ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the entertainment expenses the Menus Plaisirs paid in 1669 and 1698 under the direction of the First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, in order to demonstrate how material and financial expenses evolved throughout Louis XIV's reign. It also shows how the Menus Plaisirs contributed to the institutionalisation of monarchical celebrations and their political effect. Using the Argenterie and Menus Plaisirs account books allows the enquirer to assess the different kinds of expenses according to their uses and their users at court after 1682 and the court's establishment in Versailles. The chapter analysis of these expenses is set alongside analysis of accounts from the period when the French court had not yet settled in Versailles. Creating props and sets, organizing entertainments and festivals, the Menus Plaisirs repeatedly staged the royal body, associating the king's physical and symbolic body with the royal palace and its spaces.
