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 is the prison reserved to the most dangerous political criminals; inscribing a name on the list of entries can be thought a death certificate. One can leave Saint-Lazare, the Carmes, the Abbaye, all the other prisons, 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

Marie-Antoinette at Temple (Musée Carnavalet)  Jean-Louis 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, same study

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

It is a detail from the painting below

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

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: "Live Marie-Antoinette's last hours for only five euros," an announcement says:

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The tablet could have told the storywithout destroying the cell,and the Conciergerie still charge five euros.
Like making fragment of the wallin the parking lot depend on renting a parking spaceor turning it a pretentious installation at the Louvre, eliminating the cell suppresses the past itself. 
Because of its innumerable contradictions to the mentality that globalized capitalism seeks to impose? 
 The role of the Conciergerie during the Terroris nevertheless part of the national memory,which for the moment still exists.

ADK Paris, 108 rue de Tolbiac, 13th

Photo in an electrician's workshop

A scene from the presentation of the Olympic Games in 2024.

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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    End of this chapter. *    *    * Next chapter, 2.2, Brands take over the historic center