Tag: History

A walk to the Bastille on Mayday via the Marais district

 

Le Palais des Tournelles

The Marais area is situated between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. Spared by the great Haussmannian works in the 19th century, it is above all an area of ​​exceptional architecture and there remain many magnificent manors built during the 17th century, now mainly housing museums. Originally settled on a vast marshy area, (the name Marais means “Marsh”), the district had its heyday in the early 17th century when King Henry IV decided to build a sublime place dedicated to stroll: la Place des Vosges (inaugurated in 1612).

The hôtel des Tournelles is a now-demolished collection of buildings from the 14th century onwards north of place des Vosges. It was named after its many ‘tournelles’ or little towers.[1][2]

It was owned by the kings of France for a long period of time, though they did not often live there. Henry II of France died there in 1559 of wounds he received in a joust. After his death, his widow Catherine de Médici, abandoned the building, by then quite derelict and old-fashioned. It was turned into a gunpowder magazine, then sold to finance the construction of the Tuileries, designed and developed to suit the queen’s Italian style.

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Site and description

The district around the Hôtel des Tournelles in 1550

At the beginning of the 15th century, the district around the hôtel formed a huge rectangle, marked out by the rue Saint-Antoine, rue des Tournelles, rue de Turenne and rue Saint-Gilles, a rectangle broken from within by the park of the royal estate. During the English occupation of Paris (1420-1436), John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, extended the district by purchasing eight and a half acres from the nuns of Sainte-Catherine for 200 livres 16 sous, thus extending the property to the fortified wall of Paris, which was then situated on what is now known as the boulevard Richard Lenoir.

This extension was annulled in 1437 after the English left. The main entrance to the hôtel was at the bottom of a cul-de-sac currently known as Impasse Guéménée (fr). The hôtel was said to be able to accommodate 6,000 people.

Tournelle gate to St. Nicolas des Champs

Like the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the hôtel des Tournelles was a collection of buildings spread over an estate of more than 20 acres (8.1 ha), including twenty chapels, several pleasure grounds, ovens and twelve galleries including the Duke of Bedford’s famous galerie des courges (so-called due to the painted green squash or courges on its walls. Under its tiled roof the Duke’s arms, devices and heraldry were displayed). It also included a maze called ‘Dedalus’, two parks planted with trees, six kitchen gardens and a ploughed field. The council chamber was notable for the magnificence of its decoration. Three other rooms bore the names salle des Écossais (room of the Scots), salle de brique (brick room) and salle pavée (paved room).

One part of the hôtel des Tournelles, named Logis du Roi, had an entrance decorated with the French coat of arms, painted by Jean de Boulogne, known as Jean de Paris. In 1464, Louis XI built a gallery there which connected this house to the Hôtel-Neuf of Madame d’Étampes, across the rue Saint-Antoine. He also built an observatory for his doctor, Jacques Coitier. Menageries based on those at the hôtel Saint-Paul were later added to house some of the animals previously held at the hôtel Saint-Paul. New specimens were imported from Africa, such as lions, giving the enclosures the name of hôtel des lions du Roi.

No traces remain of the hôtel besides a copy of one of its gates, which forms the south gate of the église Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, and some cellars buried below buildings in the district.

History

Charles VI

At the beginning of the 14th century, the building that became the Hôtel des Tournelles was merely a house facing the hôtel Saint-Pol. Pierre d’Orgemont, seigneur de Chantilly and chancellor of France and the Dauphiné under Charles VI, or perhaps his eldest son Pierre, rebuilt it in 1388. It was bequeathed to the younger Pierre in 1387. This house may have formerly been the property of Jean d’Orgemont, the presumed father of the elder Pierre.[3][4] On 19 March 1387 Pierre d’Orgemont divided his lands among his ten children, leaving the maison des Tournelles to his eldest son Pierre, bishop of Paris, who was already living there.[5] After his father’s death in 1389, the bishop sold the house on 16 May 1402 for 140,000 gold écus, to the duc de Berry, brother of Charles V. In 1404 the duc de Berry gave it to his nephew Louis, the duc d’Orléans and the younger brother of Charles VI, in exchange for the hôtel de Gixé on rue de Jouy. The duc d’Orléans was assassinated on 23 November 1407 and the hôtel passed to his heirs, becoming the property of Charles VI, who lived there from 1417 onwards. The house took the name Maison royale des Tournelles.

