The Apartments of France’s Greatest Mistress Have Reopened

Dec 27 2022 by The Daily Beast

 
Stephane De Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images

PARIS—A cursory glance at the early life of Jeanne Bécu reveals all the trappings of a fairytale.

Born in 1743 in the tiny village of Vaucouleurs in northeastern France, the strikingly beautiful daughter of an impoverished seamstress would go on to live in opulence at the Palace of Versailles where she occupied 14 elegantly appointed rooms and was known at court as the Contesse du Barry—King Louis XV’s official mistress and one of the most...

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