Versailles Palace – Royal Chapel (France)

Posted on 25 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Royal Chapel

Upon arriving from the Place d’Armes, we caught sight of the Royal Chapel of Versailles’ sleek form, with a stonework facade opening up by large windows and its roof ridge reaching a height of 40 m. (the Royal Chapel is several dozen meters higher than the surrounding buildings). The current chapel, located at the south end of the north wing, was the last major building project at Versailles to be completed during the reign of Louis XIV (his spiritual legacy as well) and the fifth and final chapel built in the Palace since the reign of Louis XIII.

Check out “Versailles Palace“

Some of the statues atop the balustrade

Officially announced in 1682, construction was begun by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (the First Architect to the King) in 1699 and, after Hardouin-Mansart died in 1708, the chapel was completed by his assistant and brother-in-law Robert de Cotte. It was consecrated on June 5, 1710, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, by Cardinal Louis Antoine de Noailles, the Archbishop of Paris.

Along with the Hall of Mirrors, it is one of the jewels of the Palace of Versailles. The Chapel, a treasure of sacred architecture in France, is an impressive showpiece, of that time, of the proliferation of art to express the divine.

The chapel interior

Hardouin-Mansart perpetuated the architectural tradition of French royal chapels, while giving the building a very modern appearance, consistent with Versailles’ “grand royal style.” He was also responsible for the Hall of Mirrors, the other major project at the end of the Sun King’s reign.

Representing one of the finest examples of French Baroque architecture and ecclesiastical decoration, the chapel towers over the rest of the palace. It was dedicated to Louis IX of France, the patron saint of the King and an ancestor of the royal house.

High Altar

Many believe that the Chapel contains references to the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris which Louis IX had founded on Île de la Cité in the 1240s, notably its large windows that let in the light, as well as its height (40 m.) on a squat and streamlined, 24 m. wide and 42 m. long base, made possible by its interior colonnade.

Colonnade

The Royal Chapel stands out for its rich artistic expression, both inside and out. The building’s overall design, with Gothic-inspired architecture, features many monumental sculpted decorations. There are large glass windows, Corinthian pilasters topped with plant decorations, buttresses, a roof with decorative lead work that was covered in gold leaf during the Sun King’s time plus an imposing colonnade on the first floor clearly inspired by Antiquity.

No fewer than 30 statues, made by 16 different sculptors, top the balustrade and the Chapel’s central pediment. Their carefully chosen themes are a combination of major characters in Christianity and allegories of Christian virtues.

Colonnade on the right

The interior elevation, like other royal chapels, follows the usual format for Palatine chapels (the most obvious examples is the presence of a balcony) with two levels. The free-standing columns let in bright light from the large panes of clear glass (a luxury at the time). Daily services here were usually held in the morning at 10 AM with the King, surrounded by his family, worshiping in the Royal Tribune on the upper level, with the ladies of the Court occupying the lateral tribunes, while the Officers and members of the public were seated or stood in the nave parterre on the ground level.

The king only descended into the nave during religious celebrations when he took Holy Communion, ceremonies of the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the baptisms and weddings of the Princes and Princesses of the realm which were held there from 1710 to 1789.

The ceiling frescos

The Hardouin-Mansart-designed uninterrupted vaulted ceiling, without transverse ribs to create a unified surface, display striking frescoes, complemented by large stained-glass windows, done by the most talented painters of the time, with scenes depicting the three figures of the Holy Trinity.

The Resurrection of Christ (Charles de La Fosse)

The Glory of the Father Announcing the Coming of the Messiah, in the center, was done by Antoine Coypel. In the apse above the altar is The Resurrection of Christ by Charles de La Fosse while above the royal tribune is The Holy Spirit Descending upon the Virgin and the Apostles by Jean Jouvenet.

Glory Holding the Medallion of Louis XV (Antoine Vasse)

A corridor and vestibule, connecting the Chapel and the State Apartments, included later art commissioned by Louis XV, intended to portray the link between Divinity and the King – a statue of Glory Holding the Medallion of Louis XV, by Antoine Vassé; and Royal Magnanimity by Jacques Bousseau.

Royal Magnanimity (Jacques Bousseau)

The great organ, designed by Clicquot, is decorated with a beautiful depiction of King David in relief and was unusually placed above the altar, thus facing the gallery where the royal family sat to attend mass. Great musicians, such as François Couperin (he inaugurated the organ), have played this organ. Every day, throughout the service, the music of the Chapel, renowned throughout Europe, rang out with motets resonating from above the altar.

The Great Organ

More than 300 years after its construction, the acoustics of this exceptional musical venue still resonates as the chapel continues to host concerts, playing a large repertoire of sacred and secular music from that time and the present day.

NOTE: More than forty years after its last major restoration, the Royal Chapel is now undergoing urgent intervention on the roof timbers, the roof and decorative lead work, the statues and window frames and stained glass.The end of the construction is scheduled for spring 2021.

Hall of Mirrors: Chateau De Versailles, Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles, France. Tel: +33 1 30 83 78 00. Website: www.chateauversailles.fr. Open daily (except on Mondays and May 1), from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM. Last admission is 6 PM while the ticket office closes at 5.45 PM. The estate of Trianon and the Coach Gallery only open in the afternoon while the Park (7 AM to 8:30 PM) and Gardens (8 AM to 8.30 PM, last admission: 7 PM) are open every day. Access to the Gardens is free except on days of fountains shows. You can access the estate of Trianon through the Gardens or through the city. The Petit Trianon is only possible via the Grand Trianon.

Admission: 27 € for Passport with Timed Entry (days with Musical Fountains Shows or Musical Gardens), 20 € for Passport with Timed Entry (without musical fountains show or musical gardens), 12 € for Estate of Trianon ticket(without Musical Fountains Show or Musical Gardens), 10 € for Passport with Timed Entry (free admission, days with Musical Fountains Show or Musical Gardens), 9,50 € for Musical Fountains Show ticket, 8,50 € for Musical Gardens ticket, 28 € for the Fountains Night Show.

How to Get There: The cheapest option for reaching Versailles is by train. There are three train stations in Versailles. RER line C arrives at Versailles Château – Rive Gauche train station, the closest one of the Palace (just 10 minutes’ walk to the Palace). SNCF trains from Gare Montparnasse arrive at Versailles Chantiers train station, which is 18 minutes on foot to the Palace. SNCF trains from Gare Saint Lazare arrive at Versailles Rive Droite train station, 17 minutes on foot to the Palace. RER C and SNCF train times are available on www.transilien.com

Versailles Palace (France)

Posted on 25 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Palace of Versailles (Chateau de Versailles) seen from the Place d’Armes

After a 10-min. walk from the Versailles Château – Rive Gauche train station, we finally at the Place d’Armes, the roughly fan-shaped square with its equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the center and the Grande Écurie and the Petite Écurie (Royal Stables) to the east. We entered the Palace of Versailles via the royal gate into the Court of Honor (cour d’honneur), the courtyard in front of the palace.

Place d’Armes, facing the La Grand Ecurie and Petite Ecurie

The original Baroque-style steel gate, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was torn down during the French Revolution.

The recreated Royal Gate

The new 80 m. high, recreated steel gate, decorated with 100,000 gold leaves, was unveiled last February 4, 2008 after two years of painstaking work by legions of top craftsmen and history experts with private donors contributing five million euros (eight million dollars) to ensure an exact replica would be produced. As we had already bought our tickets online, we entered the palace via Entrance A.

The bronze equestrian Statue of Louis XIV designed by Pierre Cartellier. The rider is the work of Louis Petitot, son-in-law of Cartelier, and the whole was cast in bronze by Charles Crozatier in 1838. The proportions of the statues of the horse and the king are slightly different. Previously located in the Cour d’Honneur, it was relocated to the Place d’Armes in 2009.

The royal court of Versailles, home of the French nobility and a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime, was the center of political power in France from 1682 (when Louis XIV moved from Paris) until October 1789, after the beginning of the French Revolution, when the royal family was forced to return to the capital.

The Court of Honor. L-R: the author, Kyle, Cheska, Grace and Jandy

Here is the historical timeline of the palace:

From 1661–1678, the first phase of the expansion into a royal palace by Louis XIV, designed and supervised by the architect Louis Le Vau, culminated in the addition of three new wings of stone (the enveloppe), which surrounded Louis XIII’s original building on the north, south, and west (the garden side). As a result of Le Vau’s enveloppe of Louis XIII’s château, the king and the queen had new apartments in the new addition (known at the time as the château neuf). Charles Le Brun designed and supervised the elaborate interior decoration. André Le Nôtre (who landscaped the extensive Gardens of Versailles) and Le Brun (who supervised the design and installation of countless statues) collaborated on the numerous fountains.
In 1670, after Le Vau’s death, the work was taken over and completed by his assistant, François d’Orbay.
From 1678–1715, during the second phase of expansion, two enormous wings north and south of the wings flanking the Royal Court (Cour Royale) of the main château were added by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart who also replaced Le Vau’s large terrace on the west (garden) front with what became the most famous room of the palace, the Hall of Mirrors. Mansart also built the stables (Petites Écuries and Grandes Écuries), on the opposite (east) side of the Place d’Armes, in front of the palace and the château known as the Grand Trianon (or Marble Trianon), replacing Le Vau’s 1668 Trianon de Porcelaine in the northern section of the palace park.
By 1682, work was sufficiently advanced that Louis XIV was able to proclaim Versailles his principal residence and the governmental center of France, and to give rooms in the palace to almost all of his courtiers.
In 1683, after the death of his consort Maria Theresa of Spain, Louis XIV undertook the enlargement and remodeling of the royal apartments in the oldest part of the palace, the château built by his father.
In 1688, the Royal Chapel of Versailles, located at the south end of the north wing, was begun by Mansart.
In 1710, after Mansart’s death in 1708, work on the Royal Chapel was completed by his assistant Robert de Cotte .
In 1738, Louis XV remodeled the king’s petit appartement on the north side of the Cour de Marbre (Marble Court), originally the entrance court of the old château.
In 1768, the Petit Trianon, a pavilion in the palace park designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, was finished.
In 1770, the Opéra, a theater at the north end of the north wing designed by Gabriel, was completed in time for the marriage of the Dauphin (the future Louis XVI), Louis XV‘s grandson, and Marie Antoinette.
After he became king in 1774, Louis XVI made only a few changes to the main palace, primarily to their private apartments. Marie Antoinette made extensive changes to the interior of the Petit Trianon as well as its gardens, including adding her private Théâtre de la Reine and the Hameau.
In 1783, the three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783), in which the United Kingdom recognized the independence of the United States, where signed in the Palace.
On October 5, 1789, growing anger in Paris led to the Women’s March on Versailles wherein a crowd of several thousand men and women, protesting the high price and scarcity of bread, marched from the markets of Paris to Versailles. Taking weapons from the city armory, they besieged the Palace and compelled the King and Royal family and the members of the National Assembly to return with them to Paris the following day.
In 1792, the Convention (the new revolutionary government), ordered the transfer of all the paintings and sculptures from the Palace to the Louvre.
Between 25 August 1793 and 11 August 1794, auction of furniture, mirrors, baths and kitchen equipment, were sold in seventeen thousand lots. All fleurs-de-lis and royal emblems on the buildings were chambered or chiseled off. The empty buildings were turned into a storehouse for furnishings, art and libraries confiscated from the nobility.
Beginning in 1793, the empty grand apartments were opened for tours and a small museum of French paintings and art school was opened in some of the empty rooms.
In 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte, prior to his marriage with Marie-Louise, he had the Grand Trianon restored and refurnished as a springtime residence for himself and his family, in the style of furnishing that it is seen today.
In 1820, Louis XVIII ordered the restoration of the royal apartments, but the task and cost was too great.
In 1833, Louis-Philippe initiated effort to restore and maintain Versailles when he changed the palace when he began renovation the south wing of the Palace, which had been used to house some members of the royal family, to convert them into the Museum of the History of France, including the Galerie des Batailles (Hall of Battles) which lies on most of the length of the second floor. To give greater uniformity of appearance to the front entrance, the far end of the south wing of the Cour Royale was demolished and rebuilt to match the Gabriel wing of 1780 opposite.
On June 30, 1837, the museum was inaugurated.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the general staff of the victorious German Army occupied the Palace and parts of the chateau, including the Gallery of Mirrors, were turned into a military hospital.
On January 18, 1871, the creation of the German Empire, combining Prussia and the surrounding German states under William I, was formally proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors.
In March 1871, until the signing of the armistice with the Germans, the government of the new Third French Republic moved into the Palace. The National Assembly held its meetings in the Opera House.
In 1892, Pierre de Nolhac, poet and scholar and the first conservator, began restoration efforts at the Palace. Though interrupted by two world wars, the conservation and restoration work still continues until the present day.
In June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors.
Between 1925 and 1928, American philanthropist and multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller gave $2,166,000 (the equivalent of about thirty million dollars today), to restore and refurnish the palace.
On April 9, 1957, further restoration of the backstage areas of Royal Opera of Versailles was completed and the Royal Opera of Versailles was reopened in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
In 1978, parts of the Palace were heavily damaged in a bombing committed by Breton terrorists.
In 1979, the palace and its garden were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In 2003, the “Grand Versailles” project, a new restoration initiative, was started. It began with the replanting of the gardens which, on December 26, 1999, had lost over 10,000 trees during Hurricane Lothar .
In 2006, the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors was completed.