Louis XII

Thanks to the Treaty of Troyes, the English entered Paris on 18 November 1420. After Charles VI‘s death on 22 October 1422 in Paris, the hôtel was seized and became the primary residence of John of Lancaster, the Duke of Bedford, younger brother of Henry V of England and regent for the kingdom of France until his nephew Henry VI came of age. In 1436, after the English left Paris, Charles VII gave the hôtel to his Orléans cousins. When John died in 1467, the property passed to his widow, Marguerite, Duchess of Rohan. In 1486 Marguerite left the buildings to her son Charles of Orléans, father of Francis I of France. It thus became a royal residence once again. In 1563 it was still called the “hôtel des Tournelles et d’Angoulème”. It thus passed to John of Orléans, count of Angoulême, and was for a time called the hôtel d’Angoulême (not to be confused with the later Hôtel d’Angoulême Lamoignon).

Different kings of this era stayed for short or long periods at the hôtel – Louis XI made a few brief stays there:

Fleeing his coronation festivities,[clarification needed] the new king took refuge there on Tuesday 1 September 1461 after dinner[7] but left for Tours by 25 September.

Nor did Louis’ successors Charles VIII of France and Louis XII of France stay there much, though the latter did die there on 1 January 1515. Francis I of France did not live there, preferring the château de Fontainebleau, the Louvre and the castles on the River Loire. The Hôtel des Tournelles was used as a residence by his mother Louise of Savoy then by his mistress Anne de Pisseleu, a tradition repeated by Henry II of France when he made it the residence of Diane de Poitiers. In 1524 the magician Cornélius Agrippa lived there under the name Agrippa de Nettesheim, as doctor and astrologer to Louise de Savoie, to whom he made dead and living people appear.[citation needed]

Henry II on his deathbed at the hôtel des Tournelles

The hôtel saw several lavish and unusual festivals, such as the “danse macabre” on 23 August 1451 before Charles, Duke of Orléans. Henry II celebrated his coronation there in 1547 and then the signing of the Treaties of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. The last festival held there was also in 1559, to mark the double marriage of Élisabeth de France to Philip II of Spain and of the king’s sister Marguerite de France to the duke of Savoy. On this occasion, a tournament was organised on 29 June on rue Saint-Antoine, the widest street in Paris at the time and thus known as the La Grant rue St Anthoine, with the same dimensions as in the present day. During a joust in front of the hôtel de Sully (level with what is now number 62), Henry II was seriously wounded by an accidental lance thrust by Gabriel de Lorges, count of Montgomery, captain of the king’s Scottish guard. Moved to the hôtel des Tournelles, the king died there on 10 July 1559 in terrible agony, despite attempts to save him by both the famous surgeon Ambroise Paré and the surgeon to the king of Spain, Andreas Vesalius.

Catherine de Médici, an Italian princess who had grown up in Roman palaces, disliked the Hôtel des Tournelles’s medieval appearance and took Henry’s death as a pretext to sell it off. Gaining total power as regent to her young sons, the heirs of Henry, she turned the property into an arsenal, then had it closed and demolished. On 28 January 1563, in the name of her son Charles IX of France, she issued letters patent ordering the demolition.[8] This took place in stages and financed her major works on the more modern royal residences in Paris, particularly on the Madrid and the Tuileries. Some of the materials from the old hôtel were reused in the construction of the palace. The stables were reused to create the important Marché aux chevaux, horse market, where two thousand horses were sold every Saturday.

Certain parcels of land from the Hôtel’s estate were sold off, though a large estate remained and was used in military training. In January 1589 the estate was used to exercise the mercenaries charged with defending Paris against Henry IV of France. It also became a traditional site for bloody duels – on 27 April 1578, at 5 am, three favourites of Henry III of France beat three favourites of the duke of Guise in a duel there, with all six men ending up killed or seriously wounded.

