Time Travel to Versailles: Mars 1913

The Versailles Journal - Mars 1913

Versailles Union of Industry and Trade - of the Versailles district

The Versailles Union of Industry and Trade sent to Monsieur the Mayor of Versailles the following letter:

Versailles, February 22, 1913

Monsieur the Mayor, Sir,

We have the honor, in the name of the Versailles Union of Industry and Trade, to demand your attention on a fact liable to cause prejudice to the local trade and, more specifically, to the Versailles alimentation. Following the very recent decision of the Monsieur the Undersecretary of State to the Fine Arts, the palaces of Versailles won't open their doors to visitors on Wednesdays but at one o'clock in the afternoon, due to cleaning out - Mondays being exclusively reserved for the weekly break.

We are not contesting the utility of cleaning; however, we are surprised that on that occasion there is a need to cut off two visiting hours every week in order to accomplish cleaning works, especially if we take into account that the opening hour is already very late.

This measure causes, as a consequence, real losses to the trade, especially as the foreigners will not come to have lunch in Versailles on Wednesdays anymore. Furthermore, the daily excursions organized by the Cook's American Express agencies and the others, whose itinerary is Versailles, Saint-Germain and Malmaison, are obliged to make their return trip and given that these excursions plan to go to Paris for dinner, it will follow that there will be no place left for having a meal in our town.

We do know that a procedure will soon be ensued with the view to ask Monsieur the Undersecretary of State to the Fine Arts to postpone his decision.
This is why we dare to hope that the Municipality will want to grant us its support in sustaining the legitimacy of our protest.

Confident in your solicitude, please accept, Monsieur the Mayor, the very respectful homages of your devoted citizens

For the Versailles Union of Industry and Trade,
The first Vice-president,
L. Yger

Smoke on the water - Time Travel to Versailles: February 1913

The Versailles Chronicle - February 1913

"Good finds and curiosities

Afternoon tea. A whiff of the weed

Just imagine! A new fashion is to be established in France and all is due because we so much love to imitate our neighbors. Lately, the "Gazette médicale de Paris" reported that in New York and the main cities of the United States, the young ladies have now begun to ask to their jeweler for the cigarette or cigar holders made of gold and inlaid with precious stones. They carry these objects at their wrists, attached with a small chain.

The appetite for tobacco is nowadays generalized on the other side of the ocean and women are particularly fanatical about cigarettes, and even about cigars and pipes. On the programs of the many feminine get-togethers, we can frequently read:

'Afternoon tea. A whiff of the weed.'
That is:
'Thé d'après-midi. Une bouffée de tabac' (Afternoon tea. A puff of tobacco)

These ladies smoke at table, lunch and dinner, when desert is served. And men have no excuse left to isolate themselves in the smoking room.

So many women made a habit of smoking in England that one of the most important railway companies, the 'London and North Western Railway' had to reserve a first-class car for women who smoke, 'lady smokers', in every train.

Lastly, we know that, in Europe, a great number of women of the upper class didn't disdain the cigarette, to say the least. The sovereign ladies themselves have been their example: the Queen Margherita of Italy, the dowager Empress of Russia, the ex-Queen Amélia of Portugal, the Queen Maria-Christina are among the known smokers."

The Versailles Chronicle - February 1913