Marie-Caroline, one of the most fascinating figures of the 19th century.

At seventeen, she married a man she had never seen before. At twenty-one, she was widowed: her husband was stabbed outside the Opera and died before her eyes on the Rue de Richelieu. At thirty-three, she attempted to incite a French uprising. Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Sicily lived like a serial novel, and the former stables of the Sceaux estate unfold her life on two levels, in nearly 120 works. We encounter the young Neapolitan woman painted by Thomas Lawrence, high-browed, tasked with saving a dynasty. Then comes The Last Moments of the Duke of Berry; Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard, where the prince's blood already forms a historical tableau. Then reigns the queen of pleasures, surrounded by the troubadour furniture she adores, gilt bindings bearing her monogram, and the gorget crafted by Félicie de Fauveau. Dieppe follows, one August morning in 1824, when she enters the sea before three thousand onlookers: that day, she launches the vogue for sea bathing and helps to invent the modern seaside resort. The legend remains. In 1832, she lands secretly near Marseille; the Vendée takes up arms again; the escape lasts six months and ends behind a fireplace, in which the gendarmes light a fire that finally drives her from her hiding place. She emerges blackened, exhausted, still sovereign of her own story. Sceaux displays on its walls the images of a woman who never let anyone write her role for her.

CHÂTEAU DE SCEAUX, MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL- Former Stables
From September 13, 2026 to February 14, 2027
Allée d’Honneur, 92330 Sceaux - RER Sceaux (B)
Tue. to Sun. Closed on Mon. 2 pm-6:30 pm, then 1 pm-5 pm from Nov. 1st
Price: €6 - Reduced rate: €4 - Free for under 26s