Henry IV

In August 1603, Henry IV tried to re-use part of the Hôtel’s buildings to create a silk, gold and silver factory, bringing in 200 Italian artisans for this purpose, but the attempt failed. Finally, on 4 March 1604, he issued an edict instructing his minister Sully to measure out the site. He donated a parcel of 6,000 toises (yards) to his main noblemen, who built pavilions there, on the condition that they stuck to the layout, materials and main dimensions laid down by the architects Androuet du Cerceau and Claude Chastillon. On 29 March 1605 Henry wrote to Sully:

Thus the place Royale, later known as the place des Vosges, was born.

References

  1. J-A Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, Gabriel Roux, Paris, 1853, p. 189
  2. Le Magasin Pittoresque, 1851, p.96
  3. Le journal des Sçavans, 1913, pp. 186–188
  4. Léon Mirot (1914). “Les d’Orgemont”. Journal des savants (in French). Berger Élie. pp. 186–188 – via Persée.
  5. “Partage des biens de Pierre d’Orgemont” [Sharing of the assets of Pierre d’Orgemont]. Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de Paris (in French): 130–135. 1887.
  6. H. Champion, Le journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris, 1881, p. 360
  7. Paul Murray Kendall, Louis XI, Arthème Fayard, 1974, p. 110
  8. Archives du royaume, section domaniale, série 9, N°1234
  9. Mon amy, ceste-cy sera pour vous prier de vous souvenir de ce dont nous parlasmes dernièrement ensemble, de cette place que je veux que l’on fasse devant le logis qui se fait au marché aux chevaux pour les manufactures, afin que si vous n’y avez esté vous alliez pour la faire marquer: car baillant le reste des autres places a cens et rente pour bastir, c’est sans doute qu’elles le seront incontinent et je vous prie de m’en donner les nouvelles.

Bibliography

  • Jacques Hillairet, Connaissance du vieux Paris, Editions Princesse, 1956, p. 28
  • F. Lazare, Dictionnaire administratif et historique des rues de Paris et de ses monuments, F. Lazare, 1844/1849, pp. 600–602
  • J-A Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, Gabriel Roux, 1853, p. 189
  • Gilette Ziegler, Histoire secrète de Paris, Stock, 1967, p. 69
  • Le Magasin Pittoresque, 1851, pp. 95–96
  • Le Magasin Pittoresque, 1907, pp. 332–334
  • G. Kugelman, Les rues de Paris, Louis Lurine, 1851
  • Giorgo Perrini, Paris, deux mille ans pour un joyau, Jean de Bonnot, 1992
  • A walk to the Bastille via the Marais district begins from behind the Pompidou Centre.
  • Marais district traders
  • Marais district boulangerie
  • Famous falafel queues
  • One of several Jewish Memorials in the Marais
  • One of several Jewish Memorials in the Marais
  • Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris (BHVP)
  • The famous Amorino icecreameries
  • Place des Vosges, the oldest planned town square in Paris
  • Place des Vosges, the oldest planned town square in Paris
  • Place des Vosges, Statue - Louis XIII
  • Place des Vosges
  • Approaching the Bastille on Mayday 2018 - year of the 50th anniversary of the famous student strikes Paris 1968.
  • Approaching the Bastille on Mayday 2018 - year of the 50th anniversary of the famous student strikes Paris 1968.
  • The former church of the Convent de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, now the Temple du Marais (1632–34) by François Mansart.
  • The July Column in the Place de la Bastille (1831–40) by Joseph-Louis Duc.
  • Bastille on Mayday 2018 - year of the 50th anniversary of the famous student strikes Paris 1968 - a smoky BBQ.
  • Paris real estate ..
  • A walk back towards the Seine.
  • A walk back towards the Seine.
  • Remnants of the original Bastille, stormed on the 14th July 1789 marking the commencement of the 1789 revolution.
  • La Seine.
  • Houses at 13-15 rue Francois-Miron, 4th arrondissement (16th-17th centuries)
  • Houses at 13-15 rue Francois-Miron, 4th arrondissement (16th-17th centuries)
  • The Hôtel de Ville de Paris has been the seat of the Paris City Council since 1357.
  • The current building, with a neo-renaissance style, was built by architects Théodore Ballu and Edouard Deperthes on the site of the former Hôtel de Ville.
  • The current building is on the site of the former Hôtel de Ville which burnt down during the Paris Commune in 1871.
  • Mayday march moves through the 4th arrondissement from the Bastille.
  • Tour Saint-Jacques is all that remains of the former 16th-century Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery"), which was demolished in 1797, during the French Revolution, leaving only the tower.[2] What remains of the destroyed church of St. Jacques La Boucherie is now considered a national historic landmark.
  • The original was demolished in 1797, during the French Revolution, leaving only the tower.
  • What remains of the destroyed church of St. Jacques La Boucherie is now considered a national historic landmark.

