Click on image to see photo at Seeger

On tuesday, the Duchess of Montpensier has appeared in public again for the first time after she fell ill this spring.  The duchess, who was dressed in a black dress with a two string pearl necklace, attended the gala Andre-Charles Boule Exhibition ” A new style for Europe” at the old Opera in Frankfurt (Germany). She was accompanied by one of her sons, the duke of Vendôme. His wife stayed home, as she is in an advanced state of her pregnancy.

Marengo French Royals Duchess of Montpensier, Exhibition, Germany, Health, Prince Jean of France

On October 8, the royal family, including Princess Maria Laura, daughter of Princess Astrid, attended the opening of the prestigious “Son of Heaven” exhibition at the Palace of the Fine Arts in Brussels. It is the opening exhibition of the cultural festival Europalia China.

Click to see Belga picture gallery

The King and Queen opened the exhibition in the presence of the Vice President of China, Xi Jinping. Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde, Princess Astrid, Prince Lorenz, Prince Laurent, Princess Claire and Princess Maria Laura were also present.

The Vice-President is on an official trip to Belgium, and was welcomed to the country by Prince Philippe upon his arrival in Brussels, on October 7. Earlier on Thursday, the Vice President already met the King and Queen during a lunch at the Laeken Palace.

The exhibition shows some very exclusive pieces which have never travelled outside of China before, like a priceless kimono worn by the Chinese emperors. To honour this special gesture from China, the entire royal family turned up for the event. Princess Maria Laura, the eldest daughter of Princess Astrid, probably attended because the exhibition features Chinese artifacts. The young Princess has lived in China for 6 months, and currently studies Oriental languages in Paris.

For more information about the exhibition, please see this website.
For more information and pics from this event, please see this thread.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals Exhibition, King Albert II, Prince Laurent, Prince Lorenz, Prince Philippe, Princess Astrid of Belgium, Princess Claire, Princess Maria Laura, Princess Mathilde, Queen Paola

Click here to see more photos

 After her private visit to attend the baptism of Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie Chantal’s 5th child, Queen Sofia arrived yesterday at Thessaloniki from Athens, where she was since Monday, to attend the official inauguration of “El Miró de Mallorca” exhibition.

The exhibition, which will run until February 5 2010, is organized by the Teloglio Foundation and Pilar i Joan Miro of Mallorca, and shows more than 400 works made by the Spanish artist during his life on the island.

Yesterday the Queen was back in Athens to visit the New Acropolis Museum which was inaugurated last June. The museum has been recently constructed with Greece and European Union funds (almost 150 million Euros). The beautiful building is made of glass, stainless steel and cement and is located in the southeast of the Acropolis. A truly gem that a high value of archeology as Queen Sofia couldn’t miss.

Paty Spanish Royals Exhibition, Greece, Official Visit, Queen Sofia

Click for the photo at Times LIVE

 American admirers of the late Princess Diana should take advantage of an opportunity to visit a traveling exhibit, organized by Earl Spencer, now showing at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until December 31, 2009.

Earl Spencer appeared on The Today Show last week and was interviewed by Matt Lauer. Among the objects brought by Spencer for the interview were the beautiful black, cleavage-baring Jacques Azagury dress worn on the Princess’s last birthday, for her last public engagement; a large, red pedal car from their childhood; and her autographed pink ballet slippers. He also brought some family films which I have never seen, including footage of the family leaving Diana’s christening and some charming film of Frances in slacks, rolling around on the ground and playing with her children.

The Philadelphia exhibit contains other Diana treasures, including her wedding dress, with its matching shoes, bag and parasol. Spencer family jewels are also included. Among them is a diamond tiara but it does not appear that the tiara which was worn by the Princess at her wedding is included. The featured tiara is described as being composed of a Greek key pattern ca. 1860 and surmounted by nine associated palmettes ca. 1840. This piece struck me as being two separate tiaras which were combined, and according to a note in a previous exhibition that is precisely how the Spencers created this tiara at the end of the Victorian period. The hybrid tiara is not a very successful piece in my opinion. Some writers claim that the Princess wore this tiara, but I don’t remember Diana ever wearing this larger Spencer tiara. Other RF jewel experts agree that they have no knowledge of Diana wearing the hybrid tiara in public.

Diana’s former chef, Darren McGrady, who now cooks and sells books as the Royal Chef, is preparing a brunch on Sunday, December 20, in conjunction with the exhibit. The brunch will feature some of the Royal Family’s favorite recipes. Darren’s website is http://www.theroyalchef.com.

Regular adult tickets to the regular traveling exhibit cost about $23 and should be ordered in advance. For more information about the exhibit and tickets, contact Museumtix.

For more information about the main article describing the exhibit, see Times LIVE – Princess Diana exhibition opens

iowabelle British Royals Diana Princess of Wales, Exhibition, Princess Diana, United States of America

 HRH Crown Princess Mary yesterday, September 30th, attended the opening of a special exhibit focusing on the human brain at the Experimentarium in Hellerup. The exhibition opens today to the public, and will run until next year.

Click to see the image at MSN Star Lounge

During the visit, the Princess got the opportunity to view school children’s brain dioramas, saw a pig brain dissection and was able to herself hold a brain which came from a 52-year-old organ donor.

HRH also gave a speech to mark the opening of the exhibition, and stressed the importance of the human brain. “You must train your brain – all the time. Then you will have a better life. Our brains love surprises; brains love to have fun, love us eating healthily and exercising.” She then declared the exhibition open, proclaming: “Ready, set, smart!”

