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Liselotte on the cleanliness of the Sun King's court at Versailles

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The Dutch understand cleanliness better than anyone in the world. Things are very different in France. There is one dirty thing at Court that I shall never get used to: the people stationed in the galleries in front of our rooms piss into all the corners. It is impossible to leave one's apartments without seeing somebody pissing.

      --Letter from Liselotte von der Pfalz, German sister-in-law of Louis XIV, Versailles, 23 July 1702. From Letters From Liselotte, translated by Maria Kroll

22 March 2008 in Dutch, French, German, Nasty and funny quotes about various nationalities |

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  • I read a lot, and in the past I kept a commonplace book where I would note anything I wanted to refer back to. A while ago, I realized that instead of keeping this book in my drawer, it might be fun to put the quotations on the web where other people could see them too. Most of the quotations are not found elsewhere on the internet-- that's why I put them up. Hope you find something interesting.

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  • All translations on this site are by me, Sedulia Scott, unless otherwise noted. The translations are COPYRIGHT. You are welcome to use them, for non-commercial purposes only, if you attribute them correctly.
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