Medicis Fountain

When visiting the Luxembourg Gardens (Jardin du Luxembourg) everybody may not necessarily pay attention to the Medicis Fountain (La Fontaine de Médicis) which you can find in one of the corners of the Gardens.

The fountain is named after Marie de Médicis (Maria de’Medici) who was married to Henry IV, widow in 1610, mother and regent to Louis XIII (and grandmother to Louis XIV) and also mother to a Spanish and an English Queen. Involved in different intrigues she was exiled in 1630 and died in Cologne in 1642.

Marie decided to create her own “Medici Palace”, which thus is the today’s Luxembourg Palace, slightly modified since. She could move in around 1625, but for a rather short period as she had to leave France five years later. The palace was of course magnificent and included e.g. 24 Rubens paintings (now at the Louvre). After different uses (prison during the Revolution, Luftwaffe headquarters during World War II…), it’s today the house of the French Senate, but the gardens, the biggest in Paris, are open for public and there is much to see and do. I may revert to this another day.

The Fountain was obviously just ready when Marie had to leave. It was modeled on what she had known during her childhood in Florence. It had to be slightly moved when the adjacent street was widened by Haussmann. At the same time, in 1862, the statue group you can see in the centre was added.

You can find some of these photos on my photo blog.

Time to again wish you a nice weekend! Back with a new post on Monday!

Rue Fortuny

I don’t know how well Nespresso is spread over the world. At least it’s a great success in France and I must admit that I’m a fervent Nespresso drinker since a few years, I believe even before George Clooney.

It’s doubtful if, ecologically speaking, this is the best coffee preparation method, but anyhow… So I went to the closest Nespresso shop to get my monthly dose. This shop is in an old former one-family private house (“hôtel particulier”) some ten minutes walk from where I live.

Leaving the place, I could turn to the left and find the Swedish Church of Paris or to the right and find the Parc Monceau…, but I went straight on via a small street called rue Fortuny (17th arrdt), which you can see on the top picture.

This part of Paris was scarcely inhabited until the middle of the 19th century, but Paris grew and it then became fashionable for fortuned people to own a “hôtel particulier” in this area. Only in this small street, maybe 200 meters (220 yards) long, there are a number of them, some really nice. Today they are mostly used as offices, but some quite well-known people used to live here.

Edmond Rostand lived and wrote Cyrano de Bergerac at no. 2. At no. 13 (a street number mostly avoided) lived Marcel Pagnol - very popular French author and film director; "Topaze" is perhaps the internationally most well-known of his works, starring John Barrymore and later Peter Sellers in different Anglo-American film versions. Some actors and actresses also lived here, the most famous being Sarah Bernhardt at no. 35, and also e.g. the dancer, actress and courtesan Caroline Otero (“La Belle Otero”), at no. 27. Less “official” is perhaps that Nicolas Sarkozy was born and spent his first 18 years at no. 46, together with grandparents, a later divorced mother and two brothers.
Some autumn leaves from the way home to taste my coffee.

I put a few of these photos on my photo blog.

The oldest house in Paris

This is the oldest still existing building in Paris, from 1407. More ore less impossible to take a “decent” photo, the street is narrow. The address is 51, rue de Montmorency, 3rd arrdt. There is a restaurant on the ground floor.

It was built for Nicolas Flamel (1330? – 1417), an interesting personality. He was a very successful scrivener, manuscript maker and seller. (This was before Gutenberg.)

He incidentally got hold of a book which he then thought to be the Codex, the “Book of Abraham”, and he spent some 20 years to together with his wife to decode the contents, according to what was thought, sufficiently well to recreate the recipe for the Philosopher’s Stone, producing gold and the elixir for eternal life. Anyhow, he became very rich… and when his grave was later opened it was empty…

He was certainly a great alchemist and his works in this area were taken seriously, studied by scientists during centuries, including by Isaac Newton, whose main “hobby” seems to have been alchemy. Flamel is also mentioned as one of the Grand Masters of the obviously imaginary “Priory of Sion” and as such is of course referred to in the Da Vinci Code. He was also pretended to be a friend of Albus Dumbledore and to be the inventor of the Philosophers’ (or Sorcerer’s) Stone in the first Harry Potter book. He has been forgotten neither by Victor Hugo, nor by Umberto Eco.

It is believed that if he got rich, it’s rather thanks to labour and good, possibly more or less morally correct, investments. He was a generous person – spent most of his money on building hospices, repairing churches and helping the poor. The house we can see was opened to needing persons.

