The Cell..

“I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.” - Marie Antoinette

Following my path to exploring the incidents of the French Revolution, I headed to the Conciergerie which was a former royal palace and prison in Paris. Located across from the Louvre Museum, I didn't know what to expect when I dedicated a day to go there. Being to a royal palace is a cool thing but a prison? the idea of having one place that offered the thrill of opposite experiences sounded so appealing to me.

However, The real reason behind my quest was to see the famous cell of the queen "Marie Antoinette". YES, it was the ACTUAL cell that she was prisoned in during the revolution when she was captured. As I stepped in, I was amazed by the architecture of the place, it looked somewhat like a church from the inside with complex details and a twirl-shaped staircase that led to the kitchen (as I was told).

As I got to the queen's cell, I had the same excitement as I did when I went to see the Monalisa but this was different. This place went through tough times and it had that thing about it that made you want to stay silent as you wander around inside. Finally, after passing the prisoners cells I got to my destination and I looked through the small window with the overlapped bars (As you can see from the pic above) It was such a dramatic moment as I looked in and to my surprise there she was.

The recreation of the cell and her majesty sitting made me speechless as well as the tourists who were with me. I took good shots but I also observed and thought about how she could have possibly felt then. Alone, trapped with her husband and children taken away from her.

Speechless...