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Palais Bourbon – parliament with monarchic roots

24 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

Palais Bourbon – parliament with monarchic rootsUndoubtedly that for the majority of foreign tourists Paris is, first of all, the city of Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame de Paris, Champs Elysée and the Louvre. However it only a small part of that magnificence with which the city pleases each visitor. Paris has a thousand-year history and has managed to collect a really huge collection of masterpieces of open-air architecture. And among numerous monuments medieval (and not only) architecture numerous palace complexes are allocated; once they belonged to the monarchical family or rich representatives of the nobility. And if to speak directly about the Parisian palaces it is necessary to mention Palais Bourbon.

Palais Bourbon … The mentioning of this name obviously follows one of the well-known royal families of the Bourbons that it has a direct bearing; the history of their reign of its representatives was seriously reflected on development of France. And the unique historical paradox of the palace lies in the fact that it was the residence of kings of France, and after Revolution it became the place where Democracy was born – the Parliament which is called here the French National Assembly.

But we will return to history. According to historical documents in 1722 marquise de Montespan – Louise-Françoise de Bourbon (in addition the illegitimate daughter of King Louis XIV) has ordered to begin building luxurious apartments and magnificent gardens near to them. As a result, the palace has been constructed in 1728 in remarkable Parisian suburb Saint-Germain near to other palace known nowadays as Matignon, and from the very beginning of the existence became an ornament of the capital city and a place of strolls for inquisitive city visitors. The gardens surrounding the magnificent palace went down to the coast of the main river of Paris the Seine. The palace  has received the name of its first proprietress.

In building of the nowadays monument of architecture such well-known architects of that time as L’Assurance, Jacques Gabriel and Lorenzo Giardini took active part. Initially facade of the building executed on similarity of Versailles Grand Trianon, was facing the University street (today –the Seine quay).

The follower who has entered the property rights was a grandson of the duchess who has decided to give even more luxury and glamour to the palace. The works on reconstruction were conducted throughout many years; however, as it often happens in human life, it was not fated to take pleasure in beauty of the palace for him. There was a Revolution, and Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé had to leave his native land very quickly simply to save his life.

This is how the palace of Bourbons’ residence happened to become the residence of the elected representatives of the people forming National Assembly of the French Republic.

Today the palace causes a great interest in thousand of tourists annually coming to Paris.

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The Museum of Eugène Delacroix

17 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

Eugène DelacroixWe continue to acquaint all visitors of our site with interesting places of Paris which can be visited in this city. Today we have decided to stop on Eugène Delacroix National museum. This museum settles down in the Parisian house and studio of the great master in Furstenberg Street where he has spent last years of his life.

Delacroix has lodged here in December, 1857 having moved from the previous residence which was settled down on Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. The close arrangement with church l’église Saint-Sulpice became the reason of his choice of this place for the new residence for the well-known artist. Those years the legend of the French and world painting worked over the monumental frescos for a church chapel which is called nowadays the Chapel of sacred angels.

Despite his serious illness master Delacroix has made firm decision to finish one of the most significant works. Therefore he has moved closer to the place where the chapel settled down.

After the death of the great artist the Parisian authorities have made a decision on pulling down the house in which Eugène Delacroix lived to replace it with garages for local residents. And then to avoid so barbarous for all intelligence of the country action, at the initiative of the known artists Maurice Denis and Paul Signac has appeared special “Eugène Delacroix Society”. To the first affairs the new organization has made decision to rent the studio in which the well-known master worked, and in a consequence all house has been rented. Preservation of this historical monument and popularization of works of the artist was an overall objective of the created society.

In the early fifties of the twentieth century the house has been exposed on sale. However “Eugène Delacroix Society” had no money resources to redeem the building, therefore its heads have decided to transfer the collection of Delacroix masterpieces to the French authorities to provide its safety.

The country authorities, nevertheless, have shown respect for the great fellow countryman and have created a museum which today we know, The Museum of Eugène Delacroix. Thanks to it all premises (library, bedroom, hall and studio) where lived and created the remarkable artist are open for all fans of art and admirers of the master’s talent.

