Tuesday: June 22
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
You can't really understand the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel without knowing about the Place du Carrousel. So first we talk about he Place, then the Arc. The Arc is one of the tree main Arcs in Paris, there are several others. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is one of three on teh axis formed by this arc, then the Pyramid at Concord, then the Arc de Triomphe Etoil, and then the Grand Arc in La Defense. One straight line. Most famous for this arc is the four horses of Saint Mark on top. A very nice monument.
The Elysee Palace is the home of the President. It has an interesting history which you can read about below. From the street you cannot see it; the best view is from the back where you can look through the gates, past the cars, to the palace. Anyway, this is the entrance for most and thus is the usual hangout for the tourists trying ot get a picture. The Palace is opened one day a year to allow the locals to see how their government lives....there are some pictures from our visit at that time.
The Chapelle explatoire is a marvelous little chapel that was the temporary resting place of Marie Antoinette (and her husband). It is in a small park and is a delightful place to visit and relax. It is simply beautiful and is considered a very very fine example of French architecture. Enjoy!
Place du Carrousel
The Place du Carrousel (ka-ru-zel) is a public square located at the open end of
the courtyard of the Louvre museum, a space occupied, prior to 1871, by the
Tuileries Palace. Sitting directly between the museum and the Tuileries Garden,
the Place du Caroussel delineates the eastern end of the gardens just as the
Place de la Concorde defines its western end.
The name "carrousel" refers to a type of military dressage, an equine
demonstration now commonly called military drill. The Place du Carrousel was
named in 1662, when it was used for such a display by Louis XIV.
On 5 October 1789, a mob from Paris descended upon
Versailles and forced the royal family — Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their
children, along with the comte de Provence (later king Louis XVIII), his wife,
and Madame Elisabeth, the youngest sister of the king — to move to Paris under
the watchful eye of the Garde Nationale. The king and queen were installed in
the Tuileries Palace under surveillance.
On 20 June 1792, "a mob of terrifying aspect" broke
into the Tuileries and made the king wear the bonnet rouge (red Phrygian cap) to
show his loyalty to France.
The vulnerability of the king was exposed on 10 August of
that year when an armed mob, on the verge of forcing its way into the Tuileries
Palace, forced the king and the royal family to seek refuge at the Legislative
Assembly. An hour and a half later, the palace was invaded by the mob. They
massacred the Swiss Guards, who fought with blind dedication and desperation.
Some seven hundred were killed.
On 13 August, the royal family was imprisoned in the
tower of the Temple in the Le Marais district, under conditions considerably
harsher than their previous confinement in the Tuileries.
On 21 August 1792, the guillotine was erected in the Place du Carrousel, and it
remained there, with two short interruptions, until 11 May 1793. In total,
thirty-five people were guillotined there.
On 2 August 1793, at the former site of the guillotine, a wooden pyramid was
constructed as a tribute to Jean-Paul Marat. It bore an inscription: "To the
spirit of the late Marat, 13 July, year I. From his underground tomb, he still
makes the traitors tremble. A treacherous hand thwarted the affections of the
people." There was also an exhibit of the famous hip bath of Marat and his desk
where some of his most impassioned polemics were drafted. These items stayed in
place until 9 Thermidor Year II (28 July 1794).
During the revolution of 1848, the Tuileries Palace was looted and severely
damaged by rioters. On 23 May 23 1871, during the suppression of the Paris
Commune, twelve men under the orders of a Communard, Dardelle, set the Tuileries
on fire at seven in the evening, using petroleum, liquid tar, and turpentine.
The fire lasted for forty-eight hours and entirely consumed the palace. The
ruins of the Tuileries stood on the site for eleven years. In 1882, the French
National Assembly voted for the demolition of the ruins, and, despite much
contrary sentiment, this was accomplished in 1883. The salvageable remains of
the building were sold to a private entrepreneur.
Once the palace had been cleared away, the ground, which had been known as the
"Place du Carrousel" since 1662, could, once again, be used as a public square.
