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| View of the Luxembourg Palace and main fountain and boat pond. |
The Luxembourg Palace is located at 15 rue de Vaugirard in
the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built between 1615 and 1645
to be the royal residence of the regent Marie de Médicis, mother of Louis XIII
of France. After the Revolution it was refashioned into a legislative building
between 1835-1836 it was enlarged and remodeled. Since 1958 it has been the
seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic. On the south side of the
palace, the formal Luxembourg Garden presents a 25-hectare green parterre of
gravel and lawn populated with statues and large basins of water where children
sail model boats, some of which can be seen in the video below. Source: Wikipedia.
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| View overlooking the main fountain and central garden |
Like many of the other magnificent buildings and palaces
around Paris, and indeed elsewhere in France, one can only marvel at the amount
of planning, money, labor, and resources that must have gone into erecting this
massive palace, and into landscaping and maintaining the stunning gardens on
which the palace and other buildings stand.
Today, the palace building is the home of the French senate.
During my brief three of four hour visit to the palace grounds, I did not enter
the main building itself. In fact, I'm not even sure if the building is open to
the general public. However, the beautifully maintained gardens are open, and
during my outing they were well patronized by locals and international visitors
alike. There is much to see around the grounds including a series of statues of
former French queens, saints and reproductions of classical Antiques.
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| L'acteur Grec (The Greek Actor), by Arthur Bourgeois (1838-1886) |
You can wander through an orchard of apple and pear trees,
enjoy a performance of the théâtre des marionnettes (puppet theatre), ride on a
vintage carousel, enjoy one of the many free musical performances scheduled
throughout the summer months, and visit the Orangerie with its displays of art,
photography, and numerous sculptures. The grounds of the garden also contain
more than one hundred statues, monuments, and fountains scattered throughout
the 25-hectares (61 acres), including Frédéric Bartholdi’s first 1870 model for
the Statue of Liberty.
Here's a short video compilation of photographs and video footage I put together of my visit:
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