A French Garden Party at Versailles Quiz

Answer: Louis XIV

All these and many other French kings had a nickname, and it is this nickname that would guide you to the correct answer. Louis XIV was officially named "Louis le Grand" ("Louis the Great") but is better known to historians as "Le Roi Soleil" ("The Sun King"). So it was quite apt that he was sipping a Tequila Sunrise in this question. Mind you: official history is scarce on Louis' drinking habits, however, drinking a cocktail is not likely. Some websites mention that Louis XIV was fond of champagne and Burgundy wine, and another website states that he liked coffee. Although these websites were not based upon historical evidence, I find these rather convincing.

Louis XIV (1638-1715) ascended to the throne in 1643. During his minority France was ruled by his mother Queen Anne, but in 1651 Louis took the reign in his own hands. His reign was one of the longest ever. Louis XIV was a well-known Maecenas of the arts. He especially enjoyed ballet, and in his youth he danced several roles in several ballets. One of the roles he performed, was that of Apollo the sun god in the "Ballet de la Nuit" ("Night Ballet") composed by Jean de Cambefort and others.

Henri IV (1553-1610) ruled the kingdom of Navarre (Spain) from 1572 and the kingdom of France from 1589. His nickname was Good King Henry, for he established a quite peaceful rule and made efforts to improve the general standard of living. Charles VIII (1470-1498) was known as Charles l'Affable (Charles the Affable). He ruled France for 15 years. Philippe III (1245-1285) le Hardi (Philip the Bold) ruled France between 1271 and 1285.

Answer: Marie Therese d'Autriche

Versailles was opened in 1682, so Marie Thérèse d'Autriche (1638-1683) could have attended one of the first garden parties over there. Marie Thérèse was named after Austria in French and Spanish, but in English she was known as Maria Theresa of Spain. One of the many Habsburg family members, she married Louis XIV in 1660 in order to put an end to the French-Spanish conflict. The royal couple had six children, but only their eldest son survived the infancy and would have children of his own.

Eleanor d'Aquitaine was born about 1122 and died in 1204. She married the French king Louis VII in 1137. When this marriage was annulled in 1152, she married the English king Henry II. Marguérite de Provence (1221-1295) was the consort of the French king Louis IX the Saint. Catherine de Médicis (1519-1589) was the wife of the French king Henri II and mother to three subsequent kings: François II, Charles IX and Henri III.

Answer: Andre le Notre

To enhance the readability of the names, I've left out all accents and other diacritic marks: on some computers these are rendered as ASCII code, which looks like some kind of gibberish.

André le Nôtre (1613-1700) was indeed the landscape architect you could run into at a garden party in the Eighteenth Century. He designed the gardens at Versailles, at the Tuileries, at Vaux-le-Vicomte, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, at Chantilly and so many more. Outside France, he also contributed to the design of Greenwich Park in London and Charlottenburg in Germany. The style in which André le Nôtre worked was based upon symmetry and order. Trees and shrubs were pruned into topiary, and special techniques were applied to the fountains so that the resulting water spouts took some premeditated form: a chandelier, a tulip or a flower bouquet.

Sébastien le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707), was a famous architect of military fortifications. François Mansart (1598-1666) was a housing architect, who designed the four-sided double-sloped roof named after him (the mansard roof). Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809-1891) was a city architect, who redesigned the city of Paris with new broad boulevards lined with houses in identical style, improved water supply, and so on.

Answer: Francois Massialot

François Massialot (1660-1733) was the one we were looking for. He cooked for several noble families, including even the household of Philippe, Louis XIV's brother. And while historic evidence shows Massialot did indeed serve meals in Versailles, it was probably not in the famous palace itself but in the surrounding houses of nobility. Massialot also published two recipe books, including the recipe for crème brûlée - perhaps one of Massialot's inventions.

François Vatel (1631-1671) did oversee a banquet for Louis XIV and 2 000 guests in 1671. A popular anecdote states that Vatel took his own life at this banquet because the fish arrived too late. Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833) was one of the driving forces to create haute cuisine. He left us several recipe books.
Georges-Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) is still the best known French chef. His "Guide Culinaire" continues to be a major reference work.

Answer: Moliere

"Le malade imaginaire" ("The Imaginary Invalid") is one of the many highlights in the oeuvre of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who adopted the nom de plume Molière. It stars Argan, one of the most severe cases of hypochondria in literature. He wants to marry his daughter to a medicine student, but she's in love with someone else. Molière (1622-1673) wrote at least 36 theatre plays, many of which are still performed in the 21st Century. He started out with a diligence for tragedy, but he is best remembered for his comedies such as "Le misanthrope", "L'avare" ("The Miser") and "Le malade imaginaire".

