The Reason Marie Antoinette Always Ate Out-Of-Season Fruit
NEWS
By HILARY WHEELAN REMLEY
Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution, had a particular tendency towards eating off-season fruits, which was a product of the Potager du Roi.
The Potager du Roi is an expansive garden near Versailles that produced many extravagant foods, regardless of the season, which put France’s wealth inequality on full display.
Marie Antoinette’s penchant for off-season fruit could also be credited to her husband Louis XVI’s great-great-great-grandfather, Louis XIV, who ruled from 1643 through 1715.
He was the sovereign responsible for moving the French court to Versailles, which served as the center of French royalty, where courtiers and nobility resided along with him.
To accommodate the high-status residents, the Sun King enlisted the help of Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie to develop a kitchen garden for the palace.
Quintinie’s gardening methods allowed for harvests of many fruits and vegetables, even in rare months, through hotbeds that utilized compost to stimulate off-season growth.