Check out “Versailles Palace – Royal Chapel,” “Versailles Palace – State Apartments of the King,” “Versailles Palace – Gallery of Great Battles” and “Versailles Palace – Hall of Mirrors”

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the palace:

The palace was originally a hunting lodge built in brick and stone by King Louis XIII in 1623.
The land on which the palace was built on was situated on a narrow plateau with many swamps around it and not fit for the construction. For the project to happen, they needed to restructure the whole area by drying the swamps up and fill the area around the plateau with soil and stones. Earthwork and leveling were also essential for the construction to begin.
The Palace of Versailles is the second-most visited monument in the Île-de-France region (7,700,000 visitors in 2017), just behind the Louvre and ahead of the Eiffel Tower.
Versailles was one of the few castles in France that wasn’t located near a river so artificial ponds were created and aerial and underground aqueducts built to supply water for the Palace’s fountains and all the surrounding waters were redirected to it. They also pumped the water out of the Seine River using new techniques and hydraulic methods. A revolutionary pumping machine, built for this project, drew water from the river and, for it to reach the aqueducts that would lead the water to the Palace, drove it through pipes more than one hundred meters above the Seine level.
The Palace was not restricted only for the King and his court and though everyone could freely visit the Palace and walk its gardens, elegance was essential in the Palace of Versailles and visitors needed to be well-dressed to be allowed to walk the Palace. Those who did not have a proper outfit, could rent one at the entrance of the Palace.

Check out “Eiffel Tower“

The palace, enthusiastically promoted as one of France’s foremost tourist attractions by the Fifth Republic, still serves political functions. Heads of state are regaled in the Hall of Mirrors and the French Senate (Sénat) and the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) meet, in congress, in Versailles to revise or otherwise amend the French Constitution, a tradition that came into effect with the promulgation of the 1875 Constitution.

The Marble Court (made with contrasting red brick, white stone and grey slate highlighted with god decoration) and the facade of the first chateau built by King Louis XIII

The Grand Apartments (grands appartements), known respectively as the King’s Grand Apartment (grand appartement du roi), consisting of an enfilade of seven rooms, and the Queen’s Grand Apartment (grand appartement de la reine) forming a parallel enfilade with that of the grand appartement du roi, occupied the main or principal floor of the New Palace (château neuf).

Check out “Versailles Palace – State Apartments of the King” and “Versailles Palace – Queen’s Grand Apartment”

The Royal Chapel

Le Vau’s design for the state apartments, closely following Italian models of the day, is evidenced by the piano nobile (a convention the architect borrowed from 16th- and 17th-century Italian palace design), the placement of the apartments on the next floor up from the ground level.

Gabriel Pavilion

Owned by the French state, the Palace of Versailles’ formal title is the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles and, since 1995, has been run as a Public Establishment, with an independent administration and management supervised by the French Ministry of Culture.

Offering a visual history of French architecture from the 17th century to the end of the 18th century, the Palace of Versailles began with the original château, with the brick and stone and sloping slate (from Angers) Mansard roofs of the Louis XIII style, used by architect Philibert Le Roy. With the addition of the colonnades and flat roofs of the new royal apartments, done in the French Classical or Louis XIV style, as designed by Louis Le Vau and, later, by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, it then became grander and more monumental. In 1768, it concluded in the lighter and more graceful Neo-Classical Louis XVI style of the Petit Trianon, completed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel.

Dufour Pavilion

Largely completed by the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the eastern part of the palace has a U-shaped layout, surrounding a black-and-white marble courtyard, with the corps de logis and symmetrical advancing secondary wings terminating with the Dufour Pavilion on the south and the Gabriel Pavilion to the north, creating an expansive cour d’honneur known as the Cour Royale (Royal Court).

The North Wing

Two enormous asymmetrical wings, flanking the Royal Court, results in a 402 m. (1,319 ft.) long facade. The palace, covered by around a million sq. ft. (10 hectares) of roof, has 2,143 windows, 1,252 chimneys, and 67 staircases.

The Princes’ Staircase overlooking the Gallery of Great Battles

The façade of Louis XIII’s original château, preserved on the entrance front, was built of red brick and cut stone embellishments. In the center of the courtyard is a 3-storey avant-corps fronted with eight red marble columns, supporting a gilded wrought-iron balcony and surmounted with a triangle of lead statuary surrounding a large clock (its hands stopped upon the death of Louis XIV).

Questel Staircase, located at the North Wing, was named after architect Charles-Aususte Questel. It replaced the one built by Questel’s predecessor, Frédéric Nepveu, during the July Monarchy.

Columns, painted and gilded wrought-iron balconies plus dozens of stone tables decorated with consoles (holding marble busts of Roman emperors) completes the rest of the façade while atop the slate Mansard roof, are elaborate dormer windows and gilt lead roof dressings, added by Hardouin-Mansart in 1679–1681.

The garden front and wings, inspired by the architecture of Baroque-style Italian villas but executed in the French Classical style, were encased in enveloppe (white cut ashlar stone from L’Oise) by Le Vau in 1668-1671 and modified by Hardouin-Mansart in 1678–1679.

The exterior features an arcaded, rusticated ground floor, supporting a main floor with round-headed windows divided by reliefs and pilasters or columns, while the attic storey, with square windows and pilasters, is crowned by a balustrade bearing sculptured trophies and flame pots dissimulating a flat roof.

Angel and Lion Statue

Chateau de Versailles: Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles, France. Tel: +33 1 30 83 78 00. Website: www.chateauversailles.fr. Open daily (except on Mondays and May 1), from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM. Last admission is 6 PM while the ticket office closes at 5.45 PM. The estate of Trianon and the Coach Gallery only open in the afternoon while the Park (7 AM to 8:30 PM) and Gardens (8 AM to 8.30 PM, last admission: 7 PM) are open every day. Access to the Gardens is free except on days of fountains shows. You can access the estate of Trianon through the Gardens or through the city. The Petit Trianon is only possible via the Grand Trianon.

The Road to Versailles (France)

Posted on 25 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Versailles

The whole morning of our last whole day was reserved for the famous Palace of Versailles (Château de Versailles or simply Versailles), a royal château in Versailles, a wealthy and chic suburb of Paris, some 17.1 kms. (10.6 mi.) southwest of the French capital, in the department of the Yvelines, Île-de-France region of France.

Check out “Versailles Palace“

From Hotel Ibis Gare de l’Este, our home for our 4-day stay in Paris, Grace, Manny, Jandy, Cheska, Kyle and I walked to its nearby namesake train station where took train (RER line C) for the one-hour trip to Versailles, which includes a 15-min. transfer at Saint Michel. Upon arrival at Versailles Château – Rive Gauche train station (the closest one of the Palace), we just walked for 10 mins. to the Palace Gate.

Check out “Hotel and Inn Review: Ibis Paris Gare de l’Est 10^th”

The de facto capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century (1682 to 1789) before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution, the 26.18 sq. km. (10.11 sq. mi. or 6,469-acre) Versailles became the préfecture (regional capital) of the Seine-et-Oise département in March 1790, then of Yvelines in January 1968. It is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese (created in 1790) and home to the Académie de Versailles, the largest (by its number of pupils and students) of France’s 30 nationwide académies (districts) of the Ministry of National Education.

Versailles-Château–Rive Gauche Station

By the standards of the 18th century, Versailles was a very modern European city. Born out of the will of King Louis XIII, the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets which was used as a model for the building of Washington, D.C. by Pierre Charles L’Enfant.

Though Versailles’ primary cultural attraction is the Palace, with its ornately decorated rooms and historic significance, plus its garden the town, also has other points of cultural notability. Its position as an affluent suburb of Paris has meant that it forms a part of the Paris artistic scene.

On our way to the Palace of Versailles, from the RER station, we cannot help but notice the grand Hotel de Ville. Originally a gathering place for the Palace visitors, this is now the Town Hall of Versailles. The building, as it stands today, was built at the turn of 20th century. Its construction, decided in 1897 by order of the then mayor Édouard Lefebvre, was entrusted to the architect Henri Legrand who won the competition (the architect Jean Bréasson also took part in it) launched in 1897.

Jandy, Grace and Cheska (with Kyle) approaching the palace grounds

With a budget of 1.2 million francs, work began on March 1898 and the town hall was inaugurated on November 18 , 1900. On June 24, 1900, the building was fully electrified.

City Hall (Hotel de Ville)

The town hall is made up of two distinct parts. The first part (western wing), along the Rue du Général-de-Gaulle, across the palace, was the first town hall installed in 1790 in the old hotel de Conti. Preserved but completely transformed, it is a low-rise building preceded by a wide staircase. Its bell tower, deemed too high, was demolished in 1945 while the gates of the main courtyard disappeared. It features wood paneling and paintings dating from the 18th century.

ANECDOTE: During the time of King Louis XIV, the king did not want to see any building in Versailles higher than his bedroom.

