Places, museums, monuments : 24
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Place, museum or monumentCathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris
During the ancien regime, Notre-Dame de Paris did not host great occasions. This function was performed rather by other religious edifices in the capital and surrounding area – the Sainte-Chapelle was the receptacle of the crown of thorns brought back by Saint Louis, the cathedral at Reims was used for the coronation of the kings, […]
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Place, museum or monumentPont des Arts Bridge
By a decree of 15th March 1801, Bonaparte ordered the construction of a bridge which would connect the Louvre and the Collège des Quatre-Nations, the present day Institut de France. And this work marks the introduction of a new building material, iron. An attempt had been made in Lyons but it was in Paris that […]
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Place, museum or monumentEcole Militaire – Champs-de-Mars Military School
After his schooling at Brienne, the young Bonaparte went to the Paris Ecole Militaire military school from 22nd October 1784 to 28th October 1785. He left as a second class lieutenant in the artillery, with a commission to join the La Fère regiment in Valence. In 1795 Bonaparte came back to the school to establish […]
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Place, museum or monumentPalais de Justice Law Courts, Paris
On the Ile de la Cité stands today one of the oldest and most prestigious official buildings in Paris, the Palais de Justice law courts. As far back as Roman times the site was used as a place of government, and this example was followed by the succeeding Merovingian and Capetian dynasties. As the kings […]
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Place, museum or monumentVendôme Column
“The city of Paris has a great mast, made entirely of bronze, with sculpted Victories and Napoleon as its lookout”. Such were Balzac’s words on the Vendôme column, the obelisk which throughout the 19th century was seen as the most important symbol of Paris and upon which each government attempted to make its mark. Its […]
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Place, museum or monumentBois de Boulogne
Created during the Empire, the Bois de Boulogne was a milestonefor garden and park construction in the French capital. In fact itmarked the starting point, in 1852, of the policy of the developmentof the green spaces in Paris. And the instigator of the project wasNapoleon III himself. The emperor took an interest in all the […]
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Place, museum or monumentArc de Triomphe du Carrousel – Paris
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (firmly anchored to the tradition of the ancient triumphal arches) was built by Percier and Fontaine in circa 1806 to 1808 to celebrate the Napoleonic victories of 1805, and it was originally intended as a monumental entrance to the Tuileries palace. When that palace was destroyed by fire in […]
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Place, museum or monumentMonceau Park
In 1860, the old village of Monceau (or Mousseaux) near Paris was annexed to the capital along with eleven other communes. The Monceau plain, which in those days was an immense wasteland, bordered on its outer sides by the Fermiers généraux farmland, was soon to become a giant housing development – not even “la Folie […]
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Place, museum or monumentChâtelet Fountain
In 1808, Napoleon had the head office of the military police of Paris demolished thus opening up the required space for Place Châtelet in the middle of which a fountain designed by Bralle was erected. Also called the “Palm-tree fountain”, it comprises a 70-feet high column topped by a statue representing Victory and the allegories […]
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Place, museum or monumentMontsouris Park
It was as a result of Napoleon III's policy of creating, in Paris, urban green space at the four points of the compass that the Montsouris park was built on the plain of the same name between 1867 and 1878. The name Montsouris is a corruption of the word Moquesouris (mouse mocker), the ancient name […]