The museum exposition consists of Delacroix’s picturesque pictures, drawings, personal correspondence, lithographs which throw light on many moments of life of undoubtedly interesting and talented person. The museum furniture   is produced on the basis of posthumous levy of execution of the artist as original exhibits have been lost in the nineteenth centuries. Under preliminary arrangement with inspectors of the establishment it is possible to get acquainted with some documents concerning life of Delacroix.

In the rest room in which the artist has left this world, there are his family portraits, and also a portrait of the maiden of Delacroix who was remaining with him till his latest sigh. Along with the well-known picture “The Repenting sinner in desert” the frescos created by the master for Valmont abbey are presented here. Except for his works many personal things of the artist which can be interesting to visitors are collected.

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Place where gobelins for kings were created

13 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

Place where gobelins for kings were createdDear friends, we continue to acquaint you with remarkable places of the French capital visiting which can interest you during your stay in this remarkable city on the Seine.

And this time on turn is Manufacture Royale des Gobelins (the Parisian Royal manufactory of gobelins). Carpets and gobelins are still produced nowadays in this place.  However the suppressing majority of them is issued on the basis of modern sketches corresponding to fashionable tendencies.

In general, the notion “gobelin” has appeared in use in the seventeenth century when brothers with the same surname the Gobelin have based the Royal manufactory in Paris and the production has received the corresponding name. Gille Gobelin which was a dyer by trade became the first representative of this “gobelin” dynasty moved in Paris from Rheims. This person has opened the dye workshop for wool which in a consequence (in the sixteenth century) has been added by its descendants of a weaver’s workshop which used to have great popularity in France at that times.

During his reign the king Louis XIV (the known dandy and the judge of all fine arts) had got the dye works and the weaver’s workshop, belonging to the family of Gobelins. And the Royal Gobelin workshop was born. Considerable means from royal treasury have been allocated in the development and modernization of the manufacture. The manufactory has begun production of magnificent gobelins which were intended for use exclusively in royal apartments. They were exposed on sale extremely seldom as because of the status of the manufactory cost of gobelins was extremely high and very few people presumed to get themselves these products. Besides decorating the palaces of monarchs gobelins of this manufactory were often given to kings of the friendly states. As gobelins from the royal manufactory were appreciated very highly, to receive them as a gift was considered very honorable, and only few could receive similar honor.

The big money resources (thus the factory practically never brought profits) were always spent for the manufactory maintenance; it continued to be financed from royal treasury, and later from the Republic budget. The enterprise has managed to be kept afloat at all governments at various times without any exception.

Today the Royal Gobelin manufactory is not a usual factory; it represents unique historical art establishment, property and pride of the nation. The proprietor of the manufactory since 1937 is “Mobile National” company.

If you have decided to go with excursion to the Parisian Royal Gobelin manufactory, excellent impressions are guaranteed to you.

The manufactory is near to metro station Les Gobelins, the address: Paris, avenue des Gobelins, 42.

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Admiring Paris at night

9 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

ParisThe great American writer Ernest Hemingway in first half of last century has expressed about Paris so: “Paris is a holiday, which always stays with you”. This expression is familiar, perhaps, to each of us. And the local inhabitants of the capital call it “the city of light“. And it is not surprising, as shades and light in Paris are constantly in a unique game, at night and in the afternoon, at any time of the year. Light can fill in this or that place as if the sun has come nearer on outstretched arm distance in fractions of a second, but also quickly all can disappear in a dense fog, creating for us surprising medieval atmosphere. And a similar kaleidoscope of a play of light you can see and take pleasure in only if you go across Paris on foot.

Certainly, being in Paris, it is possible to move from one sight to another by an excursion bus or a rented car. But in that case you risk passing set of fine details which in many respects form originality of this city. For this reason Parisians advise to visitors to give more time to the pedestrian walks.

Necessarily take advantage of possibility to make a tour on the Seine onboard the small river bus intended specially for tourists. We recommend doing it at night-time when a ship projector will magically shine the river and its magnificent quays.

