status).
As we have already said, the Mozarts reached Paris on 18 November 1763 and it was Leopold's desire to get busy with organizing the exhibitions, obtaining glory and money. But as luck would have it, a mournful event had taken place that involved the French Court (the death from smallpox of Infanta of Spain Princess Isabella of Parma, niece of Louis XV), imposing a period of mourning during which fun and entertainment were suspended. The Mozarts had to wait well into December before they were able to present themselves to the principle people of the city, but thanks to the Baron Friedrich Melchior von Grimm, writer and person in charge of the affairs in Paris of the Princedom of Frankfurt, put in a good word for them and they were invited to Versailles, seat of the Court of Louis XV, where they were guests for sixteen days at the Au Comier Inn.
Friedrich Melchior von Grimm (1723-1807) writer and diplomat
Appointed Secretary to the Count von Friesen in Paris in 1749, he became responsible for the affairs for the Princedom of Frankfurt.
He was a person of vast culture, and friend of the encyclopedia writers Rousseau, Diderot and Voltaire, not to mention editor of the two-year newsletter “Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique” whose purpose was to inform the European Courts (from the German to the Czar of Russia) of the new Parisian cultural fashions and trends, intended in that period to be imitated throughout Europe.
In the dispute between those who supported Italian opera and those who admired the style of Gluck, he took sides, openly and with all the weight of his Parisian aristocratic relations in favor of the Italian style.
The optimal habitual association with, and lover to Louise d'Epinay, writer and entertainer of one of the most famous Parisian “parlors” allowed his social ascension that led him to receive diplomatic posts until he was nominated Baron in 1774 by the Empress of Austria Maria Theresa. As a literary and musical critic, he wrote for the famous magazine Mercure de France.
In the Mozart's first journey to Paris, he played an essential role in their success. Though later, when Wolfgang went to Paris alone with his mother, Grimm was cold and could not stand him as in the past. In his final letter from Paris to his friend Hagenauer, Leopold Mozart spoke of Grimm in the following: “...this man, my good friend, Mr. Grimm, it is thanks to him that here I have been able to obtain everything”.
Even while provided with many letters of recommendation (among which that of the Count de Chatelet French Ambassador in Vienna, the Count Starhemberg Imperial Austrian Emissary in Paris, the Count von Cobenzl Minister of Brussels, the Prince of Conti, etc.), according to Leopold, none of them were good for anything.
Only Count Grimm “did everything”...and imagine, this aid all came from a letter written by the wife of a merchant from Frankfurt who he had met by pure chance in that city where they had stopped over on their way to Paris!
So, he gave Leopold Mozart 80 gold florins for the performance of the children at his home, then he set about distributing 320 tickets for the first concert at the theater of Mr. Felix, paying for the wax needed for the 60 candles per table to illuminate the room.
The early information on Versailles sent to Salzburg by Leopold Mozart are a bit amusing as, while speaking about the Marquise of Pompadour (former mistress of King Louis XV), he compares her to the defunct Mrs. Stainer, a Salzburg friend. Regarding her personality though, he says that she is extremely conceited and still continues to orchestrate everything (even though she had not officially been the King's mistress for at least a dozen years – A/N). He describes her as a woman with an uncommon spirit, large and corpulent, but well-proportioned, blonde, still attractive and was surely very beautiful in her youth, seeing as she had enraptured the King. The Pompadour apartments at Versailles, which faced the gardens, were described by Leopold Mozart as “a paradise”, while the palace in the Faubourg St. Honoré, used as the Parisian residence was described as magnificent. The palace (today it is the official residence of the French President of the Republic) had been built just a few decades previous for the Count d'Evreux; it was bought in 1753 by King Louis XV for 730,000 livres and donated to Madame de Pompadour, his favorite at that time. Evidently, the Mozarts had been admitted since Leopold describes the music room that housed a golden harpsichord painted “with great art” and on the walls hung two life size paintings of Madame de Pompadour and the King Louis XV. The cost of living was also very high at Versailles, and luckily in that period, it was very hot writes Leopold (in December?), otherwise there would have been the cost of wood for the price of 5 soldis per log to warm the lodging. The Mozarts lived in Versailles for two weeks on a road that, keeping in mind the two children of the family and their talents, was appropriately named: Rue des Bon Enfants (Road of the Good Children).
The comfort of a heating system
Relocating from one society that was used to the cold temperatures, or rather, protecting themselves with heavy clothing, allows us to look at the relatively rapid development of the comforts of heating: first in public places (hospitals, barracks, offices) and then private homes.
The wall fireplace appears to have been invented by the Italians (we first hear of it in Venice around the 13th century) and, compared to a central open fire, it allowed the rooms to be less invaded by smoke, but was not very efficient in dispersing the heat. Moreover, it “roasted” one's face and front of the body, leaving the backside freezing cold.
The newest invention was the stove (in iron, cast iron or ceramic) that saved fuel and offered a more homogeneous and pleasant heat. The fireplace required repeated operations and maintenance to keep it functioning: supplies of wood (to purchase, stack, carry into the house, disposing the ashes or using them for the monthly laundry).
We find a reference to the weight of the chore related to wood in a letter from Leopold Mozart to Hagenauer from Munich, dated 10 November 1766: “I ask you, or rather your wife, to find us a good housekeeper, above all in this period in which we need to continually fill the stoves with wood. These things are essential, or rather a malum necessarium (a necessary evil – A/N)”.
The embers were covered in the evening to prevent frequent household fires and to facilitate starting the fire back up in the morning. Smoke was the unavoidable companion in most homes, where the stove was central to the domestic activities in the kitchen.
The rooms, if there were any, were outdoors, so to stay warm during the cold, it was necessary to sleep with heavy clothing, possibly heating the bedding with bed warmers and braziers.
Stoves were certainly the most convenient and the wealthy, naturally, were the first to have access, even in more than one room of their apartments while keeping the antique and imposing fireplaces in the entertainment salons which was becoming a fading symbol of power.
Satisfying the new massive need for heat in the household provoked an increase in the demand for wood (this was before other forms of combustion, such as coal, were available at the turn of the century) which caused an increase in the price of up to 60/70%.
During the coldest winters, the poor ransacked the woods and forests, risking getting caught by the King's Guards or by the nobility's property foresters..
But wood, peat and coal were not the only forms of combustion used: the poor had less and could not afford to be queasy when it came to foul odor, so they used manure that, duly dried out had the caloric power equal to peat and even superior to wood (4.0 compared to an average measure of 3.5 of wood).
If finding manure was easy enough in the country, the poor in the city had to gather the horses' “leftovers”.
Even the windows (a certified innovation in Italian cities such as Genoa and Florence at the turn of the 14th century)
