Hello, lovelies. Ready for the weekend? Not before I send you all the news that’s fit for a queen. Today’s links travel world and includes everything from hot pink hair, to 18th century robots to events worth planning a trip around.
1. Marie Antoinette High Tea.
Did you know that the Westin in Sydney Australia holds a Marie Antoinette High Tea? Westin, can you bring this to every city and I can travel the world just drinking tea in high Marie style?
2. New book! About Louis XVII! In case you hadn’t heard about it yet, Jennifer Donnelly writes about the dauphin’s tragic life and death.
3. Going to Vienna? If you are, get to the Volksoper, where the Vienna State Ballet presents the premiere of “Marie Antoinette” by Patrick de Bana November 23.
4. Are you going to be in New York this month? Then get yourself uptown to the Columbia University campus for the Heyman Center for the Humanities events. In particular, you should check out the Lionel Trilling Seminar with Terry Castle, Haron Marcus and Edward Mendelson.
“Rococophilia: War, Beauty, and the Eighteenth Century in British Culture, 1919-1933,” Thursday, 11 November, 6:15pm Davis Auditorium, the Schapiro Center. Admission is free and no registration or tickets are necessary. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. You might see me there.
5. Georgiana’s Gossip Guide linked to this amazing video of an science exhibit at Versailles that includes an automaton Marie presented to the Queen in 1785 that actually plays a dulcimer when activated. The video is something else and you need to watch it now.
6. A final, and incredibly fabulous Halloween Marie. Twitterer @scungiegrrl sent me great photos so we can all be wowed by her raving pink tresses and sassy dresses.
Marie and Abe Lincoln together! What would Page Six say!
Go pink, or go home.
Tell @scungiegrrl how awesome her costume is and have a great weekend.
What Would Marie Antoinette Do? 
The musical lady figure playing dulcimer reminded me of an exhibit I saw for a 14th century Burgundian nobleman called Phillip the Bold. It featured many various art works including a special musical fountain. It was of precious metals that played music and rotated as the water hit its bells. I remember watching it for a long time thinking people in the *fourteenth century* actually MADE that! I could never make something like that, even living in our so called modern age. I had teared up. And here I did the same thing watching that mechanical little queen. But then I have a soft spot for little musical things…and for Her Majesty. Thank you for sharing and also for reminding me of a special memory.
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Ladycathead — what a wonderful story.
I often look at things made in years past, like bridges and that mechanical marie and think *that was made by hand*. It never ceases to amaze me. Watching the video I think “Did that clockmaker ever dream that his work would be kept in a museum and that people in the world would come to see it? Did the people who worked for him and apprenticed for him ever imagine they’d live on in a way through this novelty mechanical? It’s a crazy thing.
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