A winter beyond the fireplaceSourced
Even fire and furs could not stop her shivering
Europe suffered an exceptionally cold winter in 1708–1709. The Duchess of Orléans described shivering and barely being able to hold her pen despite a roaring fire, closed door and furs.
A letter preserves the cold through the difficulty of holding a pen.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Great Frost of 1709 · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-10