Take a pleasure in the late evening to rise on one of viewing platforms of legendary Tour Eiffel or to the well-known Montmartre. From height of the bird’s flight the magnificent carpet of Paris flickering with billiards of fires will be spread before you. You can never describe this Parisian night beauty with words; however for ever keep it in memory.

Walk on vicinities of place Pigalle, original “debauchery nest”. Though it is not the Dutch Amsterdam, but also local pip-shows and sex shops are in a condition to surprise tourists.

Having visited the Louvre it is possible to go slowly to le jardin des Tuileries which was favorite promenade spot of many French monarchs, and to walk on its beautiful and well-groomed avenues, and further the Champs Elysée open a way to a majestic Arch Triomphe.

So, you will receive unforgettable impressions of the pedestrian walks on Latin Quarter (the most ancient Parisian restaurants still keep history particles), the vicinities of place Saint-Michel settle down here. The bottom of Notre Dame de Paris has great popularity; visiting of a belfry of this cathedral is quite popular. If you have a desire to get acquainted with truly Parisian shopping, then you should take left-bank streets Dauphin and Bucy.

It is simply impossible to tell about all interesting places of such big and old city as Paris in a small article, therefore always the best decision is visiting it.

Come, order tours around Paris and simply walk in Paris and then you will necessarily feel its originality and receive a lot of pleasure.

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Modern cemeteries of Paris

5 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

Modern cemeteries of ParisGoing to this or that place, travelers pursue definite purposes. Thus one person can go for visiting museums, and it will be much more interesting to another to spend time at a theatre or a cabaret …

People go to Paris with various purposes. Someone to see the Louvre and Pompidou’s Center, someone – to take a walk on quays of the Seine …

But there are also those who go to Paris to visit cemeteries about which we will tell in our article.

Modern Parisian cemeteries are situated on the place of the city cemeteries of the beginning of the nineteenth century; therefore the oldest tombs are dated this time.

In the centre of Paris there is Cimetière de Passy, and others three – Cimetière de Montmartre, Cimetière du Montparnasse and Père Lachaise settle down in northern, southern and eastern parts of the city accordingly. Annually about ten thousand foreign tourists – judges of silence of local avenues- visit them.

One of the greatest cemeteries of Paris is Père Lachaise. Among those interred here are: Molière and Honoré de Balzac, Édith Piaf and Sarah Bernhardt, Amedeo Modigliani and Jean de La Fontaine, Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust and many other known people. The most visited on a cemetery is the tomb of the founder of legendary American rock group The Doors – Jim Morrison who has become the symbol of the whole generation of people in the different countries of the world. Daily near his memorial it is possible to see groups of tourists and sets of flowers.

Cimetière de Montmartre is the cemetery which is situated in the northern part of the city; it has been opened in the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century on a place of an old mine on extraction of plaster. Since then there has appeared more than twenty thousand tombs on a cemetery. The most well-known people buried here are André-Marie Ampère, René Waldeck-Rousseau, Lili Boulanger, Hector Berlioz, Horace Vernet, Jean-Claude Briali and Victor Brauner.

On the southern cemetery Cimetière du Montparnasse, established in 1824, the great Russian chess player world champion Alexander Alekhin, the former head of the government of Iran Shapour Bakhtiar, the French poet and playwright Théodore de Banville and other well-known persons are buried here.

In the suburbs of the French capital cimetière communal de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois founded by natives of Russia settles down. Here the last shelter was found by many representatives of Russian emigration in Paris.

We will acquaint you with the Parisian cemeteries in more details, their history and well-known “lodgers” later in our new materials.

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Some words about the Parisian bridges

3 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

Some words about the Parisian bridgesOn our site you could find a lot of information on various sights of Paris, and we sincerely hope that our articles are interesting for you to read. This time we bring to your attention a short description of the Parisian bridges which you can come across being in this magnificent city.

As all of us know, Paris (as a settlement) conducts its history from iÎle de la Cité located between river banks of the Seine. Today the island represents only insignificant part of the city and long time ago it was the whole Paris, which, during those old times was not called this name.

