Feasts and Fantasy at the Table of Louis XIV

In May 1664, Louis XIV invited his court into an illusion. Les Plaisirs de l’Isle enchantée, the first grand fête at Versailles, announced the arrival of a new palace and a new language of power. While fireworks, ballets, and mythological machines dazzled the eye, dining quietly carried much of the work of persuasion. Feasts were served outdoors beneath thousands of candles, by masked servants, amid music, pastoral fantasy, and theatrical display. Eating became a way of inhabiting enchantment.

This lecture looks closely at those meals and at how they were framed by spectacle. Drawing on contemporary accounts, it examines what was eaten, how it was served, and what it signified within the rhythms of the fête. Dining at Versailles functioned as a form of choreography that bound courtiers to the king through pleasure and carefully managed intimacy. In tasting enchantment, the court learned how to live within the emerging world of the Sun King.