After the French Revolution, to prove the supremacy of the republic over the monarchy, the Hotel de Ville was said to have been built so as to get the first floor above the level of the King’s bedroom in Chateau de Versailles.

The second, opening onto the Avenue de Paris around a main courtyard surrounded by gates, is the imposing, Neo-Louis XIII building by Henri Legrand. Topped by a bell tower overlooking the city, the campanile supports, at its base, a 1.6 m. diameter floral clock.

Floral Clock

A memorial, sculpted by Albert Guilbert and Ernest Henri Dubois, commemorates the residents of Versailles who died in the First and Second World War and the wars in Indochina (1946-1954), Algeria (1954-1962) and Afghanistan.

War Memorial

Hotel de Ville: 4 4 Avenue de Paris , 78000 Versailles, France. Tel: +33 1 30 97 80 00

Arc de Triomphe (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Any visit to Paris is never complete without visiting the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile (Triumphal Arch of the Star), one of the city’s most famous monuments and the linchpin of the Axe historique (historic axis) – a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which runs from the courtyard of the Louvre to the Grande Arche de la Défense (built in 1982). Prior to our visit, we had seen its twice smaller cousin, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the Louvre.

Arc de Triomphe

Standing at the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle (originally named Place de l’Étoile), at the western end of the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe is located on the right bank of the Seine at the centre of a dodecagonal configuration of twelve radiating avenues. It honors those who fought and died for France during the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars.

The monument, designed by Jean Chalgrin in the astylar design, was started in 1806, after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon, halted during the Bourbon Restoration, and completed, between 1833 and 1836, during the reign of King Louis-Philippe.

L-R: Grace, Jandy and Manny

This Neo-Classical version of the ancient Roman triumphal Arch of Titus, sets the tone for public monuments with triumphant patriotic messages, its iconographic program pits heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. Here are also some interesting trivia regarding the Arc de Triomphe

Before the Arc, a three-level, elephant-shaped building , designed by French architect Charles Ribart, was proposed on this spot. The building would be entered via a spiral staircase that led up into the elephant’s underbelly. It was to have a form of air conditioning, the furniture would fold into the walls and there would be a drainage system in the elephant’s trunk. Ribart was all set to start building, but the French government ended up denying his request.
Sadly, Napoleon never got to see the finished product as the Arc was completed 15 years after his death.
Though designed by Jean Chalgrin, he died in 1811 and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot.
The Arc de Triomphe is located at the center of 12 avenues which radiate outward.
Although Napoleon never got to see the completed monument, he had a wooden model of the completed arch built so that, in 1810, he was able to enter Paris from the west with his new bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria.
The monument, built on such a large scale, stands 50 m. (164 ft.) high, 45 m. (148 ft.) wide and 22 m. (72 ft.) deep. The large vault is 29.19 m. (95.8 ft.) high and 14.62 m. (48.0 ft.) wide. The small vault is 18.68 m. (61.3 ft.) high and 8.44 m. (27.7 ft.) wide.
Beneath its vault, in the chapel on the first floor, lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, interred on November 10, 1920, Armistice Day . Its eternal flame burning (non-stop since November 11, 1923) in memory of the dead who were never identified (now in both world wars), was the first lit in Western and Eastern Europe since the Vestal Virgins‘ fire was extinguished in the fourth century.
The Arc de Triomphe costed 9.3 millions French francs, a gigantic amount of money at that time.
The Arc de Triomphe was the tallest triumphal arch in existence until the completion of the 67 m. (220 ft.) high Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City in 1938. The slightly taller, 60 m. (197 ft.) high Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang (North Korea), completed in 1982, is modeled on the Arc de Triomphe.
Following its construction, the Arc de Triomphe became the rallying point of French troops parading after successful military campaigns and for the annual Bastille Day Military Parade.
After the interment of the Unknown Soldier, all military parades (including the French under Marshal Ferdinand Foch after the victory in 1919) have avoided marching through the actual arch. The route taken is up to the arch and then around its side, out of respect for the tomb and its symbolism. Both Germans (under Hitler) in 1940 and the French (under de Gaulle) and Allies in 1944 and 1945 observed this custom.
A United States postage stamp of 1945 shows the Arc de Triomphe in the background as victorious American troops march down the Champs-Élysées and U.S. airplanes fly overhead on August 29, 1944.

Shields engraved with the names of major French victories in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars

Richly sculptured frieze of soldiers

In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major French victories in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.
The inside walls of the monument list the names of 660 people, among which are 558 French generals (those killed in battle are underlined) of the First French Empire.

Battle of Aboukir (July 25, 1799)

Funeral of Gen. Marceau (September 20, 1796)

The shorter sides of the four supporting columns are inscribed with the names of the major French victories in the Napoleonic Wars.
Two unsuccessful assassination attempts took place at the Arc de Triomphe – against Charles De Gaulle on August 22, 1962 and Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002. Both men survived.
Although the Arc de Triomphe is a symbol of France’s victories, German armies have marched underneath or around it on two occasions – on February 17, 1871 (after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War), and the Nazis on June 14,1940 during the German Occupation in World War II.
The last time the Arc de Triomphe had a full-scale cleaning, through bleaching, was from 1965 to 1966.
The annual Tour de France bike race finishes here.

The four main sculptural groups on each of the pillars at the base of the Arc are:

Le Départ de 1792 (or La Marseillaise) by François Rude

Le Départ de 1792 (or La Marseillaise), by François Rude, and the most renowned of them all, celebrates the cause of the French First Republic during the 10 August uprising. Above the volunteers is the winged personification of Liberty. This group served as a recruitment tool in the early months of World War I and encouraged the French to invest in war loans in 1915–16.
Le Triomphe de 1810, byJean-Pierre Cortot, celebrates the Treaty of Schönbrunn. This group features Napoleon, crowned by the goddess of Victory.

Le Triomphe de 1810 byJean-Pierre Cortot

La Résistance de 1814, by Antoine Étex, commemorates the French resistance to the Allied armies during the War of the Sixth Coalition.
La Paix de 1815, by Antoine Étex, commemorates the Treaty of Paris, concluded in that year.

The main sculptures are not integral friezes. Rather, they are treated as independent trophies applied to the vast ashlar masonry masses. Inside the monument is a permanent exhibition, opened in February 2007, conceived by the artist Maurice Benayoun and the architect Christophe Girault.

Cheska and Kyle

Here are some historical trivia regarding the Arc de Triomphe:

On December 15, 1840, Napoleon’s remains, brought back to France from Saint Helena, passed under it on their way to the Emperor’s final resting place at the Invalides.
During the night of May 22, 1885, prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc.
It is said that on the day that the Battle of Verdun began in 1916, the sword carried by the Republic in the Marseillaise relief broke off. To conceal the accident and avoid any undesired ominous interpretations, the relief was immediately hidden by tarpaulins .
On August 7, 1919,Charles Godefroy, the replacement of Jean Navarre the pilot who originally was tasked to make the flight (he died on July 10, 1919 when he crashed near Villacoublay while training for the flight), successfully flew his Nieuport biplane under the Arc in tribute to the airmen killed in the war.
On May 31, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, accompanied by French President Charles de Gaulle, paid their respects by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
On August 17, 1995, as part of a campaign of bombings, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria exploded a bomb near the Arc de Triomphe, wounding 17 people.

The author (at left)

Arc de Triomphe: Place Charles de Gaulle, 75008 Paris, France. Tel:+33 1 55 37 73 77. Website: www.arcdetriompheparis.com. You can climb the 284 steps to the rooftop (9.50€)..

The Bridges Along the Seine River (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The author with Pont Alexandre III in the background

During our Seine River Cruise, on board a popular and modern Bateaux Parisiens glass-topped trimaran, we passed by some of the city of Paris’ major bridges and passerelles (pedestrian footbridges). The city has 37 bridges across the River Seine of which 5 are pedestrian, 2 are rail bridges, three link Île Saint-Louis to the rest of Paris, 8 do the same for Île de la Cité and one links the 2 islands to each other. The city’s bridges offered us a lesson in history and architecture. A list follows, from downstream to upstream:

Check out “Seine River Cruise”

Pont d’Iéna

The 155 m. long and 35 m. wide Pont d’Iéna (“Jena Bridge”), linking the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadéro on the Right Bank, was built from 1808 to 1814 and designed with five arches, each with an arc length of 28 m., and four intermediate piers.

Check out “Eiffel Tower”

The tympana, along the sides of the bridge, had been originally decorated with imperial eagles conceptualized by François-Frédéric Lemot and sculpted by Jean-François Mouret. Soon after the fall of the First Empire in 1815, the eagles were replaced with the royal letter “L” but, in 1852, when Napoléon III ascended the throne of the Second Empire, , the royal “L” was replaced new imperial eagles sculpted by Antoine-Louis Barye,

Four sculptures, sitting on top of four corresponding pylons on the two ends of the bridge, were put in place in 1853. The sculpture of a Gallic warrior (by Antoine-Augustin Préault) and a Roman warrior (by Louis-Joseph Daumas) are along the Right Bank while the sculpture of an Arab warrior (by Jean-Jacques Feuchère) and a Greek warrior (by François Devault) are along the Left Bank. Since 1975, this bridge has been part of the supplementary registry of historic monuments.

The steps leading off the bridge, popularly known among film fans as the “Renault stairs,” was featured in a scene in A View to a Kill where James Bond (played by Roger Moore) drove a hijacked Renault 11 taxi down the steps in pursuit of an assassin, later revealed to be May Day (Grace Jones).

Passerelle Debilly (Debilly Footbridge)

The 125 m. long and 8 m. wide Passerelle Debilly (Debilly Footbridge), a through arch footbridge, connects the quai de New York to the quai Branly, close to the Eiffel Tower. Opened in 1900, it was designed by architect, Jean Résal (who also designed the Pont Alexandre III) and named after General Jean Louis Debilly of the French First Empire who was killed in the Battle of Jena in 1806.

The footbridge, built on a metallic framework resting on two stone piers at the riverbanks, is decorated with dark green ceramic tiles arranged in a fashion that suggests the impression of waves. In 1966, as a contemporary of the Pont Alexandre III and the Austerlitz Viaduct, the Passerelle Debilly was eventually included in the supplementary registry of historical monuments and, along with the Eiffel Tower, is the second metallic structure that stands as an attestation to the engineering achievements of its epoch. In 1991, the bridge was repainted and, in 1997, its cladding was resurfaced with hard tropical wood. The bridge is located near the Métro station: Iéna.

Pont Alexandre III

The 160 m. long and 40 m. wide Alexandre III Bridge (Pont Alexandre III), a deck arch bridge widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the city, connects the Champs-Élysées quarter with those of the Invalides and Eiffel Tower. Since 1975, the bridge has been classified as a French monument historique.

Nymph reliefs

This bridge, with its 32 exuberant Art Nouveau bronze candelabras, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses at either end, was built between 1896 and 1900 and was named after Tsar Alexander III (the second to last emperor of Russia) who, in 1892, concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance. Tsar Nicholas II (his son), Empress Alexandra Fedorovna and French President Felix Faure laid the foundation stone in October 1896. The Beaux-Arts style of the bridge reflects that of the Grand Palais, to which it leads on the right bank.

