Secrets of History | Flight to Varennes - The Crazy Escape of Louis XVI

A 2023 France TV History Documentary hosted by Stéphane Bern. Audio in French with English subtitles.

On the morning of June 21, 1791, Louis XVI was no longer in his bed. Panic followed surprise when it was discovered that the queen and her children had fled with the king. Thanks to Count Axel de Fersen, the entire royal family crossed the kingdom clandestinely, heading for the Belgian border. But if a race against time was launched, the fugitives were confident and happy to finally be out of Paris. They did not imagine that their escape plan would gradually collapse. It took a handful of seconds and a hundred meters for the royal sedan to reach its objective and change the course of History. Hesitations, blunders, discouragement, fatalism, and poor judgment led and stopped the sedan at Varennes. Two years later, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette would climb the scaffold.

From the Palace of Versailles to the citadel of Montmédy, follow Stéphane Bern in one of the most incredible episodes of the French Revolution. This new Secrets d'Histoire episode recounts all the stages of this tragic adventure that would soon be called "the flight to Varennes".