Poet Adrienne Eberhard and novelist/translator Catherine de Saint Phalle invite you to a warm conversation about their serendipitous collaboration on the French translation of Marie & Marie (Éditions tituli, 2025).

Together, they’ll reflect on the serendipity that brought their partnership to life, the historical research Adrienne pursued across France and Tasmania, and the thirteen-year journey of writing that shaped the book. Catherine will share how her own family’s ties to the French Revolution bring the eighteenth century vividly close, and how she connected deeply with the narrative threads and the poetic voice at the heart of the collection.

Central to Marie & Marie are the intertwined stories of two extraordinary women: Marie‑Antoinette, last Queen of France, and Marie‑Louise Girardin, her contemporary from Versailles and the daughter of a gardener at the Potager du Roi.

While the French Revolution raged, Marie‑Louise disguised herself as a man and spent three years at sea on d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition through the Pacific and southern Tasmanian waters. As Marie‑Antoinette and her family faced the wildness at the heart of Paris, Marie‑Louise travelled to the wilds at the ends of the earth on a ship of both royalists and republicans, held together by d’Entrecasteaux’s remarkable leadership. She never returned to France, dying of dysentery at sea a year after Marie‑Antoinette’s execution.