Statue of Fames Restraining Pegasus

A marvel of 19th century engineering, the bridge was designed by the architects Joseph Cassien-Bernard and Gaston Cousin, built by engineers Jean Résal and Amédée Alby and was inaugurated in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle (universal exhibition) World’s Fair, as were the nearby Grand Palais and Petit Palais. Consisting of a 6 m. (20 ft.) high single span steel arch, its design was constrained by the need to keep the bridge from obscuring the view of the Champs-Élysées or the Invalides.

Check out “L’Hotel des Invalides”

Sculptures, provided by numerous sculptors, feature prominently on the bridge. Watching over the bridge are four gilt-bronze statues of Fames supported on massive 17 m. (56 ft.) masonry socles, crowned by Fames restraining Pegasus, that provide stabilizing counterweight for the arch, without interfering with monumental views.

The nymph reliefs, at the centers of the arches over the Seine, are memorials to the Franco-Russian Alliance. The Nymphs of the Seine, with a relief of the arms of Paris, faces the Nymphs of the Neva, with the arms of Imperial Russia. Both are executed in hammered copper over forms by Georges Récipon.

Pont des Invalides

The 152 m. long and 18 m. wide Pont des Invalides, the lowest bridge traversing the Seine, was opened in 1855 in time for the upcoming 1855 World Fair in Paris. Paul-Martin Gallocher de Lagalisserie and Jules Savarin used the existing piers of the former suspension bridge (built in 1829) and a newly added central pier to build an arch bridge in masonry on the same site.

The new pier was adorned with sculptures in two allegorical themes – Land Victory by Victor Vilain (upriver) and the Maritime Victory by Georges Diébolt (downstream). The two old piers, adorned with sculptures of military trophies bearing the imperial coat of arms, were both done by Astyanax-Scévola Bosio.

Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor

The 106 m. long and 15 m. wide Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, a footbridge in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, is served by the Metro station Assemblée Nationale. Formerly known as Passerelle Solférino (or Pont de Solférino), it renamed on October 9, 2006 on the centenary of Léopold Sédar Senghor’s birth. Linking the Musée d’Orsay and the Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Gardens), the bridge was built between 1997 and 1999 under the direction of the engineer and architect Marc Mimram.

With a single span and no piers, this architecturally unique metallic bridge is covered in exotic Brazilian ipê wood (also used for outdoor flooring at the Bibliothèque nationale de France) which gives it a light and warm appearance.

Its foundations, at either end, are in the form of concrete pillars extending 15 m. into the ground, and the structure itself is made up of six 15- ton components built by Eiffel Constructions Métalliques, the Eiffel engineering company. For the year 1999, its innovative architecture brought Marc Mimram the award “Prix de l’Équerre d’Argent.” For promenaders, the bridge also has benches and lampposts. They can reach the Jardin des Tuileries through a subterranean passage on the Rive Droite.

Pont Neuf

The 232 m. long and 22 m. wide Pont Neuf (“New Bridge”), the oldest (built from 1578 to 1607) standing bridge across the river Seine, stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris (then known as Lutetia) and, during the medieval period, the heart of the city. Since 1889, it has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

The bridge is composed of two separate spans. One, of five arches, joins the left bank to the Île de la Cité. The other, of seven arches, joins the island to the right bank. At the tip of the island is Square du Vert-Galant, a small public park, nicknamed the “Green Gallant,” named in honor of Henry IV. In 1991, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From time immemorial, it has appeared in countless paintings and , on this bridge, one can make out previous water levels that broke the Seine’s banks.

Pont au Double

The 45 m. long and 20 m. wide Pont au Double, linking the 4th and 5th arrondissements of Paris, from the Île de la Cité to the quai de Montebello, derives its name from the toll amount which was charged (a “double” denier), money which used to pay for the construction of the bridge. Built in 1883, this one arch cast-iron bridge replaced bridges built from1626 to 1634 (collapsed in 1709, the rebuilt bridge remained in place until 1847).

Pont de la Tournelle

The 122 m. long and 23 m. wide Pont de la Tournelle (Tournelle Bridge), an arch bridge with a 7 m. clearance above the central arch, was built in 1928. In order to emphasize the shapeless landscape in the part of the Seine that it bestrides, the Pont de la Tournelle was intentionally built lacking symmetry. Its grand central arch, linking the riverbanks via two smaller arches, one on each side, is decorated, on the Eastern bank, with a pylon built on the left pier‘s cutwater.

Statue of St. Genevieve Atop a Pylon

The statue of Saint Geneviève (the patron saint of Paris), atop of the pylon, was designed by Paul Landowski, a Polish-French monumental sculptor .

Pont de Sully

The Pont de Sully (or Pont Sully), constructed in 1876 (as part of Haussmann’s renovation of Paris), was designed by the engineers Paul Vaudrey and Gustave Brosselin. Opened on August 25, 1877, it is named after Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully (1560–1641) and minister to Henry IV.

In reality, it is two separate bridges set at an angle of about 45 degrees to the river banks, which means that it gives a splendid view over the quais of the Île Saint-Louis and Notre-Dame. The northern part, over the narrower arm of the river, consists of a central 42-m. arch in cast iron and two 15-m. arches in masonry. It links the island to the rest of the 4th arrondissement on the Right Bank (the nearest Metro station, Sully – Morland, is located here). The southern part, consisting of three cast iron arches, links the island to the Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 5th arrondissement of Paris on the Left Bank.

Pont Marie

The 92 m. long and 22 m. wide Pont Marie, linking the Île Saint-Louis to the quai de l’Hôtel de Ville, is one of three bridges designed to allow traffic flow between the Île Saint-Louis and the Left and Right banks of Paris. Linking the Right Bank, the Pont Marie is the counterpart of the Pont de la Tournelle which is built along the same line but serves to connect the Île Saint-Louis with the Left Bank. Started in 1614 and opened in 1635, it was designed by
Rémy Collin, Jean Delgrange, Christophe Marie (after whom the bridge was named after) and reconstructed in 1670. Each of its five arches is unique and the niches in the abutments have never been filled with statues.

Pont de l’Archevêché

The 68 m. long and 17 m. (11 m. usable) wide Pont de l’Archevêché (Archbishop’s Bridge), linking the 4th Arrondissement, at the Île de la Cité, to the 5th Arrondissement (between the quai de Montebello and the quai de la Tournelle), is the narrowest road bridge in Paris. Located near the Métro station: Maubert-Mutualité, It was built in 1828 by the engineer Plouard and is composed of three arches of stone measuring lengths of 15 m. (49 ft.), 17 m. (56 ft.) and 15 m. (49 ft.).

Pont Saint Louis

The 67 m. long and 16 m. wide Pont Saint-Louis (3:34 PM), in the 4th arrondissement, links the Île de la Cité (the seventh to link the two islands since 1630) with the Île Saint-Louis. Started in 1969 and inaugurated in 1970, the bridge is served by the Cité stop of the Paris Metro.

Bateaux Parisiens: Pontoon 3, Port de la Bourdonnais, 75007 Paris, France. Tel: +33 825 01 01 01 and +33 1 76 64 14 66. Open 9:30 AM – 10 PM. Website: www.bateauxparisiens.com. Admission: adults (€15), children under 12 yrs. (€7), free for children under 3 years old. Ticket will be valid for one year at any given time. Departures: April to September (from 10:15 AM -10:30 PM, every 30 mins., no departures at 1:30 PM and 7:30 PM), October to March (from 11 AM -8:30 PM, at least every hour). Book online in advance to avoid queues. The boat also departs from Notre Dame Cathedral. Audio guide commentary with musical accompaniment, from a handset, available in 13 languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, American, Russian, Dutch, Polish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean). Smoking is not allowed on the boat and animals are not permitted on board.

How to Get There: Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel (RER C) 5 . Nearest metro: Trocadero or Bir Hakeim

Seine River Cruise (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Seine River Sightseeing Cruise via Bateaux Parisiens

After our morning tour of the Eiffel Tower, we made our way, by foot, to the boat docking station at Port de la Bourdonnais where we hopped aboard a popular and modern Bateaux Parisiens glass-topped trimaran to embark on a quintessential, scenic and leisurely cruise along the Seine riverbanks.

Port de la Bourdonnai

Bateaux Parisiens trimaran

All aboard …..

Bateaux Parisiens has a fleet of four trimarans, three named after legendary French actresses (Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Adjani and Jeanne Moreau) and another after a French businessman (Pierre Bellon). They each hold up to 600 passengers.

The author

Our trimaran, with terrace and exterior passageways, was well equipped, clean and well maintained, with plenty of outdoor seating at the upper deck.

Jandy and Grace

The company also has nine smaller boats, some of which are used for dinner cruises and private events. They offer high priced lunch and dinner, to the sound of the resident band, with a choice of four different a la carte menus, on separate restaurant boats. All boats follow the same 12-km. long route.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Eiffel Tower

Louvre Museum

The Grand Palais, a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées, was built in the style of Beaux-Arts architecture.

Check out “Louvre Museum,” “Notre Dame Cathedral” and “Eiffel Tower”

A fantastic introduction to the highlights and magic of Paris, we soaked up the passing sights of iconic, world-famous monuments and landmarks as we cruised up and down the Seine River.

Musee d’Orsay

National Museum of the Legion of Honor and Orders of Chivalry, created in 1925, displays a history of France’s honors, medals, decorations, and chivalric orders from the time of King Louis XI to the present, including Napoleonic souvenirs and more than 300 portraits. A special section is dedicated to foreign orders. Its library and archives contain more than 3,000 works.. Located beside the Musee d’Orsay, it is housed within the Hôtel de Salm, built in 1782 by architect Pierre Rousseau for Frederick III, Prince of Salm-Kyrburg.

Registry of the Paris Commercial Court

Check out “Musee d’Orsay“

On the left bank are the Notre Dame Cathedral, the National Museum of the Legion of Honor and Orders of Chivalry, Conciergerie, National Assembly, Les Invalides, the Institut de France, and the Musée d’Orsay.

Paris City Hall, the headquarters of the municipality of Paris since 1357, serves multiple functions, housing the local administration, the Mayor of Paris (since 1977), and also serves as a venue for large receptions.

Institut de France, a French learned society, groups five académies (including the Académie Française). It manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and châteaux open for visit..

On the right bank, during the return trip, are the Louvre, the Grand Palais, the Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, Tuileries Garden, the Paris City Hall, and the Eiffel Tower.

The Conciergerie Paris, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, was formerly a prison but is presently used mostly for law courts. During the French Revolution, hundreds of prisoners were taken from the Conciergerie to be executed by guillotine at a number of locations around Paris.

We also glided beneath beautiful historic bridges (37 bridges span the river), including the famous Pont Neuf. Even the Seine riverbanks, collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991, are a sight to behold.

Check out “Bridges Along the Seine River“

Hotel Dieu, a hospital located on the Île de la Cité, on the parvise of Notre-Dame, is the oldest hospital in the city and the oldest worldwide still operating. Ravaged by fire several times, it was rebuilt for the last time at its present location between 1867 and 1878, as part of Haussmann’s renovation of Paris.

After half an hour, our boat turned around and cruised back up along the opposite bank. Our 1-hour cruise ends back at the original departure point near the Eiffel Tower.

