"You must have been told that I'm extravagant, maybe even a little crazy." Princess Diane of France, Duchess of Württemberg, welcomes me with these words at her German castle in Altshausen. The scene is set in the early 1990s, as I'm reporting on this artist princess who founded a charitable foundation called Les Enfants de la Vie. Cautiously, I deny it, but she adds: "Don't deny it, I know that we bear the signature of my dear family: eccentrics scare them." The fourth daughter and sixth of the Count of Paris's eleven children, Diane of France has displayed fierce independence, a fiery temperament, and a noble nonconformity from a young age. When Duke Carl of Württemberg married her on July 21, 1960, he probably never imagined that this "wild woman" would bring such a breath of fresh air to his venerable Teutonic commandery...
"You must have been told that I'm extravagant, maybe even a little crazy." Princess Diane of France, Duchess of Württemberg, welcomes me with these words at her German castle in Altshausen. The scene is set in the early 1990s, as I'm reporting on this artist princess who founded a charitable foundation called Les Enfants de la Vie. Cautiously, I deny it, but she adds: "Don't deny it, I know that we bear the signature of my dear family: eccentrics scare them." The fourth daughter and sixth of the Count of Paris's eleven children, Diane of France has displayed fierce independence, a fiery temperament, and a noble nonconformity from a young age. When Duke Carl of Württemberg married her on July 21, 1960, he probably never imagined that this "wild woman" would bring such a breath of fresh air to his venerable Teutonic commandery...