On April 15, 2019, the Palace of Versailles officially reopened the apartments of the Dauphin & the Dauphine of France.
Château de La Dauphine traces its origins back to the Palace of Versailles!
One Dauphine – Two Châteaux
Marie-Josèphe of Saxony was born in 1731 in Dresden, Germany.
Daughter of the King of Poland, she married in 1747 Louis, Dauphin of France, heir and son of Louis XV.
Now bearing the title of Dauphine of France, she thus became one of the emblematic figures of her time, as the future of the kingdom rested on her shoulders.
Gentle and brilliant, she was quickly appreciated at the Court of Versailles and by King Louis XV, her father-in-law, who gave her the nickname “Pepa”.
The Dauphin of France, her husband, died young of tuberculosis, so she would not reign, but she would give birth to several children.
She thus became the mother of the last three Kings of France: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X.
Around 1750, she was invited to Château de La Dauphine by the owner at the time, Jean de Richon, then an adviser at the Court of Versailles.
Thus, she gave her noble title in remembrance of her stay at the estate.
Fronsac wines at the Court of the Palace of Versailles
Cardinal Richelieu acquired the Duchy of Fronsac in 1634; the ducal title passed some time later to his great-nephew Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis in the 18th century.
The Duke of Fronsac was a libertine as well as a devoted courtier at the Palace of Versailles, appreciated by his peers for his chivalrous feats and adored by women.
A bon vivant, he served at the king’s table the wines produced by his Duchy of Fronsac.
Fronsac wines then enjoyed great success among the nobility, becoming the most expensive wines in the kingdom!
Their complexity was highlighted, as were their “therapeutic virtues”.
We even learn, in a letter to the Intendant of Guyenne, that Fronsac wines were favoured by the Dauphine to soothe her stomach ailments.
The Dauphine returns to her place at Versailles
On April 15, 2019, the Palace of Versailles officially reopened the apartments of the Dauphin & the Dauphine of France.
These ground-floor apartments were reserved for members of the royal family.
Their current layout corresponds to the period when they were occupied by Louis XV’s son, Louis, Dauphin of France, and by the latter’s second wife, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, that is, between 1747 and 1765.
It was in one of these rooms that the Dauphine of France gave birth to the last three Kings of France.
Because of this strong and direct link with the history of the Palace of Versailles, it was with great emotion that Château de La Dauphine 2010 was therefore chosen as the one and only wine that had to accompany the grand inauguration evening, in the presence of Franck Riester, Minister of Culture, and Catherine Pégard, President of the Palace of Versailles.
