A Versailles Christmas-Tide

During an unexpected winter stay in the town around the royal château, parents await the return of their schoolboy son and find their plans altered by a sudden telegram; the narrative follows their domestic preparations for Noël and a series of local episodes—market life, hotel patrons, promenades, village customs, ice and snow, legends of a haunted château, and reflections on Marie Antoinette and past court life—woven with sketches of townspeople, seasonal rituals, and illustrative vignettes that evoke the rhythms and character of a provincial community at Christmastide.