The inscription (“Nous homes et femes laboureurs…”) which still can be seen on the front of the house says more or less in a free and abbreviated translation: “The men and women who live in this house will have the right to a daily Paternoster and Ave Maria….”

"India Town"

We have at least two “China Towns” in Paris and some 400 Chinese restaurants (+ Vietnamese, etc…). There are fewer restaurants serving Indian or Pakistanis food, but anyhow some 150-200 – suburbs excluded. It should of course be taken into consideration that the Indian population in France is far less important than e.g. in UK.

I was not aware of this, but the other day I discovered what you may call an “India Town” in the 10th arrondissement (see map). Here you can find a great concentration of Indian and Pakistanis restaurants, but also of bars, food shops, barber shops, CD/DVD (“Bollywood”) shops, call centres…

You may be surprised by the comparatively low prices, not only for eating, but a haircut would e.g. cost you five times less here than in a “normal” salon. I will certainly go back for eating – hoping that some bloggers will recommend what would be the best dishes to order. I’m not sure about the haircut; I’m so faithful to my present hairdresser.

Something very small

Returning to Paris with my posts, I will start in a very modest way: One single and small photo of what is the smallest building in Paris - with its own street number. The address is 39, rue de Château-d’Eau, 10th arrdt. The building is about 1,2 m wide and 5 m high (3,3 x 16 ft).

It seems that this was originally a narrow opening leading to another street, but after some heritage quarrel, someone decided to obstruct the passage. There used to be a tiny shop, obviously closed, but someone seems to live behind the only window.

The “narrow” sign in front of the building was there for some road works, but I feel that it was at its right place!

The street name (the Water Tower Street) could possibly interest especially one blogger who has a passion for nice and decorated water towers. I’m sorry hpy, there is no water tower around. It seems that there used to be some kind of fountain.

Some ceramic buildings

Walking in area you would seldom visit, unless you live there, I found a building which is worth some attention (rue Belliard, 18th arrdt., see below). It was built in 1912 and the architect was Henri-Louis Deneux (1874-1969). He had his own apartment in the top floor and lived there his last thirty years. Apart from this building, Deneux hardly created any new buildings, but spent most of his active years to save and reconstruct the Reims Cathedral (the place where most French kings have been coroneted), seriously damaged during the First World War. This reminded me of some other remarkable ceramic buildings. Here you can see two buildings created 1900-01 (Avenu Rapp, 7th arrdt.), in a rather extreme “art nouveau” style by Jules Lavirotte (1864-1928). The façade, especially on one of them, has a very rich decoration, a mixture of vegetal and more or less erotic symbols (the entrance door - top picture - was almost “censored”). The last building I wanted to show today was built in 1903 (rue Franklin, 16th arrdt.) and the architect here is Auguste Perret (1874-1954). Perret later worked in a style, much closer to Le Corbusier. One of his major achievements was the reconstruction of Le Havre after the Second World War, much criticised in the beginning, but today in much higher esteem.
Perret is also the architect of one of Paris’ top theatres, often used for classical music, le Théatre-des-Champs Elysées (built 1913, Avenue Montaigne, 8th arrdt.) which also hosted the famous “Ballets Russes”.

You may possibly wish to refer to my previous posts on Guimard, Le Corbusier…

You can find some of the original photos from this post on my other blog, "Peter - photos".

On the way from Montmartre...

From the area situated between Montmartre and the more central parts of Paris I have made a few posts about things that I believe are worth visiting – but there is more to see. This area goes under the name of “Nouvelle Athènes” (points 1-7 on the map and on the list at the end).

If and when you have visited some of these places I could suggest that you continue on Rue du Faubourg Montmartre (in red on the map). This was the street people used to take on their more ore less direct way home after a long evening in Montmartre; direction the “Halles”, for a nice onion soup in the early morning. The “Halles” used to be the centre for all fresh food distribution in Paris, but were torn down during the sixties; the activities were displaced to the suburbs and instead something modern was constructed with shops, cinemas etc. (already to be remodelled).

You could then possibly make a break on the way at the candy shop on which I also made a post (p.8) or in the very different church, Sainte Eugène-Sainte Cécile (p.9), also one of my posts. Then you have the choice to have a meal or to go to the cinema, possibly both.

The Restaurant Chartier (p. 10) has been here since 1896. It’s actually what was called a “buillon”, which means soup or a “soup place” in French. This name was used for restaurants supposed to serve some cheap but good food to people who could not afford the more expensive places. Chartier is today always full, the service is efficient but a bit rough, the “garçons” are old style, the food is correct but not excellent, very traditional dishes, the prices are still relatively low and the dining room has an old and nice charm. Somehow, it’s a place you must have tried.

