The Luxembourg Palace, an Italian-style palazzo.
The Luxembourg Palace is the current seat of the Senate. Ordered to be built by the widow of Enrique IV, Maria de' Medici , his style fuses Florentine architecture, with the Palazzo Pitti as a source of inspiration, and French architecture, with impeccable finishes. It was in his gardens, one of the most beautiful and beloved in Paris , where Victor Hugo places Mario's meeting with Jean Valjean and Cosette in The Miserables.
The park's green metal chairs provide a privileged position to observe , with the senate as a backdrop, a perfect microcosm of Parisian society : residents, tourists, students, flirts, morning runners, children playing with the boats in the fountain, people walking their dogs and chess, petanque and tennis players).
In the gardens, you will come across the observatory fountain or of the Four Parts of the World, the work of the sculptor Jean Baptiste Carpeaux and whose original is kept today in the Musée d'Orsay, created to represent the continents of the earth. But something is wrong, because there are only four women with their hair in the wind who support the orb of the world, the answer was simple for their predecessors, Oceania would be set aside to maintain the symmetry of the work, like that, without any shame. Which does not mean that it is one of the most beautiful fountains in Paris.
Today is a source, the source of Maria de' Medici , but it was not projected as such, but as a grotto for the palace of the Italian lady, queen of France by marriage. Known at the time as the luxembourg grotto , is the only element of the original garden of the palatial complex that still survives. The pond was added in the mid-19th century, giving it its current appearance.
Map: See map
Address: 15, rue de Vaugirard 75291 Paris See map
Telephone: 33 (0)1 42.34.20.00
Schedule: The sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are public.
Guy: Historic building
Official Web: Go to the web