queen.

Internet photo, now vanished

Marie-Antoinette's letter to her sister-in-law, written a few hours before her execution.

Another vanished Internet photo

Letter to her children
"at 4 1/2 in the morning, my god! have pity on me! 

my eyes have no more tears to cry for you my poor children; adieu, adieu! MARIE ANTOINETTE"

 

I took my eight-year old granddaughter to see the cell after telling her the story. She rushed ahead to find it and came upon this:

Imagine our disappointment.

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A tablet to rent replaces the cell, since 2017 I was told. "Live Marie-Antoinette's last hours for only five euros," an announcement says:

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A positive sequel
The Conciergerie seen from the restaurant 

I skip restaurants in this extremely commercial neighborhood. But it was late, the night was cold, and I had not shopped. So I pushed open this door... 

Le Sarah Bernhardt2 place du Châtelet, 4th 

An hour later
"That was excellent. It tasted home-made." 
"It was. We limit our menu so that our chef can handle a half dozen classic dishes. All we buy is ice cream."
Prices are the same as those of the neighborhood, where many restaurants serve dishes that have been industrially produced.

When I walk down rue Saint-Denis I stop at its terrace, look at the Conciergerie, think of the queen and watch the crowd go by.    Next, Camouflage at the Louvre  *     *     *