The Carnavalet Museum celebrates Madame de Sévigné

At the Carnavalet Museum, the exhibition Madame de Sévigné, Parisian Letters restore all her modernity to the great letter writer of the 17th century. Through often unpublished works, manuscripts, letters, portraits and objects from public and private collections, the exhibition shows how keen an observer of her time Sévigné was, almost a chronicler before her time.

She frequented the great literary salons and the most brilliant circles of the French nobility. While the court of Louis XIV shone from Versailles, Madame de Sévigné remained deeply attached to Parisian intellectual life, of which she was one of the most admired figures, refusing to permanently leave the Marais for the pomp of the court.

The exhibition also highlights the intense, sometimes tender, sometimes demanding relationship that Madame de Sévigné maintained with her daughter, the Countess of Grignan, whom she wanted to be as independent as herself. Her letters, written to bridge the distance, became a living link between Paris and Provence, a dialogue nourished by trust, advice, and emotion. They express both maternal love and the desire to share news of the world with a privileged reader. This reader, in turn, would circulate the letters after copying all or part of them.