 

 

 

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Musée du Louvre

 

Official website

 

Wikipedia

The Louvre or the Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre), is the world’s largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city’s 1st arrondissement (district or ward). Approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres (782,910 square feet). In 2017, the Louvre was the world’s most visited art museum, receiving 8.1 million visitors.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the urban expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and, in 1546, was converted by Francis I into the main residence of the French Kings. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation’s masterpieces.

The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon’s abdication many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic. The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

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Louvre Databases

 

Château de Tours

 

Visuel Château de Tours

History of the castle

From TOURS – Château de Tours – official website

On the remains of wooden buildings, themselves built on the remains of Gallo-Roman baths, the Chateau de Tour’s first stones are laid in the eleventh century by order of the Counts of Anjou, relying on some vestiges of the Roman wall that surrounded Caesarodunum, the Roman settlement here.

The location is strategic. Just in front of the only bridge that allows passage  north of the Loire, and bordering the city, the building is probably an entry point for men and goods while being a few steps from the cathedral.

The castle is mainly used as a residence, but things change in the thirteenth century. It must be said that France takes shape, and Philippe-Auguste includes Touraine in this great kingdom. The castle of Tours is then enlarged to become a real defensive fortress, perhaps to resist a possible English attack, or simply to impose a little more, in the face of the growing importance of Chateauneuf and St. Martin’s Basilica.

A drawbridge gives access to the castle with its large square tower of the eleventh century, and four towers including the tower of Guise which is a dungeon with a wall thirty meters high and three metres thick, surrounding not only the inhabited building but also the chapel and a large courtyard.

The estate extends further, with new homes, a barnyard, a stable. Kings go there, the future Louis XI is married there, but in the Renaissance the competition is tough against the new castles at the edge of the water. As the defensive role decreases and in the seventeenth century the Wilson Bridge is constructed, the role of the chateau changes, serving in turn as arsenal, begging depot, military barracks, and even stone quarry to build the river’s docks!

Today there remains only the Logis of Governors, which served for meetings of city officials, and the tower of medieval Guise leaning against the flag of Mars built in the eighteenth century.

 

Google Maps – Château de Tours

Château de Chenonceau

 

Château de Chenonceau’s history is significant for the actions of a string of women who have lived here. Its architectural and garden features stand as monuments to the lives of these great women. Beginning as is often the case as a fortress, this site evolved from the 11th century to become a residential building with a sense of luxury and particularly, femininity that we don’t always see in the Châteaux of the Loire Valley. It is the second most visited château in France after Versailles.

Read the History ..

Nantes Parks – Parc de la Morinière en hiver

This week we experienced the “Moscow” winter, a cold front coming from Russia bringing the temperature down to -10 overnight for a week. It’s not cold enough on the north ice cap. In Paris, public transport was brought to a halt but the days weren’t all grey here near the Atlantique coast. Gloves, hat and coat and camera and one of the best walks ever.  A full display of new winter flowering plants was a surprise. A small but lovely consolation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Normandy

 

Normandy is a region of northern France. Its varied coastline includes white-chalk cliffs and WWII beachheads, including Omaha Beach, site of the famous D-Day landing. Just off the coast, the rocky island of Mont-Saint-Michel is topped by a soaring Gothic abbey. The city of Rouen, dominated by Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen, is where military leader and Catholic saint Joan of Arc was executed in 1431.

Upper Normandy is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Upper and Lower Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy

The village of Giverny is a small village located north of France. The town of Giverny is located in the department of Eure of the French region [previously Haute-] Normandie. The town of Giverny is located in the township of Écos part of the district of Les Andelys.

