Esprit de france - le blog

On foot or on a bike, take the time to discover the streets and neighbourhoods that are filled with charm and that will tell you the history of Paris. 

Between the Hotel des Saints Pères in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and the Hotel du Parc Saint-Séverin in the heart of the Latin Quarter, discover some of the famous Parisian sites…

The neighbourhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, bordered by the river Seine, the Luxembourg garden, the boulevard Saint-Michel and the rue des Saints Pères, owes its name to the nearby church the earliest stone of which dates back to 557. Today, the neighbourhood is made up of a maze of old streets full of art, books and fashion. 

Le Café de Flore, les Deux Magots and the Brasserie Lipp, make up the golden triangle of the boulevard and the place Saint-Germain, which was once the hotspot for intellectuals such as, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Paul Eluard and André Breton; it has since become a historical location. 

If you return up the rue Bonaparte, you will reach place Saint Sulpice, where the church, famous for its Eugène Delacroix frescoes and its chancel adorned with statues by Pigalle, was the main setting for Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code.

From there, go down the rue Servandoni all the way to the Luxembourg Palace and its gardens. Commissioned by Queen Catherine de Medicis, the Palace still houses the Senate, whereas the gardens welcome temporary art expositions. 

Leave the gardens by way of the boulevard Saint-Michel, you’ll be minutes away from the famous Panthéon and the rue Mouffetard and its typical Parisian market. If you go back up the boulevard Saint-Michel, you will find yourself near the Sorbonne and the Cluny Museum, the window of the history and art of the Middle Ages. 

Behind the Hotel du Parc Saint-Séverin, nestled in the pedestrian area of the Latin Quarter, you’ll be next to the Ile Saint-Louis, Notre Dame, the Ile de la Cité and the Sainte Chapelle. 

To discover or rediscover during summer…

In an area completely renovated, combining modernity and the 1900 spirit, daylight highlights the collections.

You will go back in time, from the 1900 art to Ancient Greece and Rome, and understand how great moments in the history of Western art combine with the technical and artistic innovations, to produce masterpieces.

In this new place of art, creativity and conviviality, paintings, sculptures and art objects testify.

You can also enjoy Spain, from the 5th of July until the 31th of August, with the exhibition “Flamenco, avant-garde and popular culture”.

You will then certainly enjoy the charm of the interior garden with its pools lined with mosaics, its colonnades and its coffee shop.

Le Petit Palais
Avenue du Président Winston-Churchill - 75008 Paris
Tel : 00 33 1 53 43 40 00

Site : www.petitpalais.paris.fr

Open every day except Mondays and days off, from 10am to 6pm.

Metro
Lines: 13 or 1. Station: Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau

Bus
Line 72 . Bus stop: Grand Palais

Rates
Adults: 6 €
Under 26: 4,50 €

A green oasis for major works…

At the Hotel Biron, the visitor can admire, in a permanent move between the rooms and the garden, some of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) magnificent masterpieces.
In the garden, as at the beginning of the century, some ancient statues, purchased by Rodin, mingle and confront the works of the sculptor - Adam, Eve, Orpheus, Muse Whistler, Three Shades, both Cariatides …

Here also, a cafe-restaurant welcomes you in a rare décor.

Let’s this great artist talk:

“The main point is to be moved, to love, to hope, to live. To be a man before being an artist! Everything is fine for the artist because in all beings and in all things, his penetrating gaze discovers the character, ie the inner truth reflected in the form. And the truth is beauty. Be nature your unique goddess. Have in it an absolute faith. Art only begins with the inner truth. ”

L’Hôtel Biron

79, Rue de Varenne - 75007 Paris
Tel : 00 33 1 44 18 61 10

Site : www.musee-rodin.fr

Open every day except Mondays
From April to September - From 9.30 am to 5.45 pm.
From October to March - From 9.30am to 4.45pm.

Metro
Line 13 - Station : Varenne

Rates
Adults : 9 €
Under 18: free (except temporary exhibitions).

When she was born in 1755, nothing led Marie-Antoinette to reign in France, but the hazards of European politics decided otherwise. The small Archduchess of Austria married the heir to the crown of France on May 16, 1770…

The figure of Marie-Antoinette has always been subject to many an interpretation: the “Austrian” hungry of expensive pleasures, a “victim” of the etiquette of Versailles, fanatic of macaroons…

By bringing together an outstanding collection of over 300 works (paintings, sculptures, objets d’art…) from across Europe, the exhibition sheds light on the personality and destiny of one of the last queens of France, from the Court of Austria, in Schönbrunn, to the Conciergerie, in Paris.

Grand Palais
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
3, Avenue du Général Eisenhower - 75008 Paris
Tel : 00 33 1 44 13 17 30

Site : www.rnm.fr

Open every day, except Tuesdays and May, the 1st.
From 10am à 08pm.
Late night on Wednesdays until 10pm.

Metro
- Champs-Elysées Clémenceau (Lines : 1 - 13)
- Franklin-Roosevelt (Lines 1 - 9)

Bus
- 72 - (Bus stop : Palais de la découverte)

Admission : 10 €
Children : Free until 10 years old.

Site : www.fnacspectacles.com

Musée du Luxembourg
From February, the 20th Until July, the 20th, 2008

This exhibition brings together works of the period 1900-1915, from Maurice de Vlaminck’s (1876-1958) earliest known paintings, in which he already asserted his characteristic violence, down to the works produced at the beginning of the First World War, which reflect his contemporary research on the rendering of space.
An overview of Vlaminck’s production at that time reveals the key part he played in the renewal of painting which started in the early 20th century, and the inventiveness of the research he undertook with Derain.

Musée du Luxembourg
19 Rue de Vaugirard - 75006 Paris
Tel : 00 33 1 42 34 25 95

Website : museeduluxembourg.fr

Open every day from 10.30am to 7pm.
Late night on Mondays and Fridays until 10pm.
Sundays from 9am.

Métro

• Odéon (Lines 4-10)
• Saint-Sulpice (Line 4)

Admission : Adults 11 € - Children (From 10 to 25 years old) 9 €
Child under 10 years old - Free.

Book in advance - Adults : 12 €

Website : www.billet-coupe-file.com