Mme de Pompadour, the French President, and me
Improbable Walks
English - November 29, 2023 05:00 - 19 minutes - 13.6 MBHistory Society & Culture Places & Travel travel paris city of light walking armchair tour armchair travel france history storytelling parisian Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Today's podcast visits the French President's palace, L’Élysée. The 365-room mansion has a history that oozes personality: once the home of Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon Bonaparte's sister Caroline also lived here for a few years. Caroline was described as "having the body of Venus and the brain of Machiavelli", which was probably not intended as a compliment, and yet, I'm sort of impressed. Visit my website for some images of the history we discuss. As always, Improbable Walks is grateful to the technical expertise of Bremner Fletcher and to David Symons, the New Orleans accordion player who performs the Improbable Walks theme music. (And yes, for you regular listeners, I have a darn November cold, so I do sound a little congested... sorry!)