Paris

 

 Old Maps of Paris

Paris (Lutèce) Circa 508

Clovis I, who in 481 became king at 16 years of age, made Paris his capital in the year 508. Clovis I is considered to be the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next 200 years. He was the king of the Franks who would successfully unify all Frankish tribes into one kingdom under one ruler.

 

 

Paris Circa 1422

In 1466, perhaps 40,000 people died of the plague in Paris. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the black plague visited Paris for almost one year out of three.

France is under the rule of House of Valois with the death of Charles VI. After the death of King Charles VI, King Henry VI of England (House of Lancaster), becomes regent of France after the Treaty of Troyes. His rule lasts from 1422 to 1453. At the same time Charles VII also claims the throne with the death of his father.

The House Valois of France rules until 1589 when The House of Bourbon inherits the throne.

Maps after this date will indicate the growth that followed this period.

 

 

Paris 1615 Plan De Mérain

The construction of the Luxembourg Palace and gardens begins in 1615.

 

The geography of Paris – from paris-city.fr

Paris, the capital of France and of the Ile de France region, covers a surface area of 105 km² and has a population, according to the last census in 1999, of 2,125,246. At the end of the 20th century, the Paris agglomeration counted 11,131,412 inhabitants, of which 2,147,274 within the city proper.

Parisians make up 19.4% of the population of the Ile de France region (estimated 1st January 2003). The overall population of the region has been in constant decline for over 70 years.

 

 

Paris is administrative department 75, and within the department, the city is divided into 20 administrative arrondissements. The arrondissements are set out in the form of a spiral, with the first arrondissement in the centre and the numbers increasing outwards in a clockwise direction.

 

 

Paris occupies the heart of a sedimentary basin in the western reaches of the great plains of Northern Europe. In the centre of the fluvial plain of the Seine, the city lies just downstream of the Seine-Marne confluence and upstream of the confluence with the Oise. The naturally occurring waterway crossroads explains the existence and exceptional development over fifteen centuries of this urban pole.

More precisely, Paris formed around the l’île de la Cité at the junction of two great waterways. The north-south axis weaves between the hills of Montmartre and Belleville over the hillock of la Chapelle, the gateway to gares du Nord et de l’Est and the Saint-Martin canal.
At Châtelet in the centre, the east-west axis runs alongside the Seine on the right bank, through la Bastille, the Louvre and the Champs-Élysées, over to the suburbs in Chaillot and beyond, la Défense.From there, the axis runs along Rue Saint-Martin and Rue Saint-Denis, crosses the Seine at the pont au Change and climbs up the right bank, following the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève.

 

This axis was followed underground when the first metro line was built, inaugurated in 1900, the line ran from Porte Maillot to Vincennes (later extended to Neuilly in the west). This route through the city is dotted with prestigious monuments, which, together with the presence of Place de l’Etoile and Nation at either end of the line, then the forests of Vincennes and Boulogne beyond, demonstrates the east-west symmetry of the city. City facts : Insee
The UNESCO has classified as a collective world heritage site over 30 bridges that cross the Seine in Paris, from Pont-Neuf, completed in 1607, to Pont Charles de Gaulle, inaugurated in 1996. Upriver, the banks of the Seine have changed radically since the 1980’s; the right bank has seen the emergence of the ZAC (Concerted Development Zone) at Bercy, with the new Ministry of the Economy rising above the river.

The opposite bank is occupied by the big construction zone of Tolbiac, dominated by the four towers of the National Library, now called the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand (architect : Dominique Perrault). Once past the gare de Lyon (right bank) and the d’Austerlitz (left bank), the Seine moves into the historical heart of Paris, flowing around the little islands of Ile Saint-Louis and Ile de la Cité.There, in an area of less than 20 hectares, are gathered the Cathedral Notre-Dame, the Hôtel-Dieu and, inside the walls of the old royal palace, Sainte-Chapelle and the Palais de justice. Just across the river, on the right bank, stands the Hôtel de ville.Beyond, the Seine stretches before the long colonnade of the Louvre.

