Antoine Augustin Parmentier, Chief Apothecary of the Hôtel des Invalides, presents the first potato harvest to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on the Plaine des Sablons in 1786

Antoine Augustin Parmentier, Chief Apothecary of the Hôtel des Invalides, presents the first potato harvest to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on the Plaine des Sablons in 1786. Antoine Parmentier received from the king 54 acres of land on which to cultivate the potato and make it fashionable among the peasantry, the idea being to fight famine by this means.

So the difficulties with introducing the potato were not peculiar to Russia. Until the first half of the nineteenth century the peasantry of Europe was not ready to grow this crop everywhere, and it took more than a hundred years of vigorous propaganda on behalf of the advantages of potato farming before people at last welcomed the potato into their cosy kitchen gardens with open arms.

Historical painting by Henri Gervex, early twentieth century, town hall of Neuilly-sur-Seine

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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Antoine Augustin Parmentier, Chief Apothecary of the Hôtel des Invalides, presents the first potato harvest to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on the Plaine des Sablons in 1786

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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