The Richelieu-Louvois Library is one of four Paris locations of the National Library of France, which in French is called the Bibliothèque nationale de France, abbreviated BnF. The other three Paris sites of the BnF are: The François Mitterrand Library (13th arrondissement) The Arsenal Library (4th arrondissement) The Library-Museum of the Read More …
The triumphal gate Porte Saint Denis is in a wide place on the Boulevard Saint-Denis, on the border between the 2nd and 10th districts (arrondissements) of Paris. In the 14th century this was the site of a gate in the wall of Charles V. The current gate was built in Read More …
These people lined up on the pier at Pont Tournant are waiting to board a boat called the Adèle, to take them on a one-hour tour of the harbor in Cherbourg, France. It is also possible to embark on the Quai de France, near the Cité de la Mer. This Read More …
This model shows the town and citadel of Belfort in the 18th century, after completion of the “grand project for the fortification of Belfort” that Vauban proposed in 1687. Over six thousand workers toiled for sixteen years to carry out Vauban’s detailed plans, which included re-routing the Savoureuse River so Read More …
The Arsenal Library (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal) was founded by a man named René d’Argenson (1652-1721) and was declared a public library in 1797. This historical sign about the Arsenal Library says that this was the site of a royal arsenal from the fourteenth century. There was a fire here in Read More …
This is the newest and largest of the five public sites of the French National Library. It was one of the “great projects” — which included the Great Arch, the Opéra Bastille and the Pyramid of the Louvre — that were undertaken during the presidency of François Mitterrand, who was Read More …
For each of his citadels, Vauban designed a simple chapel so the soldiers could attend Sunday mass. The one in Besançon is dedicated to Saint Étienne (Saint Stephen), in memory of a church by that name that was demolished to make room for the citadel. Vauban himself was a practicing Read More …
On the top floor of one wing of Les Invalides in Paris there is an unusual museum showing twenty-eight large relief-map models that were made starting in the seventeen century, showing fortifications and fortified towns at a scale of 1:600. The earliest of these was made on orders of King 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 …
If you look at a political map of the Paris districts, after the 2014 elections, you will see that the western side of the city is colored blue, meaning that the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th and 17th districts (arrondissements) all have conservative mayors. And the eastern Read More …