 

Further to the west are the Jardin des Tuileries and Place de la Concorde on the right bank. The monuments here bring to mind the Universal Expositions that took place in Paris: the Eiffel tower, put in place for the exposition of 1889; the Petit et Grand Palais (1900); the Palais de Chaillot (1937).
Before leaving Paris the Seine passes the Maison de la Radio and the towers of operation Front de Seine. Paris has served for ten centuries as a political capital for a number of reasons: its geographical situation in the centre of the Parisian basin, which is the site of important river confluences; the busy crossroads that it naturally forms for road and rail networks, as well as busy flight paths; its easy access to the sea via the navigable river Seine; its proximity to North-Western Europe, which is one of the most concentrated industrialised and urbanised regions in the world. Paris is in a marginal position relative to the industrial axis that stretches from Rotterdam to Milan, however the putting in place a European fast rail network would largely compensate for this, making Paris the hub for transport through the channel tunnel into the U.K.
Paris has the highest rates of business activity and productivity in France. The tertiary sector alone employs 3 million people in the Greater Paris area. Almost a third of that employment stems from the city’s function as the political and administrative capital.

In other words, the standard of living is higher in Paris than anywhere else in the country. This is the result of different activities and economic processes that come with any very large city, and the snowball effect that they have on the surrounding environment. The tertiary sector grows and diversifies; while the resulting intensification of communication and transaction activities pushes the industrial sector out to the suburbs.
For some years, there has been clear increase in high-tech industries, particularly in the electronics and computer sectors, matched by a simultaneous decline in traditional industries like timber, clothing, leather and printing. What’s more, the number of businesses has decreased by 15%, or 30,000 companies, predominantly among trade activities and light industry.
Paris and the Parisian region therefore constitute one of the most complex industrial poles there is, much more even than the large industrial regions, such as La Lorraine or Le Nord. In reality, efforts to decongest the capital are constantly battling against the need to keep a sufficient mass of jobs there for the tertiary sector to be supported and developed. The array of tertiary activities being conducted in Paris and its suburbs is more and more visible as time goes on. The effect on the city is an increased demand for office space, and consequently modern office buildings rapidly springing up throughout the city. Along the axis formed by la Défense, the Champs-Élysées and Bercy, one of the most attractive tertiary sector corridors in Europe stretches over 30 km all the way from Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Marne-la-Vallée.

This is visibly the case, zones of industrial activity are heavily present around the outskirts of the city today, notably the automotive sector which pioneered the outward migration.The greater urban area represents a network of industries, which are linked to each other by complex relationships: the tourism sector with luxury industries, scientific research and artistic activities with high-tech industries and producers of cultural goods. Paris attracts more conferences, salons and expositions than any other city in the world. Some of the city’s attractions are visited by more than a million visitors each year, notably the Pompidou Art & Cultural Centre or the Eiffel Tower, or outside the city: Versailles or Disneyland-Paris, at Marne La Vallée. Certain monuments, of course, will always remain the must-see spectacles for tourists: the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre, Notre-Dame, the Pantheon, the Louvre, or the Palais des Invalides. Of course, tourists also make up a great number of the visitors to the 200 museums, the 120 theatres and music venues and the hotels: 200,000 rooms are available in Ile de France, three quarters of them in the capital. The wholesale food business was radically transformed by the transfer from Les Halles to Rungis, which has become a unique centre for the redistribution of produce, not only throughout the whole of France but even overseas.

The greatest concentration of head-quarters and power centres are located in the west of the city. Since 1977, Paris has been administrated by a mayor elected by universal suffrage. Jacques Chirac was the first person to be elected to that post.
The Elysée Palace, residence of the President of the Republic, is situated on the right bank of the Seine, behind the gardens of the Champs-Elysées. The ministries are located on the other side of the river, in sumptuous buildings in Faubourg Saint-Germain (such as Hôtel Matignon, the residence of the prime minister). Nearby, and closing the perimeter inside which are gathered the central powers, the Palais Bourbon houses the Assemblée Nationale, facing Place de la Concorde, and the Palais du Luxembourg, constructed for Marie de Medici in the early 17th century, which now houses the Senate. The relocation of the Ministry for Public Facilities to the Grande Arche de la Défense didn’t very much change the geography of the official palaces.

