u/Zestyclose-Row5415

Just wanted to share since the building photographs so well.

Built as the Hôtel de Toulouse by Mansart in the 1630s, this place belonged to Louis XIV's son before the Revolution, then Napoleon had it sold off to the Banque de France in 1808, headquarters since 1811. The Galerie Dorée is the highlight, gold leaf everywhere and ceiling paintings from Italian and French masters, some of those pieces now hang in the Louvre. Beyond the gallery it's still a working bank, desks, clocks, a bust here and there, red velvet chairs mixed in with the 17th century decor

Last weekend I got into the Sénat for Journées du Patrimoine, Palais du Luxembourg. Saw the hemicycle, the library, some offices and reception rooms.

Quick history, Marie de Médicis had it built starting in 1615 after buying the land, architect was Salomon de Brosse, and she laid the first stone herself, apparently wanted it to feel like the Palazzo Pitti back in Florence. Rubens painted two cycles for the palace, one on Marie is in the Louvre now, one on Henri IV never got finished.

It became a prison during the Revolution, around 800 people locked up, a third executed including Danton. Napoleon based himself there in 1799, then the Senate moved in and never really left, except during the German occupation in 1940.

The library ceiling is a Delacroix, took him close to ten years, done in 1846, based on Dante's Inferno. Inside the actual chamber there's seven marble statues of statesmen and Napoleon's throne is still there, sitting under a fresco of his own apotheosis.

Here are a few pictures from my adventure.

Located opposite the Saint-Médard Church, the façade at 134 Rue Mouffetard stands out for its decoration, created between 1929 and 1931 using the sgraffito technique, inherited from the Italian Renaissance.

Sgraffito consists of superimposing several layers of plaster and then scratching them in order to reveal the patterns and different colours. This technique, relatively rare in France, contributes to the architectural interest of the façade.

The decoration notably represents stags, does, wild boars and poultry, accompanied by plant motifs, arabesques and scrolls. This ornamentation originally served as the sign of the Maison Facchetti, a delicatessen and catering shop located in the building. Its owner, Facchetti, is believed to have commissioned this decoration from an Italian craftsman in order to make his business more visible on a street that was already very busy with food shops.

The façade has been listed as a Historic Monument since 31 July 1990. The former Facchetti delicatessen closed in 2001, but its façade has kept its animal decoration and remains a notable element of the heritage of Rue Mouffetard.

The Maubuée Fountain is one of the oldest fountains in Paris. The first Parisian fountains were built under Philip Augustus around 1180. The oldest ones, including the Maubuée Fountain, were on the Right Bank and used the Belleville aqueduct. The water had a good flow but was of poor quality. This is where the name Maubuée comes from, meaning "bad water, bad washing, or dirty".

The fountain we can see today has been rebuilt by Jean Beausire and his son around 1733. It has been decorated with an 18th-century bas-relief of a vase surrounded by reeds and sea plants.

For info, the fountain was originally located where the Centre Pompidou is today, but it was later dismantled in 1937 and moved to Rue de Venise. It is still there today, but the water has not flowed from the fountain for many years.

The Collège des Bernardins is one of the oldest medieval buildings in Paris. Located in the Latin Quarter, it was founded in 1245 by Étienne de Lexington to educate Cistercian monks. Construction began in 1248, and the institution became an important intellectual centre, welcoming students from across Europe. It remained an educational institution for about five centuries, until the French Revolution.

After 1790, the building was seized by the city and partly sold and destroyed. It was later used as a prison, then as archives and storage, before becoming a fire station in 1845, which remained there until 1995. Today, the Collège has been restored and is a cultural and educational centre offering free access, exhibitions, concerts, conferences, films and other events.

The building is especially remarkable for its 70-metre-long Gothic nave and its medieval architecture. It is considered a unique surviving part of the medieval University of Paris and is now a lively place with a café-restaurant, bookstore, exhibitions and garden.

https://www.collegedesbernardins.fr/

The Tour Saint-Jacques, near Châtelet, is the only piece left of a church that got torn down in the Revolution. Built in 1523 as the bell tower of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, it only made it through because it was the tallest tower on the right bank when everything else got sold off as building material in 1797. Pascal did his pressure experiments here in 1647, measuring at the top and bottom of the tower, he's even got a statue at the base now. It ended up as a pigeon refuge for a while after the church was gone, until Victor Hugo got involved and pushed for a restoration in the 1850s. 54 meters tall, roughly 300 steps, and it's UNESCO listed as part of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route.

The Buttes-Chaumont park was created on a huge 25-hectare empty area between Belleville and La Villette. Haussmann and Alphand decided to create one of the most surprising parks of the Second Empire. The name probably comes from “Monts Chauves”, which described the bare hills of Belleville.

The area had been a public dump and was also used for gypsum extraction and horse slaughter. Years of exploitation had created a very rocky and almost lunar landscape. In 1864, Haussmann and Alphand started transforming the area into a public park. The work lasted three years and required a mobile railway and locomotives to move the earth. A two-hectare lake was created, with a 30-metre-high rocky island and a small temple. There were also bridges, a waterfall and an artificial cave.

