Places, museums, monuments

“The city of Paris has a great mast, made entirely of bronze, with sculpted Victories and Napoleon as its lookout”. Such were Balzac’s words on the Vendôme column, the obelisk which throughout the 19th century was seen as the most important symbol of Paris and upon which each government attempted to make its mark. Its […]

Created during the Empire, the Bois de Boulogne was a milestonefor garden and park construction in the French capital. In fact itmarked the starting point, in 1852, of the policy of the developmentof the green spaces in Paris. And the instigator of the project wasNapoleon III himself. The emperor took an interest in all the […]

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (firmly anchored to the tradition of the ancient triumphal arches) was built by Percier and Fontaine in circa 1806 to 1808 to celebrate the Napoleonic victories of 1805, and it was originally intended as a monumental entrance to the Tuileries palace. When that palace was destroyed by fire in […]

In 1860, the old village of Monceau (or Mousseaux) near Paris was annexed to the capital along with eleven other communes. The Monceau plain, which in those days was an immense wasteland, bordered on its outer sides by the Fermiers généraux farmland, was soon to become a giant housing development – not even “la Folie […]

In 1808, Napoleon had the head office of the military police of Paris demolished thus opening up the required space for Place Châtelet in the middle of which a fountain designed by Bralle was erected. Also called the “Palm-tree fountain”, it comprises a 70-feet high column topped by a statue representing Victory and the allegories […]

It was as a result of Napoleon III's policy of creating, in Paris, urban green space at the four points of the compass that the Montsouris park was built on the plain of the same name between 1867 and 1878. The name Montsouris is a corruption of the word Moquesouris (mouse mocker), the ancient name […]

Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul, the ninth-century parish church of Rueil-Malmaison, is the final resting place of the Empress Josephine and her daughter, Queen Hortense. The building itself however was altered many times over the centuries before its final restoration by Napoleon III in 1857. Josephine died in Malmaison on 29th May, 1814, and was buried four days later […]

During the second Empire, this neighbourhood, known as 'little Poland', underwent significant redevelopment following construction work by Haussmann – broad straight avenues were laid out and people flocked to live in the new houses built there, greatly increasing the population. A parish was therefore established and a church built, and great care was taken that […]

The national forest of Malmaison covers 500 acres and was bought by Josephine in 1800. Part of the estate of the Château de Malmaison, it extended as far as the forest of Celle-Saint-Cloud.The Empress particularly enjoyed her walks around the estate. And beside the pond at Saint-Cucufa, she had a sheepfold and a cow-shed built. […]

The decision to build the Trinité church was made in the Assemblée on the 22nd September 1855. The church, built in a neighbourhood turned upside-down by Haussmann's reconstruction of central Paris, was designed by the architect Théodore Ballu and building work lasted from 1861 to 1867. In fact, the clearing of the present-day place d'Estienne-d'Orves, […]