The centres of economic and financial power are almost exclusively on the right bank, in the quarters most marked by Haussmann’s works, between Opéra and Place de Étoile. This business quarter, based around the Banque de France and the stock exchange, or Bourse (1808-1826, architect Brongniart) the second in Europe after London, has been expanding steadily towards the west. There you can find the headquarters of various insurance companies, banks and big businesses, but equally the area has many luxury stores: jewellers in the Place Vendôme, big car dealerships on the Champs-Elysées and fashion houses on Avenue Montaigne.
On the left bank, within the triangle formed by the Natural History Museum, the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Institut de France, can be found the most prestigious academic establishments in France: Sorbonne and the Collège de France . The cultural vocation of the quarter is further emphasised by the presence of numerous publishing houses and by the general literary life that animates the area around the church of Saint-Germain-des-Près.

The right bank is not entirely left out: the Palais Royal, which was home to the Orleans family, was in the 18th century one of the centres of the Enlightenment movement. Napoleon I also made an impact on the right bank when he decided to transform the Louvre into a museum. With the construction of the Georges Pompidou Centre for Art & Culture, the Picasso Museum, the Cité des Sciences at La Villette and the Bastille Opera, cultural points of interest were installed in parts of the city that had, until then, been quite barren. While the west of Paris developed a bourgeois and plush character, the eastern districts have long housed a working class population and various industrial and trade activities. The story of the Commune of Paris and the inexorable march of the Versailles forces from west to east, until the Wall of the Federates in Père Lachaise cemetery, illustrate this political and social asymmetry in the city.

The presence of the Saint-Martin canal, the major freight stations (North, East, Tolbiac) and the warehouses of Bercy explains the location of materials handling and conversion activities in the north and east of the city. Bastille was traditionally the quarter of the cabinet makers, while the rug makers of “Manufacture des Gobelins” set up shop close to Place d’Italie.
The desire to rebalance the city towards the east, combined with the departure of industry from the city, brought about efforts to rapidly install tertiary activities in these districts – a prime example is the ZAC at Bercy. Simultaneously, the arrival of wealthier residents in the east of Paris is gradually changing the social composition of that part of the city.

 

 

 

 

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Sections and quartiers de Paris
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Quartiers entre 1811 et 1849 Arcis · Arsenal · Banque-de-France · Bonne-Nouvelle · École-de-Médecine · Champs-Élysées · Chaussée-d’Antin · Cité · Faubourg-Montmartre · Faubourg-Poissonnière · Faubourg-Saint-Antoine · Faubourg-Saint-Denis · Faubourg-Saint-Germain · Feydeau · Hôtel-de-Ville · Île-Saint-Louis · Invalides · Jardin-du-Roi · Lombards · Louvre · Luxembourg · Mail · Marais · Marchés · Marché-Saint-Jean · Monnaie · Montmartre · Montorgueil · Mont-de-Piété · Observatoire · Palais-de-Justice · Palais-Royal · Place-Vendôme · Popincourt · Porte-Saint-Denis · Porte-Saint-Martin · Quinze-Vingts · Roule · Saint-Eustache · Saint-Honoré · Saint-Jacques · Saint-Marcel · Saint-Martin-des-Champs · Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin · Sainte-Avoye · Sorbonne · Temple · Tuileries
Quartiers entre 1850 et 1860 Archives · Arsenal · Arts-et-Métiers · Babylone · Banque · Bonne-Nouvelle · Bourg-l’Abbé · Champs-Élysées · Douane · École-de-Médecine · Élysée · Faubourg-Saint-Antoine · Faubourg-Saint-Martin · Hauteville · Hôtel-de-Ville · Les Îles · Invalides · Italiens · Jardin-des-Plantes · Louvre · Luxembourg · Madeleine · Marais · Marchés · Ministères · Monnaie · Mont-de-Piété · Montholon · Observatoire · Opéra · Palais-de-Justice · Palais-Royal · Place-Maubert · Popincourt · Quinze-Vingts · Roule · La Roquette · Saint-Eustache · Saint-Georges · Saint-Joseph · Saint-Laurent · Saint-Marcel · Saint-Merri · Saint-Sauveur · Sorbonne · Temple · Théâtres · Tuileries
Quartiers administratifs actuels Amérique · Archives · Arsenal · Arts-et-Métiers · Auteuil · Batignolles · Bel-Air · Belleville · Bercy · Bonne-Nouvelle · Chaillot · Champs-Élysées · La Chapelle · Charonne · Chaussée-d’Antin · Clignancourt · Combat · Croulebarbe · École-Militaire · Enfants-Rouges · Épinettes · Europe · Faubourg-Montmartre · Faubourg-du-Roule · Folie-Méricourt · Gaillon · Gare · Goutte-d’Or · Grandes-Carrières · Grenelle · Gros-Caillou · Halles · Hôpital-Saint-Louis · Invalides · Jardin-des-Plantes · Javel · Madeleine · Mail · Maison-Blanche · Monnaie · Montparnasse · Muette · Necker · Notre-Dame · Notre-Dame-des-Champs · Odéon · Palais-Royal · Parc-de-Montsouris · Père-Lachaise · Petit-Montrouge · Picpus · Place-Vendôme · Plaine-de-Monceaux · Plaisance · Pont-de-Flandre · Porte-Dauphine · Porte-Saint-Denis · Porte-Saint-Martin · Quinze-Vingts · Rochechouart · La Roquette · Saint-Ambroise · Saint-Fargeau · Saint-Georges · Saint-Gervais · Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois · Saint-Germain-des-Prés · Saint-Lambert · Saint-Merri · Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin · Saint-Victor · Saint-Vincent-de-Paul · Sainte-Avoye · Sainte-Marguerite · Salpêtrière · Sorbonne · Ternes · Val-de-Grâce · Villette · Vivienne