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
With the disappearance of the palace, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, built
between 1806 and 1808 to serve as an entrance of honor at the Tuileries, became
the dominant feature of the Place du Carrousel. It is a triumphal arch that was
commissioned in 1806 to commemorate Napoleon's military victories of the
previous year. The more famous Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile nearby was designed
in the same year, but it took thirty years to build, and it is about twice as
massive.
The monument is 63 feet (19 m) high, 75 feet (23 m) wide, and 24 feet (7.3 m)
deep. The 21 feet (6.4 m) high central arch is flanked by two smaller ones, 14
feet (4.3 m) high. Around its exterior are eight Corinthian columns of granite,
topped by eight soldiers of the Empire. On the pediment, between the soldiers,
bas-reliefs 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.
Napoleon's diplomatic and military victories are commemorated by bas-reliefs
executed in rose marble. They depict the Peace of Pressburg, Napoleon entering
Munich, Napoleon entering Vienna, the Battle of Austerlitz, the Tilsit
Conference, and the surrender of Ulm.
The arch is, of course, derivative of the triumphal arches of the Roman Empire;
in particular that of Septimius Severus in Rome. The subjects of the bas-reliefs
devoted to the battles were selected by the director of the Napoleon Museum
(located at the time in the Louvre), Vivant Denon, and designed by Charles
Meynier.
The quadriga atop the arch is a copy of the so-called
Horses of Saint Mark that adorn the top of the main door of the St Mark's
Basilica in Venice.
It was originally surmounted by the famous horses of
Saint Mark's Cathedral 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 its original place in Venice. The horses were replaced in 1828 by a quadriga
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 de Triomphe du Carrousel is at the eastern end of the so-called Axe
historique ("grand historic axis") of Paris, a nine-kilometre-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. When the Arc du Carrousel was built, however, an observer
in the Place du Carrousel was impeded from any view westward. The central block
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 (1871) and its ruins
were swept away, the great axis, as it presently exists, was opened all the way
to the Place du Carrousel and the Louvre.
Click here to see other pictures....
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace (French: Palais de l'Élysée is the official residence of the
President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the
Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Important foreign visitors are hosted at the nearby Hôtel de Marigny, a palatial
residence. The Élysée has gardens, in which the president hosts a party on the
afternoon of Bastille Day.
The architect Armand-Claude Mollet possessed a property fronting on the road to
the village of Roule, west of Paris (now the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré), and
backing onto royal property, the Grand Cours through the Champs-Élysées. He sold
this in 1718 to Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, comte d'Évreux (families:
ducs and princes de Bouillon et Sedan: de la Marck | von der Marck), with the
agreement that Mollet would construct an hôtel particulier for the count,
fronted by an entrance court and backed by a garden. The Hôtel d'Évreux was
finished and decorated by 1722, and though it has undergone many modifications
since, it remains a fine example of the French classical style. At the time of
his death in 1753, Évreux was the owner of one of the most widely admired houses
in Paris, and it was bought by King Louis XV as a residence for the Marquise de
Pompadour, his mistress. Opponents showed their distaste for the regime by
hanging signs on the gates that read: "Home of the King's whore". After her
death, it reverted to the crown.
In 1773, it was purchased by Nicolas Beaujon, banker to the
Court and one of the richest men in France, who needed a suitably sumptuous
"country house" (for the city of Paris did not yet extend this far) to house his
fabulous collection of great masters paintings. To this end, he hired the
architect Étienne-Louis Boullée to make substantial alterations to the buildings
(as well as design an English-style garden).
His architectural alterations and art galleries gave
this residence international renown as "one of the premier houses of Paris".
Beaujon owned it until the year of his death, when he transferred the property
to King Louis XVI.
During the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, the building receded in
importance, becoming a furniture warehouse, then a print factory, then a dance
hall. Russian Cossacks camped at the Élysée when they occupied Paris in 1814.
Though it was first officially used by the government of Napoleon Bonaparte, the
Hôtel d'Évreux was formally purchased for Louis XVIII in 1816. Under the
provisional government of the Second Republic, it took the name of the Élysée
National and was designated the official residence of the President of the
Republic. (The President also has the use of several other official residences,
including the Château de Rambouillet, forty five kilometres southwest of Paris,
and the Fort de Brégançon near Marseille.)
