Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais

Picture: Costa (2015)

This church, which had begun to be built in 1494, received a new façade in 1621, of an innovative style for the time: the Baroque. Faustous decoration and sensual curves began to appear in the architecture of Paris, even though Classicism still prevailed in Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais. Each of the three orders of the columns' capitals is represented in each of the levels. Doric in the ground floor, Ionian in the middle and Corinth in the upper.

The Luxembourg Palace

Picture: Costa (2015)

Formerly an urban castle built by a queen, today the seat of the French Senate. The Luxembourg Palace is a symbol of the wealth of Parisian homes. In 1615, the second wife of Henri IV, coming from the Florentine court, wanted a house similar to the Pitti Palace in Florence, but not just a copy.

This idea of ​​urban palace arose in Ancient Rome, rus in orbe, "the countryside in the city", whose bucolic life was brought to the urban environment. Already the name Luxembourg is due to the duke owner previous to the construction of the palace.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Fountain of Medici, next to the palace, has this name for the origin of the queen, Mary, of the Medici family of Florence. She hired Salomon de Brosse to recreate the gardens she had known in childhood, including composing this fountain, erected in stone and with sculptures of characters from Greek mythology.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Pont-Neuf and The Dauphine Square

 Picture: Costa (2015)

On a triangular terrain, at the tip of the Ile-de-la-Cité, King Henri IV had a new bridge built for the city, so technological that it would be the only one of that time to resist to this day. The year was 1610, and the first bridge of Paris devoid of buildings on top was inaugurated. Its protruding pillars and Roman arches made it possible to overcome its greatest challenge over the centuries: the streams of the Seine River. Throughout the crowning of the bridge, one can observe the masks, satirical figures that had the purpose of repelling evil, as well as the gargoyles of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Picture: Costa (2015)

In the houses around the triangular square, only the ground floor, being at the height of the passers, was made of stone because of the high cost of this material for the time. The other floors were made of bricks. The Dauphine Square had shops on every floor, an idea that was not new for the 17th century, but which guaranteed the aesthetics and functionalism of the place. Nowadays the square is easily accessed by the Pont-Neuf Station (subway line 7). There is also the garden and the statue of Vert-Galant, as King Henri IV, the "old seducer", was known.

The Vosges Square

Picture: Costa (2015)

In 1606, the French king Henry IV wanted to attract the nobility to these new residences around the Vosges Square. They form continuous real estate around the place, but the mansard roofs give the impression of individual houses. Two more imposing pavilions mark the north and south entrances of the square. Its façades are filled with elements of classic inspiration and mark the privileged location of the king's pavilion.

Picture: Costa (2015)

Thus was established the concept of the square as known to the Greeks and Romans in Classical Antiquity, the place of meetings and public activities, the heart of the city. Elegant and spacious, the Vosges Square could host public events. The regularity of its façades recalls the geometric order of the French Renaissance.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The arcades, another feature of the European Renaissance, dominate the landscape of the square, providing a shelter for pedestrians in case of bad weather and allowing owners to diversify the use of the ground floor with commercial activities and services.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The most famous address of the Vosges Square is the 6th, residence of the French writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885). The square is halfway between the Saint-Paul and Bastille subway stations (line 1). Just walk down Saint-Antoine Street and enter Birague Street. It is a great walk through the Marais, the Jewish, Medieval and Gay district of Paris.

The Louvre Museum

Picture: Costa (2015)

In 1190, King Philip II built a defense system to deal with the menace of the English in Paris. Then, besides a belt of walls, was made a castle with moats, towers and a central fortress (donjon), right in the center of the city. On top of this medieval wonder, a huge Renaissance royal palace, several administrative offices and an imperial residence for Napoleon would be built. Thus was born one of the greatest art museums in the world: The Louvre.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The remains of the old castle are accessible to visitors entering the museum, and are protected by a concrete slab made at the time of the last restoration of the Louvre (1989). The curious can enter the ruins and reach the central fortress, the donjon. This is the first section to visit the museum, just after the box office, which is under the Pyramid. In order to avoid the large crowds, the access to the side of the Arc-de-Triomphe of the Louvre's Carousel (map below) is used, where you first have to go inside a commercial gallery and then have access to the ticket office.