The Palais Bourbon serves as a meeting place of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government. It is located on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde.

How to Get There: Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel (RER C) 5 . Nearest metro: Trocadero or Bir Hakeim

Eiffel Tower (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. This iron lattice tower, located along the Champ de Mars, was named after the French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower in 1889. Erected as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair (which celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the French Revolution), it was started on January 26, 1887, completed on March 15, 1889 and opened on March 31.

L-R: the author, Jandy, Grace, Kyle an Cheska

L-R: the author, Jandy, Grace, Kyle and Cheska

It was initially criticized by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design (saying it had too much engineering and not enough art to be considered good architecture) but now is widely considered now to be a striking piece of structural art, often featured in films and literature. Here are also some interesting trivia regarding the Eiffel Tower:

Gustave Eiffel did not design the Eiffel Tower – senior engineer Maurice Koechlin did.
The design for the tower was decided by a contest. Contestants had to submit their designs for consideration. Eiffel’s design won.
It took 3 years of lobbying to approve the Eiffel Tower in 1887.
Public funds only covered a quarter o the cost of the Eiffel Tower.
On February 14, 1887, all the big names of the world of arts and literature, including Charles Garnier (who built the famed Opera house), Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas Jr., Leconte de Lisle, and Sully Prudhomme, united to stop its construction in what is known as the ‘Artists Protests.”
Eiffel’s firm produced 5,329 drawings (1,700 generals an 3,629 detailed) of the Eiffel Tower
Only one person died in the construction of the Eiffel Tower
The French name for the Eiffel Tower is La Tour Eiffel. It also has the nickname La dame de fer which means “the iron lady,” the same nickname as Margaret Thatcher’s.
Famed novelist Guy de Maupassant hated the tower but ate lunch there every day. When he was asked why, Maupassant answered that the only place in Paris where he couldn’t see the Eiffel Tower was the Eiffel Tower itself.
It is the most-visited paid monument in the world.
The tower, the tallest structure in Paris and the second tallest structure in France (not including broadcast aerials), after the Millau Viaduct (completed in 2004, the world’s tallest bridge is taller, at 343 m.). It was the tallest until the construction of a military transmitter in the town of Saissac in 1973.
During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the 555-ft. high Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. In 1957, after the addition of the aerial, the Eiffel Tower it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 m. (17 ft.).
Famous visitors to the tower during its opening included The Prince of Wales, Sarah Bernhardt, “Buffalo Bill” Cody (his Wild West show was an attraction at the Exposition) and Thomas Edison.
Eiffel had a private apartment for entertaining friends at the third floor of the tower. He made use of his apartment at the top level of the tower to carry out meteorological observations, and also made use of the tower to perform experiments on the action of air resistance on falling bodies.
Gustave Eiffel was also behind the design of the Garabit Viaduct (1884), the Pest Railway Station in Hungary, the dome of the Nice Observatory and the interior elements for the Statue of Liberty‘s spine. He was also involved in a disastrous attempt by the French to build a canal in Panama, and his reputation was badly damaged by the failure of the venture. He died while listening to Beethoven‘s 5th symphony.
The Eiffel Tower was originally intended for Barcelona, Spain, but the project was rejected.
It served as a military radio post in 1903, transmitted the first public radio program in 1925, and then broadcast television and digital TV.
Sir John Bickerstaffe, Mayor of Blackpool and an attendee at the 1889 World’s Fair, was so impressed with the Eiffel Tower that, in 1891, he had a similar structure (Blackpool Tower) designed and built on the English seafront to surpass the Eiffel Tower in height. However, it was unsteady, never completed and demolished in 1907.
Eiffel’s permit for the tower allowed it to stand for only 20 years (it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris). As part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it should be easy to demolish, the city had planned to tear it down. However, the tower was proved valuable for communication purposes (it was repurposed as a giant radio antenna) so it was allowed to remain even after the expiry of the permit.
In 1905, local newspaper L’Equipe organized a stair climbing championship at the tower. A M. Forestier won a bike, taking three minutes and 12 seconds to reach the second level.
On February 4, 1912, French tailor Franz Reichelt attempted to fly from the first floor with a spring-loaded parachute suit of his own design. However, he crashed 187 ft. to the ground instead.
During World War I, using the Eiffel Tower’s wireless station to intercept enemy messages from Berlin, the French military, in 1917, intercepted a coded message between Germany and Spain that included information about ‘Operative H-21’ otherwise known as the Dutch-born exotic dancer Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod (stage name: Mata Hari) who was spying for the Germans. Based on this message, the French were able to arrest, convict and execute Mata Hari for espionage.
At the First Battle of the Marne, in 1914, the tower played a part in the Allied victory when one of its transmitters jammed German radio communications, hindering their advance.
By 1918, after Guillaume Apollinaire made a nationalist poem in the shape of the tower (a calligram) to express his feelings about the war against Germany, it became a symbol for Paris and for France
In 1923, Pierre Labric cycled down the stairs of the tower, winning a bet but was arrested by local police.
On February 28, 1926, 23 year old French aviator Leon Collot attempted to fly his plane under the tower but was killed when he was blinded by the sun and became entangled in the aerial from the wireless station, crashing in a ball of flame.
On 2 separate occasions in 1925, con artist Victor Lustig, pretending that he was the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, “sold” the Eiffel Tower to a scrap metal dealer.
Between 1925 and 1934, French car manufacturer Citroen used the tower as a giant billboard (recorded as the world’s biggest advertisement by the Guinness Book of Records), the company name was emblazoned on the tower using a quarter of a million light bulbs.
During the German Occupation in World War II, when Adolf Hitler visited Paris, the French cut the lift cables on the Eiffel Tower so that he would have to climb the steps if he wanted to reach the top. Nazi soldiers also attempted to attach a swastika to the top, but it was so large it blew away and had to be replaced with a smaller one.
In 1944, as the Allies approached Paris, Hitler ordered Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower, along with other parts of the city. The general refused.
In 1960, Charles de Gaulle proposed temporarily dismantling the tower and sending it to Montreal for Expo 67. The plan was rejected.
In the Beatles song I Am the Walrus, Semolina Pilchard climbs the Eiffel Tower.
For its 75th anniversary, there was a televised broadcast of mountaineers climbing up the tower.
The tower appears in the 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill. There is a scene in the Jules Verne Restaurant, and a fight in the stairway.
In 2007, a woman with an objects fetish named Erika La Tour Eiffel “married” the Eiffel Tower, changing her name to Erika La Tour Eiffel in honor of her “partner.”
According to the Societe de la Tour Eiffel, since the tower first opened in 1889, there have only been 349 successful suicides. Some were jumpers, while others were people hanging themselves from the beam. Those who did attempt to jump from the first level don’t always die.
At night, it is illegal (you can be fined) to take a photograph of the tower because the light display is considered artwork and therefore protected under copyright law.
Zoning restrictions in Paris limit the height of most buildings to 7 storeys high. Thus, only a small number of taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
The Eiffel Tower being so popular, its design has been recreated around the world, with over 30 replicas including the half scale replica at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Nevada, USA, the full scale Tokyo Tower in Japan and one at the Window of the World theme park in Shenzhen, China.
To counteract atmospheric perspective, multiple types of colors are used to paint the Eiffel Tower. Darker shades are used at the top and, gradually, lighter hues are painted toward the bottom.

Names of 70 scientists and engineers inscribed in surrounding panels

The names of 72 engineers, scientists and mathematicians are engraved on the side of the tower, each of whom contributed to its construction.
To mark the 125th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower’s completion, the British Virgin Islands has launched a special tower-shaped $10 coin.
In the computer game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the tower is toppled by an airstrike.
Lego set number 10181, containing 3,428 bricks, are for those who wanted to build your own Eiffel Tower.
To keep the operations up and running 365 days a year, the site requires a large staff of 280 people.
To validate admission, cashiers sell 2 tons of tickets every year and the cleaning crew uses 25,000 garbage bags annually.
More than just a tourist attraction, the tower also houses gourmet restaurants, art exhibitions, concerts, a newspaper office, a post office, scientific laboratories, and the first level becomes an ice rink every year.
In 1984, two Britons parachuted from the tower without permission.
The Eiffel Tower Light Display, dating back to 1985, was invented by Pierre Bideau, an electrician and lighting engineer. Consisting of projectors equipped with high-pressure, yellow-orange sodium lamps, when illuminated, they give the impression that the Eiffel Tower is sparkling with gold. In under 10 mins., the projectors are turned on and activated by sensors. In 2004, they were replaced with energy-efficient projectors, resulting in 40% energy savings.
For the landmark’s centennial, tightrope walker Philippe Petit walked the 2,296 ft. between the Palais de Chaillot and the Eiffel Tower.
In 2002, Hugues Richard climbed the tower on his mountain bike , breaking his own 1998 record.

Here are some amazing facts about the tower:

The Eiffel Tower is 324 m. (1,063 ft. including antenna) tall (about the same height as an 81-storey building) and its base is square, 125 m. (410 ft.) on a side.
98 million people ascended it in 2011 and the tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010. In 2012, there were 6,180,000 visitors (75% foreign) and an average of 25,000 people ascend the tower every day. The majority of visitors are French (10.4%), followed by Italy and Spain (8.1% each), USA (7.9%), Britain (7.4%), Germany (5.8%) and Brazil (5.5%).

Bottom of first level platform

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants (including the internationally renowned Jules Verne Restaurant) on the first and second. The third level observatory’s upper platform, the highest accessible to the public in the European Union, is 276 m. (906 ft.) above the ground,
1,665 steps are needed to climb all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The climb from ground level to the first level (187 ft.) is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The height of the third level is 905 ft.
There are 336 floodlights and 20,000 (5,000 per side) special light bulbs that twinkle (for 5 mins. on the hour, every hour, from nightfall to 1 AM) on the Eiffel Tower. Its light beam can be seen 50 miles away. 25 mountain climbers were required for the 5-month lighting installation. 50 miles of electrical cable and 60 tons of metallic parts cover the tower. Total cost was over $5 million
Its 6 elevators make 100 climbs per day. Every year, elevator trips total 103,000 kms. (64,000 mi.), enough to go around the globe 2.5 times.
Annually, it consumes 7,500,000 KWH of electricity, the same amount of electricity used by a small village annually.
Every 7 years, around 50 to 60 tons (49 to 59 long tons; 55 to 66 short tons)of paint, weighing as much as 10 elephants, are needed to paint the 2,690,750 sq. ft. surface of the Eiffel Tower to protect it from rust.
It cost 7,799,401 gold francs to build. If the Eiffel Tower was built today, it would cost about US$35 million.
It took a total of 2 years, 2 months and 5 days to build 180 years fewer than Paris’s other great attraction, Notre Dame Cathedral.
Despite its height, the Eiffel Tower was designed to be wind resistant, swaying only a few inches in the wind.
Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm. (7.1 in.) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
The Eiffel Tower weighs 11,133 tons, around 7,300 of which represents the metallic structure..
The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm. (5.9 in.) due to temperature.
300 workers, 18,038 pieces of wrought iron and 2.5 million rivets were needed to build the Eiffel Tower.
The puddled iron (wrought iron) structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tons. If the 7,300 tons of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-m. square base to a depth of only 6.25 cm. (2.5 in.), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tons per cu. m.
A cubic box surrounding the tower (324 m. x 125 m. x ) would contain 6,200 tons of air, almost as much as the iron itself.