Portail de Paris Portail de Paris

Château de Versailles

Queens bedroom last modified by Marie Antoinette

 

 

 

From the official website

The Palace of Versailles has been listed as a World Heritage Site for 30 years and is one of the greatest achievements in French 17th century art. Louis XIII’s old hunting pavilion was transformed and extended by his son, Louis XIV, when he installed the Court and government there in 1682. A succession of kings continued to embellish the Palace up until the French Revolution.

 

 

In 1789, the French Revolution forced Louis XVI to leave Versailles for Paris. The Palace would never again be a royal residence and a new role was assigned to it in the 19th century, when it became the Museum of the History of France in 1837 by order of King Louis-Philippe, who came to the throne in 1830. The rooms of the Palace were then devoted to housing new collections of paintings and sculptures representing great figures and important events that had marked the History of France. These collections continued to be expanded until the early 20th century at which time, under the influence of its most eminent curator, Pierre de Nolhac, the Palace rediscovered its historical role when the whole central part was restored to the appearance it had had as a royal residence during the Ancien Régime.

 

The Palace of Versailles never played the protective role of a medieval stronghold. Beginning in the Renaissance period, the term “chateau” was used to refer to the rural location of a luxurious residence, as opposed to an urban palace. It was thus common to speak of the Louvre “Palais” in the heart of Paris, and the “Château” of Versailles out in the country. Versailles was only a village at the time. It was destroyed in 1673 to make way for the new town Louis XIV wished to create. Currently the centrepiece of Versailles urban planning, the Palace now seems a far cry from the countryside residence it once was. Nevertheless, the garden end on the west side of the Estate of Versailles is still adjoined by woods and agriculture.

 

 

 

 

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Alexandre Brongniart

Fuseau Vase Department of Decorative Arts: 19th century

On the baptism of his son, King of Rome, on 10 June 1811, Napoleon offered the infant’s godmother – his own mother, Madame Mère – this spectacular porcelain fuseau vase. The tortoiseshell ground provides a sumptuous setting for a portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps, after David’s famous painting. The vase is typical of the designs of Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), director of the Sèvres Manufactory, who saw in porcelain a way of giving great history painting imperishable form.

Rococco

 

Pair of Wall Sconces (Louvre Museum)

 

This pair of porcelain wall sconces is very unusual in its use of three different enamel grounds – blue, pink, and green. Each sconce consists of three curved branches decorated with leaves, typical of the Rocaille style. The sconces were the work of Jean-Claude Duplessis (died 1774) and come from the bedchamber of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) in the Hôtel d’Evreux, where she kept them along with her mantelpiece ornaments, also in the Louvre.