Louis XIII (1601-1643) has not gone down in history as one of France’s outstanding kings. He was not a popular swashbuckler like his father, Henri IV, nor was he an awesome long-lived Sun King like his son Louis XIV. At age eight-and-a-half Louis XIII became king when his father was Read More …
In August 2013 I went on another guided walking tour (in French) that I found listed in the back pages of the now-defunct weekly magazine Pariscope. This was mainly a tour of the Île Saint-Louis, but since that island has no Métro stations, we met at the kiosk by the Read More …
My original intention was to ride around Paris on the Vélib’ bikes during the day and just come out to Versailles for the evening performance at the Royal Opera, but it turned out to be such a rainy day that all my Paris plans ‘fell into the water’, as the Read More …
The Louvre, being such a huge museum, is divided up into three “wings”: The big hollow square at the back, meaning the East, is called the Sully Wing, named after Maximilien de Béthune, the first Duke of Sully (1560–1641), who was the finance minister and chief advisor to King Henry Read More …
On my last evening in Paris in June 2006 I was walking to the Opéra Bastille, feeling somewhat sorry for myself because I had already turned in my bicycle to the rental place, and would have to leave Paris the next morning. I was walking through the Place des Vosges, Read More …
On the pleasant and lively street called Rue de Bretagne there is a covered market with the unusual name Marché des Enfants Rouges (Market of the Red Children). It turns out that this is the oldest market in Paris. It was created in the year 1615 during the reign of Read More …
For many years in the seventeenth century, this house in the center of Antwerp was the residence and workplace of the Flemish painter and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). In 1631 Rubens hosted a prominent visitor here at his home, namely Marie de’ Medici, the widow of the assassinated King Read More …
The Château-Neuf or New Palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was built starting in 1556 and served as a royal palace for over a century. It was a huge palace in its day, but large parts of it were demolished in the 18th century. Now one of the few remnants, the Pavillon Henri Read More …
Bordeaux’s city tourist office is quick to admit that the Cathédrale Saint André cannot compete with the ones in northern France like Amiens, Chartres or Reims, but they say its “heterogeneous appearance has something unexpected and endearing, in particular its separate bell tower.” This cathedral is where Anne of Austria (who Read More …
My least favorite thing about Fontainebleau is that this is where Louis XIV promulgated his infamous Edict of Fontainebleau on October 22, 1685, ordering relentless and brutal persecution of the Protestant minority in France. He prefaced this edict with a few kind words for his grandfather, Henri IV, “King Henry Read More …