The cinema Rex was inaugurated in 1932. Unlike most other cinemas today, Rex has still a big theatre, supposed to be the biggest remaining in Europe with almost 3000 seats, but has now also three smaller theatres. There used to be an organ and some dancing ladies, something like New York’s Radio City Hall with the Rockettes, but the dancing ladies are gone. During World War II, Rex became a “Soldaten-Kino”. The big theatre is today also often used for concerts (coming next: Celtic Legends, Harry Connick Jr, Hilary Duff, The Dubliners…).

From here your “guide” will leave you for the weekend! You can take the direction of the “Halles”, the “Opéra”… or just ask for a taxi to your hotel.

Hope to see you Monday in good shape! Nice weekend!


Here is the list, with links to the previous posts:
1. Cité Malesherbes
2. Avenue Frochot (same link as 1.)
3. Cité Monthiers (same link as 1.)
4. Museum of the Romantics
5. Gustave Moreau Museum
6. Square d’Orléans
7. Place Saint Georges
8. Candy Shop
9. Sainte Eugène – Sainte Cécile Church
10. Restaurant Chartier
11. Cinema Rex

National Assembly - ter

This is the third and last (promise!) post about my recent visit to the National Assembly. What I felt remained to be shown are some photos from the different reception rooms.

You already saw a number of chandeliers in the first Assembly post (two days ago) and they are of course an important part of the decoration in these and also in other rooms. You will somehow see some of them again; you cannot avoid them – they are everywhere!

These photos are from the Assembly President’s residence, Hôtel Lassay, used for receptions, and also from the “Salle des Fêtes”, which connects to the more operative Hôtel Bourbon.Most of these pictures can be found on my other blog, “Peter – photos”.

National Assembly - bis

As said yesterday, I’m reverting to the National Assembly and will today talk about the “working space”.

After all, the 577 deputies, elected for five years, are there to work. Normally the yearly session lasts 120 days (October – June), but in reality it’s often prolonged. (You can read August 2 on one of my pictures; that was the last session before summer holidays. The new session started yesterday.)

The deputies represent as well the nation as their circumscription - in average some 10 thousand habitants. They have their public sessions, but each deputy is also member of at least one commission.

Their common working space includes of course the “hemicycle” for the public sessions and it’s also the place where the voting takes place. The “hemicycle” got its present form and decoration in 1832; only a few details are older, including the podium for the President of the Assembly (or his / her deputy). There are also separate meeting rooms and a number of corners where the deputies can work, have their more informal discussions, have a drink...

You find also working desks in the Library which was added in 1837. The ceiling paintings are by Delacroix.

Last episode tomorrow!

National Assembly

In yesterday’s post I referred to the “Heritage Days”, involving open doors to many public buildings, and a visit I made to our National Assembly. I took many photos and I know that I often present too much in my posts. I believe that this time I will therefore split my post in three, hopefully making it a bit more digest.

I had not the intention to make a presentation of the French parliamentary system; for that you must go to other sources, but… maybe a few words: The French Parliament comprises the National Assembly and the Senate. The deputies of the National Assembly are elected by direct, the Senate by indirect suffrage. Normally new bills must be decided by both, but if after different procedures there is still no common understanding, the final vote is normally given to the National Assembly. Certain constitutional modifications would need a common decision by the two bodies. The Assembly has 577 members. The Assembly can dismiss the Government.

The National Assembly, created in 1791, sits in the Palais Bourbon since 1798. The palace is from 1728 and was originally built for the Duchess of Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. It has of course been modified several times. A second connected building, the Hôtel Lassay, was built at the same time and serves today as residence to the President of the Assembly and for different receptions. You can find these buildings within the red pentagon on the map.

Of course the visit started by queuing up, but it took less than an hour to get in. Some of us had the privilege to get say hello to the President of the Assembly (considered as number four in the French hierarchy). The organisation was perfect, I have never seen the sky so blue over Paris, everybody was in a good mood…!Today I will just show you what it all looks like from the outside, the gardens… and also a first look at the inside; some of the chandeliers. I suppose they must have a favourable tariff for electricity! Tomorrow I will show you something of the more official “working space” and then at last some of the magnificent reception rooms. When I have finished with the Assembly, I will put some originals on my other blog, “Peter – photos”.