One of the main pillars

Eiffel Tower: Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France. Tel: +33 892 70 12 39. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift (elevator) to the first and second levels. To avoid long queues, tickets can also be purchased online. Although there are stairs to the third and highest level, these are usually closed to the public and it is generally only accessible by lift (€15).

Place de la Concorde (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Place de la Concorde seen from Jardin des Tuileries

The 7.6-hectare (18.8-acre) Place de la Concorde, situated along the right bank of the Seine River in the eighth arrondissement, separates the Tuileries Gardens from the beginning of the Boulevard Champs-Elysées. (see map). At the bottom of the Champs Elysées, set in the center, stands an ancient Egyptian obelisk from the Luxor Temple.

Here is the historical timeline of the Place de la Concorde and its sumptuous obelisk:

In 1754, construction of the royal square began. First called Place Louis XV, it was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Louis XV’s architect, for the purpose of showcasing an equestrian statue of the King (commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, mostly sculpted by Edmé Bouchardon.and completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle after the death of Bouchardon)
In 1763, the square was completed.
During the French Revolution, the square was renamed as Place de la Révolution and the statue of the king was replaced by the guillotine.
With the restoration of the Bourbons, the square was renamed Place Louis XVI and an equestrian statue of King Louis XVI, designed by Jean-Pierre Cortot, was installed.
During the July Revolution in 1830, the equestrian statue of King Louis XVI was destroyed.
In 1829, Muhammad Ali Pasha (also known as Mehmet Ali Pesha), the self-declared Khedive of Ottoman Egypt, deciding to dramatically reform the military, cultural and economic aspects of Egypt, offered to France the two obelisks of the first pylon at the front of Luxor Temple (the temple of the god Amon), that Ramesses II had raised in the 13th century BC.
In August 1832 (they had to wait for the flood of the river to leave), the French steam paddle ship Sphinx sailed to Alexandria to rendezvous there with the Louqsor. The French seamen then lowered the obelisk with an array of blocks and tackles, yardarms and capstans.
On April 1, 1833, the Sphinx and Louqsor depart Alexandria
On May 10, 1833, both ships reached Toulon.
On August 12, 1833, the ships arrived at Cherbourg port within the Basse Normandie region.
On December 21, 1833, the Parisian obelisk arrived in Paris. Sphinx then towed Louqsor back to France.
On October 25, 1836, the obelisk was moved to the center of Place de la Concorde and re-erected during a carefully planned ceremony watched and applauded by King Louis-Philippe I and his family, gathered on the balcony of the Hotel de la Marine, and an eager crowd of 200,000 people. The lifting of the obelisk began at 11:30 AM.
In 1936, the Luxor Obelisk was officially classified as a Monument Historique.
On the morning of December 1, 1993, to mark World AIDS Day, the anti-AIDS Charity Act Up Paris covered the Parisian obelisk with a giant pink condom.
In May 1998, as part of the celebrations to mark Franco-Egyptian relations, a 3 m. high pyramid, made of bronze and gold leaf, was added to the top of the monolith by the government of France under then French President Jacques Chirac, to cap the top of the obelisk (its original pyramidion was believed stolen in the 6th century BC).
In 1998 and 2000, French urban climber Alain Robert scaled the Parisian obelisk without the use of any ropes or other climbing equipment or safety devices.

The square marks an intersection of two axes. The Voie Triomphale (Triumphal Way), the major axis, extends east-to-west, in a perfectly straight line, from the former royal palace (now the Louvre Museum), past the Arc du Carrousel and through the Tuileries Gardens, up the Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, and beyond — now culminating at the Grande Arche in the Paris suburb of La Défense. The second (minor) axis, formed by the line between Place de la Madeleine, down rue Royale through the square and across the Pont de la Concorde, culminates at the Palais Bourbon.

Check out “Arc de Triomphe” and “Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel“

Statues, at each corner of the octagon (at one time, the pedestals under these statues were inhabited by citizens of Paris), were initiated by architect Jacques-Ignace Hittorff. They represent the French cities of Brest and Rouen by Jean-Pierre Cortot, Lyon and Marseille by Pierre Petitot, Bordeaux and Nantes by Louis-Denis Caillouette, and Lille and Strasbourg by James Pradier.

Horses of Marly. These are copies of Costeau’s horses, masterpieces of French sculpture, that were moved to the Louvre in 1984 to be conserved.

The Horses of Marly (Chevaux de Marly), monumental statues of French sculptor Guillaume Coustou the Elder located at the beginning of the Champs Elysées, are copies of the originals which are now exhibited at the Louvre Museum.

The Pont de la Concorde, at the south end of the square, was built between 1787-1790 by Jean-Rodolphe Perronnet and widened between 1930-1932. It crosses the Seine, leading to the Palais Bourbon, home of the French National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale).

Cheska and Kyle at the rain-swept Place de la Concorde

Bordering the Place de la Concorde are the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (originally Napoleon III’s indoor tennis court) and Musée de l’Orangerie, both in the Tuileries Gardens; and the Embassy of the United States, located in the corner of the square at the intersection of Avenue Gabriel and Rue Boissy d’Anglas.

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the Place de la Concorde.

Measuring 359 m. (1,178 ft.) long by 212 m. (696 ft.) wide, Place de la Concorde is the largest public and, possibly, the most infamous square in Paris and is one of the most well known traffic circles in the world.
The square is actually in the shape of an octagon (because of its cut-off corners) and was once bordered by large moats which no longer exist (filled in during the reign of Napoleon III) .
Between 1793 and 1795, during the French Revolution, Louis XVI (January 21, 1793), Princess Élisabeth of France, Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Antoine Lavoisier, Madame du Barry, Maximilien Robespierre Louis de Saint-Just , and Olympe de Gouges and nearly 1,300 others were executed there. It is said that the scent of blood was so strong in the square that a herd of cattle once refused to cross the grounds.
Following the Revolution, the square underwent a series of name changes – Place de la Concorde (as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the revolution), Place Louis XV (again), Place Louis XVI, Place de la Chartre and, once again, Place de la Concorde.
Its obelisk, and twin that still stands in front temple in Luxor (formerly the city of Thebes, the second largest city in Egypt at the time), were the largest obelisks to have been erected by Ramses II (others were set up at temples in Heliopolis and Tanis).
Obelisks were popular among the Roman emperors so much so that 13 of them were taken to Rome. Today, in addition to that in Paris and the Cleopatra’s Needles in London and New York, historic Egyptian examples are also found in Florence in Italy.
Mediating between the Egypt and France was Jean-Francois Champollion, first decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and curator of Egyptian collections at the Louvre Museum. Dying in 1832, he never had the chance to see the completion of his work.
Through the efforts of Jean Baptiste Apollinaire Lebas, the two ancient obelisks were presented as a gift to King Charles X. However, King Charles X had already abdicated from the throne, even before the first of the two obelisks was even destined to arrive in Paris, and King Louis Philippe took over.
Only the right-hand obelisk in Luxor Temple was transported and erected. The left-hand obelisk remained in its location in Egypt as President Francois Mitterand, on September 26, 1981, renounced the French claim to second Luxor obelisk as a symbolic gesture and one of peace between nations.
The original sculpted Egyptian pedestal (both obelisks had identical pedestals), which included the statues of 16 fully sexed carved baboons raising their legs, revealing their sexes (at dawn, ancient Egyptians observed baboons in nature making such a gesture and interpreted this as the animals ‘adoring’ the sun), was deemed too obscene for public exhibition. It is now displayed in the Egyptian section of the Musée du Louvre. A block of granite for the new pedestal was ordered in Brest.
To transport the monolith, the 49 m. long, specially designed, purpose-built, flat bottomed and 3-masted barge Louqsor (the first naval steamer), a seagoing freighter, was built by the Toulon naval yard to be able to navigate the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, sail up the Seine and the Nile, and pass under the bridges of Paris.
In Luxor, 300 workmen dug a canal to allow the Louqsor to come close to the obelisk. After packing and felling the monolith, it had to be dragged for 400 m. to join the Nile.
To lift the obelisk at the Place de Concorde, a counterweight system was developed by engineer Apollinaire Lebas, with 350 gunners operating the lift, with the strength of their arms, while the engineer remains voluntarily under the obelisk.
The successful French transport operation of the obelisk (a 9,000-km. journey that lasted seven long years), not an easy engineering feat as the effort, manpower and expertise was tremendous. It predates, by more than 30 years, the eventful transport of Cleopatra’s Needle by the British.
The large mechanical clock, offered in 1845 by King Louis Philippe in exchange for the obelisk, was discovered to be faulty, having probably been damaged during transport. The still not working clock exists in a clock-tower in a mosque at the top of the Cairo Citadel.
Compared to the rest of this old monument, the new and shiny pyramidion makes it now known as the most cheerful obelisk in the world for what it represents.
In the Star Trek novels, the Place de la Concorde is the location of the offices of the President and the Council of the United Federation of Planets.

The 3,000 year-old, so-called Luxor Obelisk (French: Obélisque de Louxor), of yellow granite and inscribed with hieroglyphs in honor of the Pharaoh Ramesses II, is one of a pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks carved to stand either side of the portal of the Luxor Temple.

The Luxor Obelisk

Flanked on both sides by fountains (Fontaine des Mers and Fontaine des Fleuves) constructed at the time of its erection, the Paris obelisk rises 22.83 m. (74.9 ft,) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 metric tons (280 short tons). Its hieroglyphics depict the rule of Ramses II and Ramses III.

The obelisk’s pedestal

Its present-day pedestal , originally intended for the equestrian statue of King Louis XVI, is now with drawn gilded diagrams explaining the procedures and the complex machinery and different devices that were used for the transportation and erection on the square (just as the pedestal of the Obelisk of Theodosius has relief carvings showing that ancient Egyptian obelisk’s re-erection in Constantinople).

Check out “Louvre Museum” and “Louvre Museum – Egyptian Antiquities Department”

Hôtel Crillon, north of the obelisk, was where Marie Antoinette, in happier times, took piano lessons and where, in 1778, France signed a treaty (first in the world) recognizing a free and independent United States of America.

The new pyramidion of the obelisk

Place de la Concorde: 75008 Paris, France.

