The Dirty Secret of Versailles
Have you ever wondered what lies beyond the doors of the palace of Versailles? Well it might be more scandalous and well….dirtier than you ever expected (literally). The whole royal court resided in Versailles, the symbol of wealth and opulence. That would certainly be the case if you were to visit it now, but what about back then. There was certainly something that was not opulent – the stench.
Let’s talk about the hygiene of Versailles. How many times do you bathe a day? Once? Twice? Well certainly more than King Louis XIV even if he did think of himself as quite hygienic. People of the past thought of water as a catalyst of illnesses and diseases. Rather than a medium to clean oneself, they thought hot water would open and enlarge the pores thereby allowing one to be highly vulnerable to epidemics of that time. This mindset originated from the plague which was airborne, causing many to fear it would be waterborne too. Well then how would the King cleanse his body of toxicities? Through bleeding. Sources say he would prick and bleed himself once a week in order to clean the inside of the body and restore health.
No one wants a pungent environment now do they? It was heard that the smell of chateau hallways, parks and gardens could make a person literally gag. The stairway and halls were littered with cat faeces and urine. This stench was layered with the stagnant water and dead cats at the avenue. Instead of cleaning them up they somehow decided against and opted to douse themselves in perfume. See Historian Alain Corbin ‘to use the excessive amounts of perfume was to protect oneself and to purify the surrounding air’. We all know what a bad idea that would be since it added on another thick layer of skull-penetrating stench.
Ever met someone with no teeth? Well look no further than Louis XIV whose dental records showed him toothless after a lifetime series of dental problems. It was a highly discussed topic among courtiers at Versailles as they witnessed the King who could not chew and only ate foods like soup. Turns out this case was very much common during that period. The movie scenes of decadent teeth-rotting, sugary treats were true and they became widely available. We have to understand that knowledge of cavities and whatnot were not available at the time, so courtiers wasted no time in stuffing themselves with these sugary sweets. Thankfully they learnt from their mistakes of rotting teeth and improved dental care during the 1750s. Soon after, pearly whites as we now know became a symbol of elegance and beauty.
Remember when I said people did not bathe? Well that included washing their hair so instead of washing it, they powdered it like a kind of dry shampoo. When you don’t wash your hair for days, the natural hair oil accumulates causing your hair to be greasy and oily. So for them the solution was to throw on a heavy wig that made them sweat even more, leading to a perfect breeding ground for lice and parasites. The next solution was for them to shave their heads. This practice was popular among men as it was easier to shave their head and wear lice infested wigs, than washing lice infested hair. I guess you can say it did protect their real hair from lice while gaining extra points for concealing old age balding.
A huge difference between us and the French at that time was their ‘business’ and I do not mean the corporate type. It was not uncommon for people to randomly lift their skirts or pull their trousers down to relieve themselves in the pristine (maybe not so pristine at that time) hallways of Versailles. The King even held audiences while pooping and it was of great honour that you could witness the king on his ‘throne’ when nature called. Interestingly they called it ‘going to their closet’ where they had a lidded toilet bowl. However, no pipes were connected to the bowl meaning any expulsion would be left sitting in that stool or someone would have to empty it. You wouldn’t want to be standing below someone emptying the pot on the porch. On a side note, there is a funny tale of a cat curling up for a nap in the white porcelain bowl. Unbeknownst to King Louis XIV, he sat down for a poo and was scratched by the cat who was quite displeased at the disturbance of his rest.
Versailles was first built on marshland, without any stream or rivers and before then, water was only brought in for the gardens and fountains. There was a different circuit built after that to bring in drinking water. However, accessibility does not instantly equal cleanliness, the standards for water at the time were judged by how they smelt and looked. The cesspits beneath Versailles were cleaned every season but stench would still rise up from these cesspits. They would sometimes even overflow which could potentially pollute the groundwater that was used for washing. Some reports even mentioned that Marie Antoinette’s linens smelled muddy because they used polluted pools of water rather than fresh running water.
Today we opened the doors of Versailles to reveal the dirty historic truth. Now you have something interesting to think about if you ever visit the Palace of Versailles
