Saturday June 12

Place de Furstenberg & Musee Delacroix / Place de la Republic

The Place de Furstenberg is considered one of the most romatic places in Paris. A small, quaint square it has that magic touch. Perhaps it is the Paulownias trees and the special lighting given off by the five lamp street light. Whatever, it is something special. Delacroix lived here and there is a museum here in his honor. But while Delacroix is one of my favorite painters, this museum is not worth going to. Anyway, no pictures inside - but you will see some of his works in the Louvre section.

The Place de la Republic is just another square, but the Marianne monument is quite nice. You'll like it! Enjoy....

The place de Furstenberg, where Delacroix decided to live, is famous as one of the most charming squares in Paris. It is, in fact, a street, as the central island does not create a roundabout for traffic. The small square is planted with four pawlonias, which create a particularly romantic feel in the springtime, which is heightened at night by the street light with five globes.

This narrow street with its shady square of paulownias, illuminated at night by a street light with five globes, is one of the city’s most romantic settings. It was created by Cardinal Guillaume-Egon de Furstenberg in the courtyard of an abbey. Nowadays, it is home to the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix.

In the late seventeenth century, this area formed to forecourt to the abbatial palace—which is still visible at the beginning of the street. The buildings lining the square were all outbuildings. The coach houses for the carriages and the horses were on the ground floor, while the servants quarters were on the upper floors, which explains why these structures were not particularly well built.

Click here to see other pictures.

Click here to see other pictures.

Place de la République

The Place de la République is a square named after the French Republic. The Métro station of République lies beneath the square.

The location of the Place corresponds to the bastion of the gate of the Temple in the wall of Charles V (raised between 1356 and 1383). Decorated in 1811 with a fountain called the Château-d'Eau, designed by Pierre-Simon Girard, it took its current shape under the Second French Empire as part of Baron Hausmann's city renovation scheme. Most of the theatres of boulevard du Temple were demolished for this project.

The "caserne" de Prince Eugène, a military barracks later named the caserne de la Château d'Eau, then the caserne Vérines, was erected by Degrove on this site, in 1854, to replace the former summer exhibition of Wauxhall and the famous diorama where Daguerre, one of the inventors of the photograph, had given his fifteen-minute demonstrations. Built with the foresight to house 3200 men, it has, since 1947, housed the French Republican Guard.

Gabriel Davioud, Paris's official city architect, added to the square, building the Magasins réunis along its whole north side in 1866. He also built a second fountain, one decorated with bronze lions. (Girard's fountain was judged insufficient for the site, but it was salvaged and re-erected in 1867 in the market of La Villette).

In 1879, a competition, to design a great monument devoted to the newly-proclaimed Third Republic, was won by the Morice brothers, Léopold Morice for the statuary and the plaques of historic scenes, and Charles Morice, his architect brother, for the base. Two inauguration ceremonies took place, the first on 14 July 1880 with a gypsum model, and the second on 14 July 1883 with the final version in bronze.

Click here to see other pictures.

Click here to see other pictures.