As well as to many other settlements located on the rivers, Paris required special crossings for communication of the city with river banks. So here there were initially wooden bridges which were later replaced with the stone ones that subsequently have come to the present streets over water.

According to historical data for the first time benches of local handicraftsmen have appeared on Pont Notre-Dame in the fifteenth century and as these trading places always settled down together with workshops and habitation of masters thus on the bridge the present inhabited street which has very quickly turned to the centre of the Parisian trade was formed. Nothing changed here for a long time, however in 1786 according to the decree of the king all constructions have been operatively cleaned from the bridge.

If you happen to be in Paris necessarily visit Pont Neuf (the New Bridge). Don’t think that it is the newest bridge in Paris as actually it is one of the oldest of the remained bridges of the city. In due time it was really the newest, for as it has received such a name. The New Bridge has been constructed in the far sixteenth century for traffic unloading on Pont Notre-Dame and Pont au Change. It was a unique Parisian bridge of that time on which there were no inhabited, craft and trading constructions that caused serious discontent in numerous shopkeepers.

As well as many other Pont au Change has initially been executed from wood and only in the middle of the seventeenth century has been replaced with a stone construction with numerous apartment houses and benches of exchangers (therefore it has received the corresponding name).

Do not deprive of the attention the foot Pont des Arts which has been constructed at the very beginning of the nineteenth century by the order of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and became the first Parisian bridge made of iron. The bridge has received its name because it connects the French Academy and the Louvre which at that time carried the name of the Palace of arts.

Among the Parisian bridges there is one connected to Russia. Pont Alexandre III is named in honor of the Russian tsar and is constructed, as a tribute to signing of the contract on a military alliance between Russia and France. It is one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris so you should necessarily find time for visiting it.

We would like to finish our narration about the Parisian bridges with the Bridge of Revolution which has received its name most likely because it has been constructed of remains of stone walls of the well-known French prison la Bastille. Today the construction names the Bridge of the Consent and connects the Parisian square with the same name and Palais Bourbon.

There are thirty eight bridges in total in the city boundaries now, each of which has the history and can cause a great interest in tourists.

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Top 10 places worth visited in Paris

27 April 2010 No comments Share/Save

Top 10 places worth visited in ParisA huge number of every possible articles, reviews, poems and novels is written about Paris. And on our site it is possible to find a lot of interesting information on this remarkable city. And always reading something it would be desirable not only that the reading matter was interesting but also informative and, probably, useful. In this small article we also have decided to make some kind of charts of the most interesting Parisian places necessary to include in the program of stay in the capital of France. So, we begin.

The tenth place in our top list is occupied with the well-known Champs Elysée pleasing all tourists without exception with bright light of magnificent shops’ show-windows, restaurants, sung in many songs. Even if you do not presume to come into an expensive restaurant, in any case you should make a walk here at least to see Arch Triomphe.

Someone can disagree but we have given the ninth place to such a collective sight as the Parisian cafes. A cafe in France is not a place where it is possible to “drop in” for a pair of minutes and, having drunk a cup of coffee, easy to leave. Local cafes are a unique cultural phenomenon. In these numerous institutions parents bring up children, old men teach the young life, here they rejoice and mourn, fall in love and part, sign business contracts … in general, in cafe there is everything that can happen in a human life.

Place number eight – museums of Paris. In the capital of France such a huge number of various museums and exhibitions are organized and function that even an inquisitive scientist will find something earlier unknown and fascinating for him/herself. Here are painting-sculptural galleries (the Louvre, Pompidou’s Center and others), and the Museum of figures from wax (not Madame Tussauds museum, of course, but interesting too), and such original places, as the Museum of the Parisian water drain or Museums of fakes and magic. To put it briefly, the Parisian museums are rather various and fascinating.

The seventh place is occupied with the sung not only in France the Cathedral of the Parisian mother of god (or in another way, Notre Dame de Paris). Known to many of us from a novel of the same name of the classic of the French literature Victor Hugo, the cathedral has settled down in the heart of the city, on an islet in the middle of the Seine. To visit Paris and not to see Notre Dame is some kind of a crime.

