Talking Location With Eva Stachniak – 18th Century France

25th February 2022

TalkingLocationWith… Eva Stachniak, author of The School of Mirrors, set in 18th Century FRANCE: Paris and Versailles.

Every novel I’ve written required taking a trip. I need to walk in my character’s footsteps, catch the “flavour” of the places I describe, verify the details of landscapes, weather… note the local colour. Maps and photographs are never enough, and a research trip always leaves me with many telling details I couldn’t have imagined.

The School of Mirrors tells the story of a mother and a daughter in 18^th century France. The mother was one of the young, lower-class lovers of Louis XV, groomed for him by his courtiers, and kept in a mysterious Deer Park house, in the town of Versailles. The daughter, having been taken away from her mother at birth, grew up first among the Versailles servants and later among the midwives of Paris.

King’s Bedroom

Both the Palace and the town of Versailles were first on my list. The palace has, of course, changed since the 18^thcentury, but it was still possible to get a sense of being there during the reign of Louis XV.

They were the reason why, in the summer of 2018, I travelled to France.

I needed to see the places where they lived.

I needed an inspiration.

Warming Kitchen in The Petit Trianon

As much as I loved seeing these splendid interiors, I never forgot that my two heroines were not part of the aristocracy. This made me pay attention to service doors and palace kitchens, flat palace roofs and wooden lattice fences which could offer a hiding place to a lonely child running away from nagging guardians.

Yes…writers make for rather odd tourists…

The town of Versailles was next. I went there not only to see the Royal Tennis Court, where the French Revolution took its first steps, but also to walk along rue de Médéric. For this is where Deer Park once stood, the house where young, beautiful girls were kept waiting for the summons of the mysterious “Polish count, the cousin to the queen”—as Louis XV chose to present himself.

Contemporary Paris has changed much from the time of the French Revolution which plays such a significant part in The School of Mirrors. There is no Bastille anymore, no Tuileries Palace, no Riding School where so many political debates took place. Luckily the Conciergerie, one of the principal revolutionary prisons, is still there, with its impressive collection of artifacts and interiors from the Reign of Terror.

Blade of the Parisian guillotine

Many 18^th century artifacts–including the blade of Parisian guillotine–have also been preserved in the Paris Police Museum, a wonderful stop for all history lovers. I spent a long time in the rooms devoted to the 18^th century, taking notes on the details of guard uniforms and street weapons, absorbing the language of street proclamations, ration cards, applications for permissions to travel, arrest warrants.

For more I had to travel to Vizille, to The Museum of the French Revolution a rich collection of revolutionary artifacts, essential in rooting my characters in a very specific time and place.

The most useful for me were ordinary household objects, especially important at the time when each revolutionary year meant a dramatic change of imagery and rhetoric. Dinner plates depicting Louis XV as a patriot who has allowed much needed reforms were soon replaced by Louis the villain, accused of treachery, denounced, tried, and executed. All these changes were “imprinted” in the decorations of everyday objects: porcelain cups and mugs, jewelry, tapestry, street drawings, posters … .

My research trip ended in Rouen, famous for its magnificent cathedral and the connection to Jeanne d’Arc. But I hurried to the Museum of Flaubert and the History of Medicine  to see the only surviving “Machine,” Madame du Coudray’s obstetric mannequin.

Madame du Coudray was a midwife who travelled all over 18^th century France teaching the art of midwifery. Thanks to her, generations of young peasant women became licensed midwifes, valued and respected members of their communities. Looking at this faded and well-used educational tool, I thought of Madame du Coudray at Versailles, in 1759, demonstrating her invention before Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. As the scene became alive in my mind, I knew that the writing has truly begun.

Eva Stachniak

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