Versailles

Around 1.5 million Chinese tourists visited France last year.

They want to see the Eiffel Tower and Versailles, of course, but there's another important destination on the itinerary of many Chinese visitors, Montargis, a working-class town about a 90-minute drive from Paris.

That's because a Chinese work-study program there in the early 1900s left a lasting mark on China's history.

Here's reporter Lisa Bryant from Montargis.

The court of Frederick of Prussia was so corrupt that it cannot be described without doing violence to decency and even to humanity.

The Regent Orléans and Louis XV had carried license to such an extent as to render the court of Versailles a veritable pandemonium.

The vices of royalty infected the nobles and all others who were so unfortunate as to be permitted to frequent courts.

Vice, in fact, was the fashion, and numbers of all classes, not excepting the poorest, wallowed in it.

furthermore bach was now fifteen an age at which boys were expected to start earning their living so the chance to remove to lneburg proved a stroke of luck but there were more fascinating advantages to it than even the possibilities of bed and board easily accessible were several sources of musical and cultural inspiration in lneburg itself the church of st john had as its organist none less than georg boehm one of the outstanding personalities in german music of the era preceding the full unfoldment of bach's grandeur thirty miles off lay hamburg which harbored the venerable master of the organ adam reichen and the operatic life of that city had burst into bloom under the leadership of reinhold kaiser Up in the direction of the Danish frontier, the town of Lübeck sheltered still another giant, the organist Dietrich Buxtehude.

Sixty miles in an easterly direction, Laisselle, whose duke, Georg Wilhelm, had married a beautiful and spirited French Huguenot, Eleonore d'Esmier d'Olbreuse, and turned his court into a miniature Versailles, where French musicians in particular were royally welcomed.

naturally a little opera house formed part of this island of gallic charm elegance and culture enlivened by a continual succession of ballets operas and other musical diversions Whether Bach obtained admission to the auditorium, or whether he was smuggled into the orchestra pit by some friendly player, we do not know.

But of one thing we are certain.

The travellers went on to Bonn, Cologne, and Aachen, where lived the Princess Amalia, sister of Frederick the Great, whose pressing invitations to Berlin left Leopold cold as soon as he realized she had no money.

He reflected that the kisses without number which she gave the children were would have pleased him better if they had had cash value finally after further progress through the low countries the little man reached paris where the father discovered that most of his letters of recommendation and introduction amounted to little only when they were taken in charge by the bavarian born baron melchior grimm a literary figure of some distinction did results begin to shape themselves a first-rate publicity man grimm launched a campaign for the youngsters in his correspondance littraire with the result that doors promptly opened and invitations began to pour in On New Year's Eve, 1764, the Mozarts were asked to a Grand Couvert at the court in Versailles.

Wolfgang stood next to the Queen, who fed him dainties, and translated for the King, Louis XV, what the boy said to her in German.

The great Madame Pompadour was on hand, and the elder Mozart noted that she must once have been a great beauty for all her present stoutness.

The travellers went on to Bonn, Cologne, and Aachen, where lived the Princess Amalia, sister of Frederick the Great, whose pressing invitations to Berlin left Leopold cold as soon as he realized she had no money.

He reflected that the kisses without number which she gave the children were would have pleased him better if they had had cash value finally after further progress through the low countries the little man reached paris where the father discovered that most of his letters of recommendation and introduction amounted to little only when they were taken in charge by the bavarian born baron melchior grimm a literary figure of some distinction did results begin to shape themselves a first-rate publicity man grimm launched a campaign for the youngsters in his correspondance littraire with the result that doors promptly opened and invitations began to pour in On New Year's Eve, 1764, the Mozarts were asked to a Grand Couvert at the court in Versailles.

Wolfgang stood next to the Queen, who fed him dainties, and translated for the King, Louis XV, what the boy said to her in German.

The great Madame Pompadour was on hand, and the elder Mozart noted that she must once have been a great beauty for all her present stoutness.

The court of Frederick of Prussia was so corrupt that it cannot be described without doing violence to decency and even to humanity.

The Regent Orléans and Louis XV had carried license to such an extent as to render the court of Versailles a veritable pandemonium.

The vices of royalty infected the nobles and all others who were so unfortunate as to be permitted to frequent courts.

Vice in fact was the fashion, and numbers of all classes not accepting the poorest wallowed in it.