Sacré Cœur and Montmartre deservedly appear on the sixth line of the rating-list: а magnificent cathedral and a place where well-known Moulin Rouge appeared. Is it possible to bypass and not to see it with your own eyes coming to Paris?

We have given the fifth position to Moulin Rouge – cabaret thanks to which cancan gained its fame, under arches of which such legends of world stage as Yves Montand, Charles Aznavour, Liza Minnelli and many other acted.

On the fourth place is the symbol of Paris – the majestic Tour d’Eiffel directing its spike up. Telling something about it has no sense, it is necessary to see it.

Number three. The Parisian La Défense which architectural feature is the futuristic style of buildings. It is remarkable that the first structures have appeared here in fiftieth years of last century. We don’t describe, it is better to see all with your own eyes.

The second position is for … Aquaboulevard de Paris – the world of water attractions and entertainments where for ten dollars you will spend an unforgettable day.

The first place is occupied with the Parisian Disneyland. Although this place is created on analogue with American, it doesn’t loose its interest. Hundred thousand tourists from every corner of the globe spend time here, taking away unforgettable impressions.

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Rural beauty and simplicity of Paris

25 April 2010 No comments Share/Save

Rural beauty and simplicity of ParisIn a former Soviet period in our country this joke was rather popular:

Two old friends talk, and one speaks to another:

- The spring has come again, and again I want to go to Paris.

The second reasonably notices:

- Have you visited Paris last spring?

- No, but a year ago I wanted to visit it as much as this year…

Today jokes like this cause a certain lovely pity for those far times when to leave the limits of the native country was almost an unreal business.

Today similar problems do not exist any more, however Paris has not ceased to be that place to which it would be desirable to come. Thus the capital of France is fine not only in spring but at any time of the year under any weather conditions. And after all it is absolutely not casual that since Henry IV they say Paris is the most wonderful in early autumn when it is still warm and sunny.

September in Paris, as a rule, is a very sunny month, even hot it is possible to tell. But its heat is no that “suffocating” as observed in hot summer months. No wonder that in the summer many local residents leave Paris going to travel, and then city streets are filled with crowds of foreign tourists whose number hardly probable does not exceed number of the Parisians, remained in the city. And only in September released from Germans, Englishmen, Japanese and Americans, Parisians come back to Paris to take pleasure in magnificent autumn days of native city.

Inherently, if to make a certain description of the usual Parisian, inhabitants of the French capital are rather restless and hasty people. However, when mellow autumn comes, even the most enterprising and important representatives of business prefer to give less time to work and not to occupy their heads with thoughts on exchange news, level of credit rates and the prices on oil. Other political problems which France has as any other country leave on the background. At this time with the great pleasure everyone prolongs the lunch break only to sit with colleagues in a cafe or a small restaurant to admire the warm autumn sun. Paris in September in general can be compared to a sea beach.

For example, in such days on Saint Martin’s channel to see the parapet occupied by the carefree students stirring about the summer vacations and numerous gentlemen is quite usual, pensioners dozing on shops, and fishermen (can’t do without them) throwing the floats in water.

Near Place Bastille the green lawn is filled with hundreds of ill-matched idlers observing boats and yachts moor in Arsenal harbor.

The Parisian parc des Buttes-Chaumont reminds something rural. Men with obvious pleasure play cards or popular here Pétanque, women can be seen engaged in knitting, having settled down in the armchairs brought with them.

And even such well-known places as jardin des Tuileries, Palais Royal or jardin Luxembourg, are completely different from the places chosen by thousand of tourists. In the early autumn measured life here proceeds – children lap in fountains, and adults lazy sunbathe under beams of the warm sun, having settled down on shops. And such picture can be observed practically everywhere.

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Discover a different Paris!