How to Get There:

Concorde, the nearest Métro station, is located beneath the Place de la Concorde, at the beginning of the Rue de Rivoli, next to the Jardin des Tuileries. It serves Lines 1, 8 and 12. Walking in a northerly direction gets you to the Madeleine stop that serves lines 8, 12 and 14 while walking in a westerly direction, up the famous Avenue des Champs Elysees, you have the Champs-Elysees – Clemenceau stop serving Lines 1 and 13.
Several Bus Lines that gets you close by to this historical monument including 24, 42, 72, 73, 84, 94 along with the Noctilien Night Bus Service via lines N11 and N24. However, the nearest RER train station is the Invalides stop on the left bank of the River Seine, which serves the RER C Line.24, 42, 52, 72, 73, 84, 94.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

After our all morning tour of the Louvre and lunch at an outdoor café, we made our way, by foot, to the Bateaux Parisiens boat docking station, near the Eiffel Tower, where we were to embark on a Seine River Cruise. We passed a number of Paris landmarks along the way. The first was the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a triumphal arch derivative of the triumphal arches of the Roman Empire; in particular that of Septimius Severus in Rome.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Located in the Place du Carrousel, it was designed by Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine and was built between 1806 and 1808, on the model of the Arch of Constantine (312 AD) in Rome, by Emperor Napoleon I as an entrance of honor of the Tuileries Palace, the Imperial residence, and to commemorate his diplomatic and military victories of the previous year. The more famous Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, across from the Champs Élysées and designed in the same year, is about twice as massive but was not completed until 1836.

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is located at the eastern end of Paris Axe historique (“historic axis”), a 9-km. long linear route which dominates much of the northwestern quadrant of the city. It is, in effect, the backbone of the Right Bank. Looking west, the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the centerline of the grand boulevard Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe at the Place de l’Étoile, and, although it is not directly visible from the Place du Carrousel, the Grande Arche de la Défense. Thus, the axis begins and ends with an arch.

Bas-relief of The Battle of Austerlitz

When the Arc du Carrousel was built, however, an observer in the Place du Carrousel was impeded from any view westward as the central part of the Palais des Tuileries intervened to block the line of sight to the west. When the Tuileries was burned down during the Paris Commune in 1871, and its ruins were swept away, the great axis, as it presently exists, an unobstructed view west was opened all the way to the Place du Carrousel, the Louvre and the more famous Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile. Also, with the disappearance of the palace, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel also became the dominant feature of the Place du Carrousel.

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel seen from the Louvre

This monument is 19 m. (63 ft.) high, 23 m. (75 ft.) wide and 7.5 m. (24 ft.) deep. Its 6.4 m. (21 ft.) high central arch is flanked by two smaller ones, 4.3 m. (14 ft.) high, and 2.7 m. (9 ft.) wide. An example of Corinthian style of architecture, around its exterior are 8 marble Corinthian columns topped by an entablature whose upper frieze has sculptures of 8 soldiers of the Empire: Auguste Marie Taunay‘s cuirassier, Charles-Louis Corbet‘s dragoon, Joseph Chinard‘s horse grenadier and Jacques-Edme Dumont‘s sapper.

Statue of a dragoon

On the pediment, between the soldiers, are bas-reliefs, executed in rose marble, whose subjects are devoted to the battles of Napoleon and were selected by Vivant Denon, the director of the Napoleon Museum (located at the time in the Louvre), and designed by Charles Meynier. They depict:

the Arms of the Kingdom of Italy with figures representing History and the Arts
the Arms of the French Empire with Victory, Fame, History, and Abundance
Wisdom and Strength holding the arms of the Kingdom of Italy, accompanied by Prudence and Victory.
the Peace of Pressburg
Napoleon entering Munich
Napoleon entering Vienna (sculptor: Louis-Pierre Deseine)
the Battle of Austerlitz (sculptor: Jean-Joseph Espercieux)
the Tilsit Conference
the surrender of Ulm (sculptor: Pierre Cartellier)

It was originally surmounted by the so-called Horses of Saint Mark that adorned the top of the main door of the St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, which had been captured in 1798 by Napoleon. In 1815, following the Battle of Waterloo and the Bourbon restoration, France ceded the quadriga to the Austrian empire which had annexed Venice under the terms of the Congress of Vienna. The Austrians immediately returned the statuary to Venice.

Quadriga of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

The horses of Saint Mark were replaced in 1828 by a quadriga, atop the entablature, sculpted by Baron François Joseph Bosio, depicting Peace riding in a triumphal chariot led by gilded Victories on both sides. The composition commemorates the Restoration of the Bourbons following Napoleon’s downfall. The Arc du Carrousel inspired the design of Marble Arch, constructed in London between 1826 and 1833.

Tuileries Garden (Paris, France)

Posted on 24 August, 2015 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Tuileries Garden

The Tuileries Garden (French: Jardin des Tuileries), a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, a place where ordinary Parisians celebrated, met, strolled, relaxed, enjoyed the fresh air and greenery and be entertained.

Check out “Louvre Museum” and “Place de la Concorde“

The name of the garden, as well the Tuileries Palace (burned in 1870 during the uprising of the Paris Commune), was derived from the tile-making factories called tuileries (from the French tuile, meaning “tile”) which once occupied the area since the 13th century.

View of Eiffel Tower from the gardens

Here is the historical timeline of the garden:

In 1564, Queen Catherine de Medici commissioned Bernard de Carnesse, a landscape architect from Florence, to create an Italian Renaissance garden (the largest and most beautiful garden in Paris at the time) in an enclosed space 500 m. long and 300 m. wide, separated from the new Tuileries Palace by a lane. It was to have fountains, a labyrinth, a grotto and was decorated with faience images of plants and animals, made by Bernard Palissy, whom Catherine had tasked to discover the secret of Chinese porcelain. Six alleys divided it into rectangular compartments which were planted with lawns, flower beds, and small clusters of five trees (called quinconces) and, more practically, with kitchen gardens and vineyards. Catherine used this garden for lavish royal festivities honoring ambassadors from Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the marriage of her daughter, Marguerite de Valois, to Henri III of Navarre (better known as Henry IV, King of France and of Navarre).
In 1588, after King Henry III was forced to flee Paris, the gardens fell into disrepair.
Henry IV (1589–1610), his successor, and his gardener, Claude Mollet, restored the gardens. They built a covered promenade the length of the garden, and a parallel alley planted with mulberry trees (where he hoped to cultivate silkworms and start a silk industry in France). He also built a rectangular, 65 m. by 45 m. ornamental lake of with a fountain supplied with water by the new pump called La Samaritaine (built in 1608 on the Pont Neuf). The area between the palace and the former moat of Charles V was turned into the “New Garden” (Jardin Neuf) with a large fountain in the center. Henry IV used the gardens for relaxation and exercise.
In 1610, at the death of his father, the Tuileries Gardens became the enormous playground of 9 year old Louis XIII who used it for hunting and where he kept a menagerie of animals. On the north side of the gardens, Marie de’ Medici established a riding school, stables and a covered manege for exercising horses. The gardens were turned into a pleasure spot for the nobility when the king and court were absent from Paris.
In 1630, a former rabbit warren and kennel, at the west rampart of the garden, was made into a flower-lined promenade and cabaret (where the daughter of Gaston d’Orléans and the niece of Louis XIII, known as La Grande Mademoiselle, held a sort of court). The “New Garden” of Henry IV (the present-day Carousel) became known as the “Parterre de Mademoiselle.”
In 1652, “La Grande Mademoiselle” was expelled from the chateau and garden for having supported the Fronde, an uprising against her cousin, the young Louis XIV.
In 1662, to celebrate the birth of his first child, Louis XIV held a vast pageant of mounted courtiers in the New Garden (enlarged by filling in Charles V’s moat and had been turned into a parade ground). Thereafter, the square was known as the Place du Carrousel.
In 1664, Colbert, the king’s superintendent of buildings, commissioned the landscape architect André Le Nôtre (the grandson of Pierre Le Nôtre, one of Catherine de’ Medici’s gardeners, and his father Jean had also been a gardener at the Tuileries), to redesign the entire garden. Le Nôtre immediately began transforming the Tuileries into a formal jardin à la française (a style he had first developed at Vaux-le-Vicomte and perfected at Versailles), based on symmetry, order and long perspectives.
In 1667, at the request of Charles Perrault (the famous author of Sleeping Beautyand other fairy tales), the Tuileries Garden was eventually opened to the public (with the exception of beggars, “lackeys” and soldiers). It was the first royal garden to be open to the public.
In 1682, furious with the Parisians for resisting his authority, the king abandoned Paris and moved to Versailles. The garden was abandoned for nearly forty years.
In 1719, La Renommée and Mercure, two large equestrian statuary groups by the sculptor Antoine Coysevox, were brought from the king’s residence at Marly and placed at the west entrance of the garden. Along the Grande Allée, other statues by Nicolas Coustou and Guillaume Coustou the Elder, Corneille Van Clève, Sebastien Slodz, Thomas Regnaudin and Antoine Coysevox were placed. To make access to the garden easier, a swing bridge was placed at the west end over the moat. A grand vestibule to the garden was created with the place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde). Certain holidays, such as August 25, the feast day of Saint Louis, were celebrated with concerts and fireworks in the park.
On October 6, 1789, as the French Revolution began, King Louis XVI was brought against his will to the Tuileries Palace and the garden was closed to the public except in the afternoon. A part of the garden, first at the west end of the Promenade Bord d’eaux, then at the edge of the Place Louis XV, was given for the private use of Queen Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin.
On the evening of September 18, 1791, after the king’s failed attempt to escape France and during the festival organized to celebrate the new French Constitution, when the alleys of the park were illuminated with pyramids and rows of lanterns, the royal family was allowed to walk in the park.
On August 10, 1792, a mob stormed the Tuileries Palace and the king’s Swiss guards were chased through the gardens and massacred.
After the king’s removal from power and execution, the Tuileries became the National Garden (Jardin National) of the new French Republic.
In 1794, the painter Jacques-Louis David, and to his brother in law, the architect August Cheval de Saint-Hubert were assigned the renewal of the gardens by the new government, conceiving a garden decorated with Roman porticos, monumental porches, columns, and other classical decoration. The project was never completed and all that remains today are the two exedres, semicircular low walls crowned with statues by the two ponds in the center of the garden. While David’s project was not finished, large numbers of statues from royal residences were brought to the gardens for display. The garden was also used for revolutionary holidays and festivals.
On June 8, 1794, Robespierre organized a ceremony in the Tuileries in honor of the Cult of the Supreme Being, with sets and costumes designed by Jacques-Louis David. After a hymn written for the occasion, Robespierre set fire to mannequins representing Atheism, Ambition, Egoism and False Simplicity, revealing a statue of Wisdom.
In 1780, public toilets were added.
On December 1, 1783, a famous early balloon ascent, by Jacques Alexandre César Charlesand Nicolas Louis Robert, was made from the garden. Small food stands were placed in the park, and chairs could be rented for a small fee.
On April 2, 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte used the garden as passage of his own wedding procession when he married the Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria.
After the fall of Napoleon, the garden briefly became the encampment of the occupying Austrian and Russian soldiers.
After the restoration of the monarchy, and the new King Charles X renewed an old tradition and celebrated the feast day of Saint Charles in the garden.
In 1830, after a brief revolution, the new king Louis-Philippe, wanting a private garden within the Tuileries, separated a section of the garden in front of the palace with a fence, decorating the new private garden with a small moat, flower beds and eight new statues by sculptors of the period.
In 1852, following another revolution and the short-lived Second Republic, the new Emperor Louis Napoleon enlarged his private reserve within the garden further to the west as far as the north–south alley that crossed the large round basin, so that included the two small round basins. His new garden was decorated with beds of exotic plants and flowers and new statues.
In 1859, Louis Napoleon made the Terrasse du bord-de-l’eau into a playground for his son, the Prince Imperial. He also constructed the Jeu de paume and the Orangerie, twin pavilions at the west end of the garden and built, at the west entrance, a new stone balustrade. From May to November, when The Emperor was not in Paris, the entire garden, including his private garden and the playground, were usually open to the public.
In 1883, the ruins of the burnt out palace were torn and the empty site, between the two pavilions of the Louvre, became part of the garden.
At the 1900 Summer Olympics, the Gardens hosted the fencing
In the years between the two World Wars, the Jeu de paume tennis court was turned into a gallery, its western part was used to display the Water Lilies series of paintings by Claude Monet. The Orangerie became an art gallery for contemporary western art.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the Tuilieries Garden was filled with entertainments for the public (acrobats, puppet theaters, lemonade stands, small boats on the lakes, donkey rides, and stands selling toys).
In 1914, during the First World War, the statues in the garden were surrounded by sandbags.
In 1918, two German long-range artillery shells landed in the garden.
During the German Occupation of World War II (1940 to 1944), the Jeu de paume was used by the Germans as a depot for storing art they stole or expropriated from Jewish families.
In 1927, the Jeu de Paume became an annex of the Luxembourg Palace Museum for the display of contemporary art from outside France.
In 1944, the liberation of Paris saw considerable fighting in the garden and, during the battle, Monet’s paintings Water Lilies were seriously damaged.
From 1947 until 1986, the Jeu de Paume served as the Musée du Jeu de Paume, which held many important Impressionist works now housed in the Musée d’Orsay.
In 1964–65, André Malraux (the Minister of Culture for President Charles de Gaulle) removed the 19th century statues which surrounded the Place du Carrousel and replaced them with contemporary sculptures by Aristide Maillol.
In 1994, as part of the Grand Louvre project launched by President François Mitterrand, the Belgian landscape architect Jacques Wirtz remade the garden of the Carrousel, adding labyrinths and a fan of low hedges radiating from the triumphal arch in the square.
In 1995, the Jardin du Carrousel was remade to showcase a collection of 21 statues by Aristide Maillol, which had been put in the Tuileries in 1964.
In 1998, under President Jacques Chirac, works of modern sculpture by Jean Dubuffet, Henri Laurens, Étienne Martin, Henry Moore, Germaine Richier, Auguste Rodin and David Smith were placed in the garden.
In 2000, the works of living artists (Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, Tony Cragg, Roy Lichtenstein, François Morrellet, Giuseppe Penone, Anne Rochette and Lawrence Weiner) were added. At the same time, another ensemble of three works by Daniel Dezeuze, Erik Dietman and Eugène Dodeigne, called Prière Toucher (Eng: Please Touch), was added.
At the beginning of the 21st century, French landscape architects Pascal Cribier and Louis Benech have been working to restore some of the early features of the André Le Nôtre garden.