The park opened during the 1867 World’s Fair and was a success. However, after the novelty disappeared, wealthy people stopped visiting because of the nearby factories and poor areas. Workers, on the other hand, quickly adopted the park. Today, the Buttes-Chaumont is still one of the most unusual and beautiful parks in Paris.

The rue Eugène Flachat in the 17th arrondissement is basically an open-air museum of late 19th century architecture, every building on it is a different style. It's near Plaine Monceau, so when the Paris bourgeoisie moved in during the 1880s and 90s they each hired a different architect and went all out. At number 16, built in 1882 by Georges-Louis Bayard, it's full neo-Louis XIII with two little lions guarding the entrance. Number 26 is around the same era, white stone and red brick, with a lion biting into two cornucopias carved right over the door. Number 34, from 1891, is neo-Louis XIII with neo-Flemish touches, red brick and white stone, and even has a relief by sculptor Joseph Chéret above the entrance.

This building at 29 avenue Mac Mahon in the 17th was built between 1901 and 1903 by Georges Massa for Henriquez de Zubiria, an Olympic tug-of-war medalist from 1900, who reportedly asked for something loud on purpose, not another Haussmannian block. Italian Renaissance and Oriental details mixed together, heavy stone, arched windows, carved faces on the walls. A club took over in 1906 under the cover of arts and literature, then about 50 people were arrested there the next year for illegal gambling. These days it's offices, but the façade still looks like nothing else on the street.

This is Saint-Roch church, 1st arrondissement, easy to miss if you're not looking for it. It's actually one of the biggest churches in Paris (126m, behind only Notre-Dame and Saint-Sulpice). Diderot, Corneille, Le Nôtre are all buried here, earned it the nickname "parish of artists." In 1795 Napoleon's troops fired cannons at a crowd on the front steps during an uprising, you could see the bullet marks on the facade for over 200 years until they restored it. Twenty years later a mob of 5,000 people forced their way in demanding a funeral the priest had refused to give.

Tucked away in Square Félix-Desruelles, right beside the Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th arrondissement, you’ll find this beautiful Art Nouveau portico made entirely of glazed stoneware. It was designed by architect Charles-Auguste Risler and sculptor Jules Coutan for the Manufacture de Sèvres and originally stood at the French Manufactures Pavilion during the 1900 Exposition Universelle. After the exhibition, Paris moved it to this little square in 1905, where you can still see it today.

For more than a century, the Luxembourg Gardens have been the setting for countless little sailing adventures. In the heart of these 25 hectares of flower-filled gardens, facing the magnificent palace that houses the Senate, a large octagonal pond is home to curious little sailboats, propelled across the water by laughing, wide-eyed children.

The sailboats are inspired by the fishing and working boats that once sailed along the French coast, particularly along the Breton coast, in the 19th century. Originally modeled on the hulls of these boats, they were made by passionate craftsmen. They became an essential pastime for Parisian children and a cherished family tradition in the garden.

To rent one, simply head to the green kiosk near the pond, where you can choose your sailboat from a colorful selection. These handmade boats display the colors of countries from around the world: France, Switzerland, Algeria, Vietnam…

You’ll then be given a long wooden stick, the essential tool for pushing your boat out onto the pond and retrieving it along the edge. After that, the wind takes care of the rest! These boats are not electrically controlled, so you’ll need to be patient and handle them gently if you want to guide them in the right direction.

The Musée de Minéralogie at Mines ParisTech is a small mineral museum you can actually find inside the school's library. Walked in, immediately hit with rows of glass cases full of crystals and rocks and even a few meteorites. Some of these things are wild looking, colors you don't expect from a rock. Costs nothing to get in, only takes about an hour. Glad I didn't skip it.

In 1989, a monument for the bicentenary of the French Revolution was installed on Avenue Charles-Risler, one of the busiest avenues of the Champ-de-Mars. This monument is the result of the work of two men: the sculptor Ivan Theimer, who designed the monument and made its sculptures, and the chief architect of historic monuments, Michel Jantzen, who supervised its construction.

I like trying Paris’ famous brasseries, so I was happy to finally visit Le Zimmer, a historic address opened in 1896 near the Théâtre du Châtelet.

The decor is charming, although it felt a little too old-fashioned for my taste. We tried the burger and the salade Niçoise, both were okay, but nothing memorable. The service was good on the other hand: friendly, professional, and welcoming.

Would I go back? Probably not.

I went to Angelina on Rue de Rivoli in Paris after seeing so many locations around the city and seeing it constantly recommended on social media, so I had to give this famous tea room a try.

The decor is nice and the atmosphere is pretty, while the service was decent. However, I was disappointed that the table next to me stayed dirty and uncleared for around 20 minutes.

The food and drinks were good overall, but nothing mind-blowing. My fraisier was a bit underwhelming, although the apricot dessert was genuinely excellent.

One thing that surprised me was the dress code (or lack of one). Many people were dressed very casually, which made the place feel a bit neglected and less elegant than expected for such an iconic tea room.

Overall, it’s clearly a tourist spot. It’s not bad, and I’m glad I tried it once, but I wouldn’t go back.