The Ball Council had initially planned to set the celebrations in a small castle, just an hour’s ride from Paris, owned by a relative of one of the Council members, but influential advisers at the king’s Court had suggested a more distant location might prove more suitable so as not to draw too much attention. They had settled on a property in the south situated by the river downstream from Avignon’s ruined bridge. It was the summer residence of a distant cousin of the royal family and had been put at the full disposal of the Council, with all its attending servants given leave for several weeks and replaced by Ball functionaries so that a necessary veil of secrecy could be drawn on what would happen there. It was both sufficiently isolated and opulent, its grounds bordered by high walls crawling with vines and other hot-weather vegetation, that the influx of visitors, performers, guests and set-up workers would not be unduly noticed in the nearby town during the course of the necessary preparations for the big night.
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