It was also revealed yesterday that American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was declined an interview with the Crown Princess, or any member of the Royal Family. With the 121st International Olympic Committee Congress being held in Copenhagen in the coming days, the royal court declined the invitation, with possible reasoning being that granting the interview would show favouritism towards a candidate city (Chicago) for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games which will be decided tomorrow.

Click here to read more about the brain exhibition, and here to read more about the declined Oprah interview.

JessRulz Danish Royals Exhibition, Interview, Oprah Winfrey, Princess Mary

TRH the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima have concluded their week-long visit to New York City, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage aboard the Half Moon which discovered the city.

Click to see the image at NY400.nl

After their incredibly busy Tuesday and Wednesday schedules, Thursday was a relatively quiet day for the royal couple. The pair had seperate meetings on water management and micro-finance, the Prince and Princess’ pet areas respectively, at the United Nations Headquarters. Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima then visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they were shown around the Johannes Vermeer exhibition – Vermeer’s Masterpiece The Milkmaid – by the Met’s curator Walter Liedtke.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has loaned the Met Vermeer’s most famous painting, The Milkmaid, to be apart of the exhibition, while there are also a further five Vermeer pieces on show. Liedtke said that the Prince and Princess showed particular interest in the Vermeer paintings, before they moved on to the New York Stock Exchange, where they were treated to a dinner. At the Stock Exchange, the Prince and Princess were briefed on the economic crisis.

Friday, September 11th, began as a solemn day on the royal couple’s program. Read more…

JessRulz Dutch Royals 9/11, Exhibition, Four Freedom Awards, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Official Visit, President Obama, Prince of Orange, Prince Willem-Alexander, Princess Máxima, United States of America

Click to see the image at Daylife

After spending three days in Belgium for the opening of an exhibition with the Belgian Crown Prince and Princess, HRH Crown Princess Victoria has moved on to the Mediterranean. Her first stop has been Athens, Greece, for the opening of the new Acropolis Museum and the opening of Swedish Design Exhibition.

It was in Athens yesterday that the Crown Princess was welcomed by Greek President Karolos Papoulias at the entrance to the new museum, before the duo, accompanied by the Greek First Lady, posed in front of the Acropolis hill. Victoria was then given a tour of the new museum, and took an interest in ancient Greek sculptures.

The evening saw Princess Victoria officially open the Swedish Design Exhibition in Athens, where she again took a keen interest in the pieces on show. The Crown Princess was even spotted looking and pointing under a table which is apart of the exhibition, providing photographers with some humorous shots.

HRH will travel to Cyprus later this week. Her current events thread can be found here.

JessRulz Swedish Royals Exhibition, Greece, Official Visit, President Papoulias, Princess Victoria

Click to see belga gallery

Yesterday, 09 Sept., Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden officially opened the exhibition “It’s our Earth 2. From Kyoto to Copenhagen” at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. This is the new edition of the exhibition “It’s our Earth”,  which focused on sustainable energy and development. Because of the great demand, the original exhibition was reopened, under the new name and with new emphasis on the influence of the human presence on the Earth, biodiversity, global warming and other contemporary issues.

The royals want to show their support for the efforts that are being undertaken to make people conscious of the need to change their habits, to counter global warming, climate change, and everything entailed in it.

In the afternoon, Prince Philippe and Princess Victoria attended the conference “Climate and Jobs – The EU’s Global Agenda”. The conference was organized by Sweden. The country is currently President of the Council of the European Union.

For more information on the exhibition, see here.
For pictures and a discussion of the visit, see here and here.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals, Swedish Royals Climate Change, Exhibition, Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde, Princess Victoria

Continuing with her two-day visit to Germany, HM Queen Margrethe II yesterday was still in Dresden. She and her sister, Princess Benedikte, first attended a luncheon at Eckberg Palace. This was also attended by the Saxon Governor Stanislaw Tillich, and his wife Veronika.

Click to see the Getty Images gallery

The two sisters then opened an art exhibition at the Princes Gallery of Dresden Castle, entitled “With Fortuna Over the Sea. Saxony and Denmark Marriages and Alliances in the Mirror of Art (1548-1709)”. The exhibition, which contains art from the Royal Collection at Rosenborg Castle in Denmark and the State Art Collection in Dresden, is being held to mark the 300th anniversary of King Frederik IV’s month-long visit to Saxony, which took place in 1709. The King visited Augustus II the Strong, the Elector of Saxony between 1694 and 1733.

At the opening, Queen Margrethe and Princess Benedikte also got to met King Christian IV (ruler of Denmark for the period 1588-1648) – in bust form, however.

Click here to read the thread about Margrethe and Benedikte’s visit to Germany.

JessRulz Danish Royals, German Royals Exhibition, Germany, Margrethe II, Official Visit, Princess Benedikte, Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg

Click here to read the article from This is the West Country

 Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester, recently paid a visit to the annual Mobility Roadshow. The roadshow featured exhibits and information from manufacturers of wheelchairs and other devices designed to help with mobility. While at the exhibition, the Duchess was presented with a teddy bear from a young boy named Dillon, according to a report from This Is the West Country. The Duchess was so charmed by Dillon, and even named the teddy bear in his honor. Dillon is the nephew of the chairman of Unwin Safety Systems, which makes safety devices that lock wheelchairs into place during automobile transport.

The Mobility Roadshow held a lot of interest for the Duchess, who serves as the patron of the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (ASBAH). She has dedicated a lot of her time to helping raise awareness of the need to help others lead more independent lives. She last visited the Mobility Roadshow in 1997.

To learn more about the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, please visit this website.

To read about, and to discuss the Duchess of Gloucester, please visit the Forum.

sgl British Royals Duchess of Gloucester, Exhibition, Health, Patronage