Check out “Musee d’Orsay“

The Grand Carré (Large Square), the eastern, open part of the Tuilieries Garden, still follows the formal plan of the Garden à la française created in the 17th century by André Le Nôtre. The eastern part, surrounding the round pond, was the private garden, separated from the rest of the Tuileries by a fence, of Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. Most of its statues were put in place in the 19th century.

Statue of Diane Chasseresse (Louis-Auguste Levesque)

Nymphe (1866) and Diane Chasseresse (Diana the Huntress) (1869), both done by Louis Auguste Lévêque, marks the beginning of the central allée which runs east-west through the park.

Statue of Nymphe (Louis-Auguste Levesque)

Tigre terrassant un crocodile (Tiger overwhelming a crocodile, 1873) and Tigresse portant un paon à ses petits (Tigress bringing a peacock to her young, 1873), both by Auguste Cain, are located by the two small round ponds.

The large round pond is surrounded by statues on themes from antiquity, allegory, and ancient mythology and in violent poses alternating with those in serene poses. On the south side, starting from the east entrance of the large round pond, they are:

La Misère (Misery) by Jean-Baptiste Hugues (1905)
Périclès distribuant les couronnes aux artistes (Pericles Giving Crowns to Artists) by Jean-Baptiste Debay Pėre (1835)
Le Bon Samaritain (The Good Samaritan) by François Sicard (1896)
Alexandre Combattant (Alexander Fighting) by Charles Nanteuil (1836)
Cincinnatus by Denis Foyatier (1834)
Médée by Paul Jean Baptiste Gasq (1896)

The Good Samaritan (François Sicard)

On the north side, starting at the west entrance to the pond, they are:

Le Serment de Spartacus (The Oath of Spartacus) by Louis Ernest Barrias (1869)
La Comédie by Julien Toussaint Roux (1874)
Le Centaur Nessus enlevant Dėjanire (The Centaur Nessus Carrying Off Dejanire) by Laurent Honoré Marqueste (1892)
Thésée combattant le Minotaure (Theseus Fighting the Minotaur) by Étienne-Jules Ramey (1821)
Cassandre se met sous la protection de Pallas by Aimé Miller (1877)
Caïn venant de tuer son frère Abel (Cain After Killing His Brother Abel) by Henri Vidal (1896)

The Centaur Nessus Carrying Off Dejanire (Laurent Honoré Marqueste)

Le Grand Couvert, the part of the garden covered with trees, has two cafes named after two famous cafes once located in the garden – the Café Very (which had been on the Terrace des Feuiillants in the 18th–19th century) and the Café Renard (which in the 18th century had been a popular meeting place on the western terrace).

The Oath of Spartacus (Louis Ernest Barrias)

It also contains the two exedras (low curving walls built to display statues which survived from the French Revolution), built in 1799 by Jean Charles Moreau (as part of a larger unfinished project designed by painter Jacques-Louis David in 1794), now decorated with plaster casts of moldings on mythological themes from the park of Louis XIV at Marly.

Pericles Giving Crowns to Artists (Jean-Baptiste Debay Pėre)

The Grand Couvert also contains a number of important works of the 20th century and contemporary sculpture, including:

Apollon, (about 1933) by Paul Belmondo
Jeanette (about 1933) by Paul Belmondo
La Grande Musicienne (1937) by Henri Laurens
L’Échiquier, Grand (1959) by Germaine Richier
Primo Piano II (1962) by David Smith
Personnages III (1967) by Étienne Martin
Brushstroke Nude(1993) by Roy Lichtenstein
Force et Tendresse (1996) by Eugène Dodeigne
Manus Ultimus, (1997) by Magdalena Abakanowicz
L’Ami de personne, (1999) by Erik Dietman
Confidence(2000) by Daniel Dezeuze
Arbre des voyelles, (2000) by Giuseppe Penone
Un, deux, tros, nous(2000) by Anne Rochette

The Standing Woman (Gaston Lachaise)

The Orangerie (Musée de l’Orangerie), built in 1852 by the architect Firmin Bourgeois, is located at the west end of the garden, close to the Seine River. Since 1927, it has displayed many large examples of Claude Monet‘s Water Lilies series as well as the Walter-Guillaume collection of Impressionist painting.

Bassin Octogonal

On the terrace are four works of sculpture by Auguste Rodin: Le Baiser (1881–1898); Eve (1881) and La Grande Ombre (1880) and La Meditation avc bras (1881–1905). It also has a modern work, Grand Commandement blanc (1986) by Alain Kirili.

The partially installed Roue de Paris, a 60-m. (200-ft.) tall transportable Ferris wheel, originally installed on the Place de la Concorde for the 2000 millennium celebrations.

The Jardin du Carrousel, also known as the Place du Carrousel, is the part of the garden that used to be enclosed by the two wings of the Louvre and by the Tuileries Palace. In the 18th century it was used as a parade ground for cavalry and other festivities. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, its central feature, was built to celebrate the victories of Napoleon, with bas-relief sculptures of his battles by Jean Joseph Espercieux.

Check out “Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel”

La Comédie (Julien Toussaint Roux)

The elevated Terrasse (terrace), between the Carrousel and the rest of the garden, used to be at the front of the Tuileries Palace which, after the Palace was burned in 1870, was made into a road, which was put underground in 1877. The terrace is decorated by two large vases which used to be in the gardens of Versailles, and two statues by Aristide Maillol; the Monument to Cézanne on the north and the Monument aux morts de Port Vendres on the south.

From the Terrasse, two stairways descend to the moat named for Charles V of France, (who rebuilt the Louvre in the 14th century), part of the old fortifications which originally surrounded the palace. On the west side are traces left by the fighting during the unsuccessful siege of Paris by Henry IV of France in 1590 during the French Wars of Religion.

Since 1994, the moat has been decorated with statues from the facade of the old Tuileries Palace and with bas-reliefs made in the 19th century during the Restoration of the French monarchy which were meant to replace the Napoleonic bas-reliefs on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, but were never put in place.

The Jeu de Paume (Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume), built in 1861 by the architect Viraut, was enlarged in 1878. Today, it is used for exhibits of modern and contemporary art. On the terrace in front of the Jeu de Paume is the Le Bel Costumé (1973), a work of sculpture by Jean Dubuffet.

Tuileries Garden: 1st arrondissement, Paris, France

This travel blog, a diary of the author’s local and international travels, aims to provide the reader with news and information on people, places and events that would interest the avid traveler and tourist. But, it also aims to be much more, providing insights on the wonders of this beautiful country, as well as the world, beyond the strict confines of the city. Have a BLAST seeing old churches, exotic temples, educational museums as well as palm-fringed islands; white sand beaches; thundering waterfalls; placid lakes; fiery sunsets; turquoise seas; cathedral-like caves; swirling rivers; majestic mountains; stupendous, amphitheater-like rice terraces; awesome volcanoes and the like. Get to know the movers and shakers in the tourism industry; find out where to titillate the palate; rejuvenate your body; feed your adrenalin, unwind and relax; satisfy your craving for history and culture; and find out what's being celebrated and where.

BENJAMIN “BENJIE” LAYUG, an architect by profession (he finished his B. S. Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1982), is also a copy editor for two publishing houses; travel writer; blogger; architectural historian; author; concert. movie and musical reviewer (for www.pep.ph); and a motivational speaker.

As a free-lance travel writer, he has, in the past, contributed articles to Travel Update, Philippine Daily Inquirer, COLORS, TODAY, 7107 Islands Magazine, Business Day and Bluprint. He currently writes for Artplus Magazine and the Business Mirror.

He is also the author of the following travel books:

A Philippine Odyssey (New Day Publishers, 2005)
Pathfinder’s Travel Guide: Boracay (Great Books Trading, 2006)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Churches (New Day Publishers, 2007)
A Tourist to Notable Philippine Historical Landmarks, Monuments and Shrines (New Day Publishers, 2010)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Museums (New Day Publishers, 2012)

Some of his books now appear in the local library shelves of the National Library of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Sto. Tomas, U.P. Diliman, Centro Escolar University, San Sebastian College, Miriam College, Silliman University, to name a few, as well as internationally at the National Library of Australia and the University of California Berkeley Library.

Now a senior citizen, he is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, active travel blogger in the country today. He also has a lifestyle blog called F.Y.I.:Firing Your Imagination (www.firingyourimagination.blogspot.com). Benjie has traveled to two-thirds (53) of the country’s 81 provinces and over 20 countries in 4 continents.

November 2024
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Oct
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30

November 2024
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Oct
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30