The Jeff Koons Versailles exhibition, a major retrospective of sixteen works displayed in the apartments and gardens at the Chateau de Versailles, has been running since September, was due to close in December, but has just been extended to the 4^th January. Although 500,000 visitors have seen the exhibition so far, the extension has set off a new flurry of protests to add to the voices of various groups who protested at the start against kitch pop art being presented in this world heritage site.

In an open letter to President Sarkozy, but given to the press last Wednesday, Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, who claims to be a direct descendent of Louis XIV, asks M. Sarkozy to put an end to the discord by organizing the withdrawal of these disgraceful objects, which is how he sees the Jeff Koons works. M. de Bourbon-Parme believes that he is voicing the general feeling of the French people and of foreign admirers of the chateau de Versailles, when he says that the exhibition is an insult to the memory of Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette.

Monsieur B-P’s words set me off looking for other descendants of the French royals, and there is a list of all 121 of them on Wikipedia , in which he is number 65. Number one, the current ‘pretender’, is Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou who, if he were king, would be Louis XX.

Meanwhile, I shall keep my memories of Versailles intact from my last visit in June. On that day, as you can see, the flowers were out, a storm threatened but did not eventuate, and there wasn’t a large red heart, a silver rabbit, or a golden Michael Jackson in sight.