In 1853, following his coup d'état that ended the Second
Republic, Napoléon III charged the architect Joseph-Eugène Lacroix with
renovations; meanwhile he moved to the nearby Tuileries Palace, but kept the
Élysée as a discreet place to meet his mistresses, moving between the two
palaces through a secret underground passage that has since been demolished.
Since
Lacroix completed his work in 1867, the essential look of the Palais de l'Élysée
has remained the same.
In 1873, during the Third Republic, The Élysée became the official presidential
residence.
The Élysée Palace was closed in June 1940, and remained empty during World War
II. It was reoccupied only in 1946 by Vincent Auriol, President of the
Provisional Government, then first President of the Fourth Republic from 1947 to
1954.
Click here to see other pictures....
Click here to see other pictures....
Chapelle expiatoire
The Chapelle expiatoire ("Expiatory Chapel") is a chapel located in the eighth
arrondissement, of Paris, France. It was designed in 1816 by the French
Neo-Classical architect Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, who, with his partner
Charles Percier, had recently figured among the favourite architects of
Napoleon. Fontaine's assistant Louis-Hippolyte Lebas oversaw the construction.
The chapel was constructed at the behest of King Louis XVIII on the grounds of
the former Madeleine Cemetery where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette
had been buried. Three thousand victims of the French Revolution are buried in
the chapel grounds.
The body of King Louis XVI of France, decapitated on 21 January 1793, was taken
to the Madeleine cemetery in Paris and buried in a pit, covered by a layer of
quicklime. The body of Queen Marie-Antoinette, executed on 16 October 1793, was
also buried in the Madeleine cemetery. On 3 June 1802, the land in which the
bodies lay was bought by Pierre-Louis Olivier Desclozeaux, a royalist
magistrate, who had lived adjacent to the cemetery (now Square Louis XVI) since
1789. Desclozeaux had taken note of the sites where the King and Queen were
buried and surrounded them with a hedge, two weeping willows, and cypress trees.
One of the first decisions of Louis XVIII when he acceded to the throne of
France at the time of the Bourbon Restoration, was to move the remains of his
brother and sister-in-law, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, to the
necropolis of the Kings of France, the Basilica of St Denis. They were exhumed
on 18 and 19 January 1815, and moved to Saint-Denis Basilica on 20 January.
Marie Antoinette's remains were identified by an garter and a jaw, which an
eyewitness identified as being the queen's, based on having seen her smile over
thirty years before.
On 11 January 1816, Desclozeaux sold his house and the old cemetery to Louis
XVIII, who shared the 3 million livres expense of building the Chapelle
expiatoire with the Duchess of Angoulême. Construction took ten years, and the
chapel was inaugurated in 1826. On blessing the corner-stone of the Chapelle
expiatoire, Hyacinthe-Louis de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris, called in vain for
an amnesty for the exiled members of the National Convention.
The Chapelle expiatoire stands on a slight rise, surrounded by an enclosed
cloister-like precinct, a peristyle that isolates it from the outside world. The
chapel is entered through a pedimented tetrastyle portico, of a sombre Doric
order. It contains a domed space at the center of a Greek cross formed by three
coffered half-domed apses with oculi that supplement the subdued natural light
entering through the lantern of the main dome. The cubic, semicylindrical and
hemispheric volumes recall the central planning of High Renaissance churches, as
much as they do a Greco-Roman martyrium. White marble sculptures of the king and
queen in ecstatic attitudes were executed by François Joseph Bosio and
Jean-Pierre Cortot. The crypt contains a black and white marble altar intended
to mark the place where the royal remains were found.
The Chapelle expiatoire is without doubt the most uncompromising neoclassical
religious building of Paris. Chateaubriand found it "the most remarkable edifice
in Paris".
In 1862, the cypresses which surrounded the vault were cut down, and a public
park (Square Louis XVI) was created, with landscaping that delicately isolates
it from the surrounding city and the adjoining Boulevard Hausmann.
The entrance is engraved with the words:
