Royal Carriages

One of Napoleon’s carriages.

Today (Friday, 19 April) we went to Arras, (115 miles north of Paris, a 2.5 hour bus ride from Paris- we left the hotel at 7:15am) and visited Le Musee des Beaux Arts (www.versaillesarras.com), and saw the collection of palace coaches. These were carriages designed to carry then queens and empresses. Apparently the men never travelled in the carriages, they were just for the women. Nearly all of the coaches built before the Revolution were destroyed, so all that remains are paintings. These coaches are normally displayed in Versailles but that area of Versailles is under renovation. I supposed there were normal everyday coaches but these that have survived were

Here’s a shot of the full painting – sorry, it is hard to see any detail.

Here’s the carriage in the same painting.

designed especially for marriages, coronations, of funerals of the king. Napoleon had some of the most elaborate ones. It was kind interesting to see the actual coach and then to see that same coach depicted in a painting that was celebrating a marriage or some other event. The paintings themselves were amazing and of course, they were very large, like 10′ x 15′.