Cornflowers, one of Marie Antoinette's favorite flowers.

Cornflowers growing in a field outside of the gardens & Château de Bagatelle

Today I had lunch at the gardens & Château de Bagatelle just on the outskirts of Paris. Upon leaving the grounds of the Château headed back to Paris. I came upon fields of intense blue color wild flowers. Close examination proved that the amazing blue flowers were the Cornflowers made fashionable by French Queen Marie Antoinette.   Marie Antoinette loved cornflowers because of the color and they reflected on the rustic nature of the of her Trianon. Marie Antoinette has cornflowers painted on porcelain made for her, embroidered onto fabrics and carved into furniture and ormolu mounts on furniture.  In the past it often grew as a weed in crop fields, hence its name (fields growing grains such as wheat, barley, rye, or oats are sometimes known as corn fields in France).