Versailles et Marseille

Recently I finished off the second seasons of two shows concerning different areas and times for France, that country in Europe some people (including me) seem to care about.  I alternated episodes and watched them both.  They were both highly entertaining, and as you might imagine, I’m happy to tell you about them.

Versailles.  No trip to Paris is complete without a visit to the huge palace of Versailles, just southwest of the city by train.  It was built by the most famous French King, Louis XIV.  In this case “Versailles” is less an account of the building of that palace – though that does figure in the story – and more a vivid depiction of Louis XIV (played by George Blagden, who some might recognize as the monk-Viking Athelstan in the TV series “Vikings”) and his court.  Lots of naughty things happen, the two biggest being the king’s mistress and his younger brother’s affairs with other men. 

Louis XIV.  Easily the most important French king, as he served the longest, built Versailles, and did a few things when he was king.  Mostly he bumped ugly with England and Holland.  Oddly, Moliere, the famous French playwright who serves as France’s equivalent of William Shakespeare for purposes of boring students, seems to be MIA here.  Odd.  Anyhow.

As noted, the King’s social life is front and center, particularly his difficult relationship with the Queen, with whom he is not all that compatible, and his mistress, with whom he seems to get along much better.  But there are other characters who are also compelling.  Aside from the king himself, my favorite is Fabien Marchal (The Onion), who serves as the King’s Black Ops Officer – he’ll do whatever it takes to defend the King’s interests, including torturing bad guys and lurking amidst the brothels and slums of Paris to track down whoever he needs to find.   

FM isn’t the only intriguing non-King character.  Remember that earlier blog about Louis Philippe, the last king of France?   Well, that scandalous younger brother of the king, who only seems to sleep with men and dressed in women’s clothes, Philippe I, Duke of Orleans (Alexander Vlahos), had a remarkably important role to serve in history, though he didn’t live to see it.

Charles the X was Louis XVI’s last brother.  With his death, the lineage would go up the line.  Louis XVI’s father, Louis XV, was an only child, so he had no younger brothers.   His father, Louis Duke of Burgundy (1682-1712) was likewise an only child, as was his own father, the Grand Dauphin, Louis XIV’s only son, who lived from 1661-1711.  This brings us back up to Louis XIV himself.  His younger brother, that gay dude, did manage to produce children.   Working back up to 1830:  his son, Philippe II (1674-1723); his grandson, Louis, Duke of Orleans (1703-1752); his great-grandson, Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orleans (1725-1785); and finally his great-great-grandson Louis Philippe II, Louis Philippe’s own father, executed by guillotine during the revolution.  This means that the last king of France, Louis Philippe, was the great-great-great-grandson of Philippe I.    That spunky German princess he marries (Jessica Clark), Princess Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine, was Louis Philippe’s great-great-great-grandmother. 

Marseille.  France’s second-largest city, after Paris, down on the Mediterranean, serves as the scene of this series, original on Netflix, with Gerard Depardieu as Robert Taro, the retiring mayor of the city.  The strange thing is that he plans on allowing his protégé, Lucas Barres (Benoit Maginot Line), to take over from him, but Barres is not content with that – for reasons which become clear later, he ousts Taro.  In season 2 the Front National essentially takes over, with a blonde woman who screws up.  Excellent views of the city, with its impressive Notre Dame de la Garde cathedral up on the highest point, make this a visually stunning series.  One character, Aubin, shares his name with my brother’s in-laws.  Moreover, the soccer team, Olympique Marseille, gets renamed but its stadium isn’t changed, and serves as a focal plot point when Taro’s daughter winds up in a romance with the owner’s son.  I watched it in French with English subtitles and enjoyed it immensely.   While I’m obviously a big fan of Paris, seeing Marseille get such attention is a refreshing change.