15 April 2010 No comments Share/Save

Discover a different Paris!It is obvious that any city (especially such an ancient one as Paris) has a set of widely recognized and known sights, and also it is a lot of places which are not known to general public outside of local “ring road”. We already told on pages of our site about the most well-known Parisian sights, we stopped on some other places in hope to draw your attention to them. In this material we also wish to describe some less “PRed” places of the French capital which, nevertheless, can seem interesting enough to someone.

For certain, many of you are familiar with François Vidocq nice Parisian detective (or at least with the film with the same name with Gérard Depardieu in a leading role). In gallery Vivienne (Rue des Petits-Champs 4, rue Vivienne 6) it is possible to see a beautiful old ladder with metal handrail, on affinity with which the hero of investigation rented his apartment in Paris. And not only for the sake of this exhibit item is it necessary to visit this gallery, believe in this neoclassical place you will discover a lot of interesting for yourselves.

Nearly everyone in our country heard about the Bastille (in many respects thanks to remarkable films on motives of Alexandre Dumas’ products), but some believe that the ancient Parisian prison exists till now. To discredit this myth, we recommend to go to Paris and to visit Bastille Square where on the place where this grandiose construction once was there is a remaining circuit of the building which has been laid out from its stones, and a memorial tablet from the category “There was Bastille here”.

Many travelers (no matter where they are going to) like to get souvenirs from their trips and something more than memory can be found in Paris. In church on Rue du Bac, 140 travelers buy sacred medallions which are said to help the wandering people not to lose faith and hope during disasters.

Booking a tour in Paris, we advise you, strangely enough, to pay your attention to rather original toilets which are in the eighth district close to church of Madeleine. These designs are older than a hundred years, and there is nothing like this in Paris. Magnificent toilet bowls and washstands from porcelain are established there, and doors are made in a stylistic direction of art nouveau with magnificent flower stained-glass windows.

And if we have mentioned a place where there was the most well-known prison of France we have decided to advise you to visit the place where guillotines once settled down. Till the beginning of the 20th century At Rue de la Croix-Faubin 16 there was a special prison for condemned men where sentences were carried out. Nowadays only the memorable tablet and strange “patches” in an architectural ensemble are here

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Paris – is good! But it’s not all France…

10 April 2010 No comments Share/Save

LourdesMany people when France is mentioned imagine Paris with its well-known Tour Eiffel and Champs Elysée. And if the interlocutor says he or she is going to visit France thus without having visited the country’s capital, the most typical remark might be “What do you wish to see there? France is only Paris!” But actually it is the most interesting European country each region of which will necessarily surprise even the most prejudiced tourist. Lyon differs from Nice the way Vladivostok differs from St. Petersburg, and each (even the smallest) French city has the distinctive features inherent only in it.

When you decide to make a trip to France but have no accurate view on where to go, we recommend to pay attention to Aquitania department which administrative centre is Bordeaux – the native land of the well-known wine with the same name.

If you are the admirer of this noble drink visiting these places will not pass for you to no purpose. During the tour to Aquitania you have an opportunity to take pleasure in excursions on magnificent ancient vineyards, to make wine tasting, to buy a couple of bottles.

Also Bordeaux is considered to be an excellent place for shopping lovers. How strange it could sound, but the longest shopping street of France is here, and has the name of Sainte-Catherine. In numerous little shops you can get everything necessary for you.

One more place recommended for visiting is a small town Pau which settles down nearby to border with Spain. Pau is small, but magnificent and extremely hospitable city with great history. Pau is a royal city as it is the native land of the first French king of a dynasty of Bourbons – Henry the Fourth. The inhabitants of the city consider the cradle of this monarch executed from armour of a turtle as the basic sight. It is in the royal palace, and each interested person can look at it.

For tourists a place called Lourdes is quite popular. According to a legend certain Bernadette has beheld Mother of God who has told her about curative forces of water from a local stream. It happened in the end of the eighteenth century, and since that moment Lourdes became a place of numerous pilgrims from different cities from all Europe.

In the subsequence of our articles we will continue to tell you about many interesting places which should be visited, going to a tour across France, as France is not only Paris, it is the most beautiful and many-sided country.

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