December 9, 2015 – Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art

The Hotel Sully is a royal gateway to Place des Vosges. There was an enormous palace Hotel de Tournelle at Place des Vosges back in the 1500s.
The shop arcade that runs around the park on every side.

It is the first planned park-then known as Park Royale and was built in Paris by Henry IV but the reason its inception was sad.

Henry II who built Tournelle palace died from his wounds in a jousting tournament there. His wife Catherine de Medicis had the palace razed after his death replacing it with this beloved Parisian park. Bytw Catherine knew how to hold a grudge waiting ten years to capture and kill the knight who mortally wounded her husband.

Four fountains splash in the summer while Parisians sunbathe often in their swimming suits. The buildings surrounding the park are different in that they all have the same facade. At their bases is an arcade with shops and apartments over the shops.

Sadly all the Paris fountains were turned off for the winter.

A statue of Louis 13th dominates the center of the park. A large carrousel once commermorated his marriage in the park.

A Parisian water fountain. Yes I drank from it.

Victor Hugo who saved Notre Dame with his Hunchback of Notre Dame lived here on Place des Vosges. You can still visit his abode which is now a museum.

I love the Parisian street lights. No mere pole will do for Paris!! The varieties are infinite.

Tomorrow off to the Jewish quarter of the Marais with more sightseeing on the way.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Back to Paris to the Marais. A quick trip on the metro from FDR on the fabled Champs Elysees to Place de la Bastille.

Our tour started at Place de la Bastille where the first French Revolution started on July 14, 1789. There were two more revolutions. La Bastille was an infamous prison before then.

All that is left to mark where la Bastille stood are the red cobblestones.

Off down the Rue de Sainte Antoine. Did you know the street names are posted on the buildings at each corner. You know exactly where you are.

Our first French statue Pierre-Augustine Caron de Beaumarchais was a notable early revolutionary supporting both the American and French Revolution. We owe him for acquiring the rights to Voltaire and publishing it in Germany. Banned in France Voltaire would have been lost to history’s for not for Beaumarchais. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Beaumarchais

Originally a swamp or Marais this was the Jewish section until WW 2. You know how that ended.

It was also the home to many royals before 1600. After the revolution it became a working class neighborhood. The area still has more prevolutionary buildings than the rest of Paris.

Le Nôtre. We drooled over the Patisseries. Did you know you have to have a baker with an advanced degree to use the name?
A fabulous le église aka church in the Marais.

The entrance Hotel de Sully on Saint Antoine.

The courtyard of the Hotel de Sully built in 1634. A mansion for the Duc de Sully superintendent of finances to King Henry IV. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hôtel_de_SullyThe four seasons are carved into the facades on each side.