Places, museums, monuments : 133
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Place, museum or monumentCompiègne Forest
'The forest gave birth to hunting, and hunting – the passion of the kings of France – gave birth to the palace of Compiègne'. Such were the words of Philippe Marini, the senator/mayor of Compiègne, in describing the influence of this forest. The third largest French national forest after those near Orléans and Fontainebleau, Compiègne […]
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Place, museum or monumentMusée du Second Empire – Musée de l’Impératrice – Compiègne
Alongside the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau, Compiègne was one of the palaces where the imperial couple and the court regularly resided. Indeed it was one of the preferred houses because of the freer lifestyle which reigned, in that respect for etiquette weighed less heavily there. Compiègne also played a key role in lives of the […]
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Place, museum or monumentApsley House-Wellington Museum – London
Commissioned by Lord Apsley and builtfrom 1771 to 1778 by Robert Adam, Apsley House owes its famous address (N°1, London) to its location. It was in fact the first house of the British capital after the tollhouse when entering London from the west. Purchased in 1807 by Marquis Wellesley, it was sold to his brother, […]
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Place, museum or monumentMuseum and National Estate of Versailles and the Trianon.
The symbol par excellence of French monarchy, Versailles once again became a royal residence during the First Empire. Napoleon had the palace restored and made up his mind to spend every summer there but had to abdicate before having time to carry out his plan. Marie-Louise occupied the Trianon from 1810 to 1814 after marrying […]
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Place, museum or monumentDomaine de la Pagerie
In 1763, in a truly beautiful spot overlooking the Caribbean Sea, was born a child with a most extraordinary future ahead of her: for this little girl was none other than Marie-Joseph-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, who was to become Josephine, Empress of the French.Josephine spent the first sixteen years of her life in the […]
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Place, museum or monumentMusée d’Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay collection ranges from 1848 to 1914 and thus displays important pieces from the Second Empire (1852-1870. In keeping with its original aim, its ambition is to present all of the artistic diversity of the period through various types of artistic objects: paintings, sculptures, architectural projects and ornamentation are combined in every room […]
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Place, museum or monumentFontainebleau Château Museum
The palace in which every king of France since the Middle-Ages had lived was spared during the Revolution, but the furniture was either destroyed or sold. Napoleon had the palace both restored and refurbished, thus making it once again a residence fit for royal guests. Almost 600 rooms were transformed to accommodate the court, and […]
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Place, museum or monumentThe Route Napoléon
On 1 March 1815, on his return from Elba, Napoleon landed in Golfe-Juan with a small band of 1100 loyal soldiers. And from here he set out on the extraordinary adventure that was to lead to the return to power two and a half weeks later, 20 March, with his triumphal entry into the Tuileries […]
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Place, museum or monumentBois de Vincennes
Work on the construction of the Bois de Vincennes (the forest of Vincennes) from the last remains of the forest to the East of Paris known as the Silva Lanchonia began in 1860. It was Napoleon III's desire to offer a place of recreation to the working class inhabitants of the XIIth and XIIIth arrondissements […]
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Place, museum or monumentButtes-Chaumont Park
It was on the immense 62.5-acre (25-hectare) stretch of wasteland between Belleville and La Villette that Haussmann and Alphand chose to construct one of the most extraordinary Parisian parks of the Second Empire, the “Parc de Buttes-Chaumont”. The name, derived from a contraction of the French words Monts chauves (bald hills), aptly describes the bare […]