Places, museums, monuments : 83
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Place, museum or monumentLouvre Museum Second EmpireIt was Napoleon III who in the end finished the Louvre, thus completing the “Great Design” dreamt of by French kings over the centuries.Napoleon I had already started the construction during the First Empire, building in the Tuileries and hoping to link the edifice to the Louvre palace, but he left it unfinished. As early […]
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Place, museum or monumentHome of Victor HugoIt was in October 1832, that the Hugo family moved into this house in the Place Royale, today the Place des Vosges. The writer lived there until the Revolution of 1848. There he wrote an siginificant part of his oeuvre, namely: Les Chants du Crepuscule, 1835; Les Voix Intérieures, 1837; Ruy Blas, 1838; Les Rayons […]
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Place, museum or monumentMuseum of the Prefecture of PoliceHoused in the police station of the fifth arrondissement in Paris, this museum was started by the prefect Louis Lépine, better known from the competition for inventors named after him. This museum, with its manuscripts, prints, portraits, posters and various other exhibits, takes visitors on a journey along the history of the Paris police from […]
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Place, museum or monumentMuseum of the History of Rueil-MalmaisonThe former town hall of Rueil-Malmaison, built in 1868 by the architects Lebois and Prince in imitation of that in Fontainebleau, is now the present home of a museum (inaugurated in 1982) dedicated entirely to the history of the town. Malmaison old town hall was opened by Napoleon III on 1st September, 1869, and on […]
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Place, museum or monumentIsland of St HelenaA small island lost in the middle of the south Atlantic Ocean, St Helena was chosen by the British government as place to exile the deposed Emperor. “The island of St Helena is the ideal place to lock away such a character. In such a place, so far away, no scheming of any kind will […]
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Place, museum or monumentHome of ZolaIt was at Médan that Zola composed a large portion of Rougon-Macquart, natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire. There he wrote, among others, Nana, Germinal and La Terre (The Earth).Acquired in 1878, thanks to the success of L'Assommoir, the Médan house permitted Zola to associate his name with a geographic […]
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Place, museum or monumentHôtel de MondragonGeneral Bonaparte married 'Josephine' on 9 March, 1796, in Paris at the Mairie of the 2nd arrondissement, in other words the Hôtel Mondragon, the present-day head office of the bank Paribas. And the salon where the ceremony took place has been preserved just as it was on that historic day.The Hôtel de Mondragon was built […]
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Place, museum or monumentHôtel de BrienneBuilt in 1724 by Aubry, the hôtel de Brienne was bought in 1802 by Lucien Bonaparte who had it restored. It was Napoleon’s mother’s residence from 1806 to 1814. Its original decoration has been maintained in several rooms such as the Empire drawing-room and Letizia’s boudoir. Among the Empire collections, a few chairs of Marie […]
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Place, museum or monumentMuseo Napoleonico – RomeThe Museo Napoleonico in Rome presents the collections of Count Giuseppe Primoli, the great-grandson of Joseph and of Lucien Bonaparte. Born in 1851 to Princess Charlotte Bonaparte and Count Primoli di Foglia, Giuseppe Primoli belonged to the Roman branch of the imperial family. He spent most of his youth in Paris, at Napoleon III's court […]
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Place, museum or monumentHome of BalzacHonoré de Balzac lived in this house from 1840 to 1847. Of the eleven Parisian residences of the writer, it is the only one which exists today. This house is also a witness to that which made the village of Passy during the last century: a place of holiday for city dwellers yearning for the […]