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) was another prolific writer, best known for his novella "Candide". François Rabelais (born 1483 or 1494, died 1553) was one of the first French authors, notable for his series featuring "Gargantua et Pantagruel". Eugène Ionesco (1909-1994) was born in Romania but wrote mostly in French. His oeuvre includes absurd theatre plays as "Le rhinoceros".

Answer: Madame de Montespan

Madame de Montespan (1640-1707) was born as Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart. Lucky for us she is better known as Madame de Montespan, the wife of the Marquis de Montespan. In 1667 Madame de Montespan became the prime mistress of King Louis XIV. She gave him seven children, three of whom died in infancy. The four others were legitimized by Louis and they were the ancestors of several noble families.

Madame de Pompadour (Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, 1721-1764) was the chief mistress of king Louis XV. Madame de Staël (Anne-Louise Necker, 1766-1817) was an author and hostess of literary salons during the turbulent times of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Madame Tussaud (Anne-Marie Grosholtz, 1761-1850) was a sculptress specialised in wax portraits. Nowadays the wax museums all over the world are named after her.

Answer: Louis le Grand Conde

While most historians would cite Henri de la Tour, Vicomte de Turenne, as the best French military commander in the Seventeenth Century, he died in 1675 and thus could definitely not attend a garden party in Versailles in 1682.
The army commander you've spotted at this party was Louis de Bourbon, prince de Condé, known as "Le Grand Condé". Condé (1621-1686) and Turenne (1611-1675) had fought well in the Thirty Years' War, and their successors were ready for the job: Luxembourg (François-Henri de Montmorency, 1628-1695) and Claude-Louis Villars (1653-1734). In the Battle of Rocroi (1643) Condé defeated a slightly larger Spanish army by a daring cavalry manoeuvre. The tactics Condé used at this battle are still an example for modern armies.

Bertrand du Guesclin (1320-1380) was a Breton fighting for France during the Hundred Years' War. Marie-Joseph de Motier, Marquis de la Fayette (1757-1834) gained his fame in the American Revolution and also fought in the French Revolution. Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) made it to the supreme allied commander at the end of the First World War and thus commandeered not only the French but also British and American forces.

Answer: Jean Testu de Mauroy

Out of these four clergymen, only one could have attended a garden party in Versailles in 1682 - and I'm afraid it is the least known of the quartet. Abbot Jean Testu de Mauroy (1626-1706) became member of the Académie française in 1688, and yet there is very little historic documentation about this "immortal" on line. Wikipedia in English only mentions his date of birth and his death date, and the French version of Wikipedia mentions that he educated the daughters of the king's brother Philippe. Even the website of the Académie has not much more information, although it contains a link to the full text of Mauroy's acceptance speech (in the original spelling).

Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642) was the religious advisor of king Louis XIII, and also acted as his prime minister. Richelieu was succeeded (in both functions: religious and secular) by Jules Mazarin (1602-1661), a French cardinal born in Italy. Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) is one of the most remarkable characters in the period of the French Revolution. He swapped sides so many times that no one seemed to know exactly what he was up to.

Answer: Jean-Baptiste Lully

Lully (1632-1687) was born a Florentine. He moved to France in 1646 and started working for the royal court in 1653. In 1661 he obtained the French nationality.
In the opera "Phaéton" the title character, son of Apollo, asked his father to steer the sun chariot for a day. Alas, Phaeton lost control and died in the crash. Lully is considered the prime French composer of the Baroque era. He left us 14 operas, several ballets, sacred music and incidental music to theatre performances.

Rameau (1683-1764) was Lully's successor. He is best known for his opera-ballet "Les Indes Galantes". Charpentier (1643-1704) composed (among many other works) a "Te Deum", of which part has been chosen as the tune for Eurovision television broadcasts. François Couperin (1668-1733) was one of the members of a very musical family, with at least seven head organists of the Church Saint-Gervais in Paris. François was known as composer for organ and harpsichord, and his collection of harpsichord compositions is one of the most important works.

Answer: Denis Papin

Denis Papin (1647-1714) is the only French scientist in this list. He graduated in medicine in 1669 and became interested in vacuum and pressure while working with some other great scientists, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695, a Dutch inventor) and Gottfried Leibnitz (1646-1716, a German philosopher). Papin developed the steam digester, an early pressure cooker with a safety valve, about 1679. Later he would experiment with the steam engine and design a boat with a steam engine.

Watt (1736-1819) was a Scottish engineer, who perfected the steam engine.
Guericke (1602-1686) was the mayor of the German city of Magdenburg and is best known for his experiment demonstrating the magnitude of air pressure.
Air pressure was also the focus of the experiments of Torricelli (1608-1647), the inventor of the barometer.