One of my favorite group of fictive characters for my literary design or literary travel adventures is the royal courtiers of France.

I love to place them in room settings I’ve seen that make me think they would feel right at home, as was the case with Ally Coulter’s salon at Holiday House NYC in 2014. I immediately thought how Catherine de Vivonne, or Marquise Rambouillet, would have taken to the space—her Chambre Bleue salon still regarded as one of the most successful ones in French history.

For this literary design adventure, I speak about Rambouillet’s talents as a designer and an interior architect—she would inspire generations of French architects—and note the design of her famous bedroom in which her salons were held—the blue velvet wall panels framed in gold and silver. I set the scene in Coulter’s room with “She was a quintessential entertainer and she hated the cold, so I can see her now, covered in the sumptuous throw on one of the Fendi Casa sofas, enjoying the fire while one of her most musically inclined habitués, Angélique Paulet, sang and played the piano.” How does the evening progress?