Storyteller, radio man and history writer, Franck Ferrand is notably the author of the
Dictionary of Love of Versailles (Plon, 2013)
.
He has just published
The Illustrated Amorous Dictionary of Versailles (Plon / Gründ, 2021).
FIGAROVOX. - You publish
The
Illustrated
Amorous Dictionary
of Versailles
.
For you, is this the culmination of a long love affair with the château?
Franck FERRAND. -
In a way, yes. I have devoted years of my life to exploring this rather particular universe that is the castle of Louis: XIV, XV and XVI ... Child, adolescent, young man and until maturity, I immersed myself in the works , magazines, archives, conferences dedicated to this extraordinary place. Also, when - about ten years ago - Jean-Claude-Simoën, the founder of the
Dictionaries in love
collection
, at Plon, entrusted me with the volume devoted to Versailles, I saw the opportunity to deliver "My Versailles".
As the familiar expression goes: “the circle is closed”. Half a century ago, returning from school after a lesson on the Sun King, I had received from my mother a modest album from the Fernand Nathan editions, illustrated in black and white. This book was never to leave me, for several years… Now, when, for my 11th birthday, I was able to go to Versailles and visit the stone monument after having learned the paper monument by heart; my disappointment was sharp. I have said several times that it was by trying to make the two agree in my mind that the passion for Versailles came to me. Today, be able to feature - in color! - the hard cover of this album highlighting a text entirely dedicated to my passion for Versailles, it is undoubtedly,for me, a way of saying: “There, I've done the tour. So let me tell you this story one last time ... "
You show us Versailles with a new eye. How did you get there?
As an entry in the initial version of this
Dictionary of
Love said
, countless editors in all media promise their audiences an unpublished, hidden, secret version of Versailles.
The hidden staircases, the mezzanine passages, the hidden courtyards, from the foundations to the attic… Honestly, I am not at all sure that this is the most interesting part of this incredible accumulation of large decorations.
To refresh the vision that we can have of places, I tried rather to renew my gaze.
Memories, anecdotes, points of view - sometimes a little biting, I admit - punctuate a completely subjective text, in the tradition of this collection.
This does not prevent the enthusiast - some will say the scholar - to report a fairly nourished science, and which struggles to remain silent.
What, according to you, makes the specificity of the house of kings?
Versailles is usually placed in the category of castles;
but it is a whole - buildings and gardens - which goes far beyond this term.
For exactly one century - from May 1682 to September 1715 and from June 1722 to October 1789 - this palatial complex, structuring for the city which extends it, will have been not only the residence of the king and his court, but also the seat of the government.
Suffice to say that the policy of all of Europe was largely determined within these walls, at the time of the heyday of France.
Such an important place, used for several generations, cannot remain static.
Franck Ferrand
Such an important place, used for several generations, cannot remain static;
it has evolved a lot, in its structure, of course, but also and above all in its decorations, as its uses evolved and taste changed.
It is the very improbable result of these intimate transformations that can be seen today - by integrating everything that has been done here since the Revolution: two centuries of post-mortem modifications… What could be more fascinating that this sensitive plate where the image of France will not cease to be reflected?
We also discover Versailles in its imperfections ...
Direct consequence of what I just told you! In the eyes of Saint-Simon, the roof of the last chapel to date - the fifth in the chronology of Versailles - was far too high and, from a distance, gave the feeling of crushing the whole. To those of Louis XV and his successor, the brick and stone vestiges, on the city side, in the spirit of Louis XIII, broke the unity of the facades and gave them an old-fashioned aspect. For the successors of Louis-Philippe, the transformation of kilometers of sumptuous apartments into large historic galleries, of a certain boredom, constituted a sacrilege - well Versailles, it is also that: all these small failures which constitute an immense success .
I would say that it is a concentrate of the French spirit: a little grandeur, a lot of gold and marble, passages, corridors, anterooms;
an infinity of beauties linked together by a little wit and a lot of heart ...
Franck Ferrand
You write: "
The soul of a place, it is in the empty moments that it comes to deliver itself to you, when you have laid down your arms and forgotten your references
".
What are these “empty moments”?
You ask me, if I understand the meaning of your question, to give your readers little advice to avoid "falling into the trap" of a Versailles too obvious, as "visited in advance" ... I would recommend them to first, not to approach the house from the east but from the gardens, to the west, going around.
Do not get lost in the large row of the central body until you have discovered the small apartments where the spirit of the house has taken refuge;
and avoid the scary crowds of summer!
It is certain that in the era of Covid-19, we are now far from the mass of visitors who, until recently, could very regularly crowd the places ...
How would you define “your Versailles”?
I would say that it is a concentrate of the French spirit: a little grandeur, a lot of gold and marble, passages, corridors, anterooms;
an infinity of beauties linked together by a little wit and a lot of heart ... I would say of Versailles what its greatest chief curator, Pierre de Nolhac, had concluded when, during the Belle Époque, he discovered the places: “
The most beautiful thing in Paris is Versailles!
"
Illustrated Love Dictionary of Versailles
, Franck Ferrand, Plon / Gründ, 2021 Plon / Gründ