Map: Wikipedia (2016)

After the ticket office, the museum gives you the options to begin your visit by one of three entrances: Sully (The Medieval Louvre exhibition in the basement and The Antique on the first floor), Richelieu (The French Sculptures exhibition and into the underground The Arts of Islam, Art Objects on the first floor) and Denon (The Sculptures from the 11th to the 15th Centuries, The Egypt and The Pre-Classic Greece, all in the basement, paintings on the first floor). It is imperative to take a map of the museum - in any language - right at the box office, because the magnitude of the Louvre may cause some estrangement.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Louvre Colonnade is the eastern façade of the museum, built in 1650 by Claude Perrault, to complete the closure of the quadrangular courtyard (Cour Carrée) and as a prevision to make the apartments of Louis XIV. Its symmetrical appearance is legitimate of the French Renaissance. You will arrive at the Cour Carrée (1549) passing through the central door. The courtyard and its façades are by Pierre Lescot, a wise architect who used Italian inspiration to start the French style.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Arc-de-Triomphe of the LouvreCarousel  is the one, built in 1809 by Napoleon Bonaparte. This landmark celebrates the victory of the French in the Austerlitz Battle (1805) and has a strong influence from the triumphal arch of the Roman Empire, to tell by the scenes of wars carved in the faces of the monument, besides the quadriga that surrounds the upper part.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Pyramid serves as the main entrance of the museum. It is surrounded by a mirror of water and three other smaller pyramids, generally serving as scenery for the tourists selfies, which are thousands, yet in the summer. But purity of form is what charms most in harmonizing with the former. The great court around it is called Cour Napoléon, which until 1871 was closed by another transverse building, the Tuileries Palace, burned down and destroyed at that time.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Pyramid project was commissioned from French President François Mitterrand in the 1980's. This solution is due to the architect I. M. Pei, who was entrusted with the task of creating a new entrance to the museum, since the old one could no longer support the crowds of tourists who visited the Louvre every day. Beneath the Pyramid, a large hall accommodates visitors, but the rise of the public in recent years continues to generate huge queues outside. For this, works are planned to improve access to the museum in 2017.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The Louvre is so long that even an avenue goes through it, as you can see on the map, on the Carrousel Square. In addition, the museum is the beginning of the so-called Great Historic Axis, an urban line that passes through the Tuileries Garden, Concorde Square, Champs-Elysées Avenue, Arc-de-Triomphe of the Etoile Square, and goes to the district of La Défense, ending in the building known as Grande Arche. This path has been most traditional in Paris since Napoleon's city parades in the 19th century. On 14th July, the national holiday of France, it is on this axis that military troops parade and where aircraft fly in sumptuous aerial spectacles. Subway line 1 is always on its underground, with stations providing access to the Louvre: Louvre-Rivoli Station (with exit to the Louvre Colonnade) and Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre Station (with access to the Louvre Carousel and Pyramid).

The Saint-Denis Basilica

Picture: Costa (2015)

Restored in 2014/2015, Saint-Denis Basilica is the first fully Gothic cathedral and is also the tomb of the kings of France. A legend say that Saint Dennis, the patron of the church and of the country, had been beheaded at Montmartre and then would have run, holding his own head, to city where is today Saint-Denis. The church began to be built around 1130, being an achievement of the audacious abbot Suger, adviser of the French kings at the time.

Picture: catedral restoration board (2015)

The western façade was designed to be a monumental entrance of three portals, represented the Trinity. Modified during the Middle Ages and in the 13th century, the façade was also heavily influenced by the restorations headed by the architect Debret from 1838 to 1840.

Picture: Costa (2015)

The great height of its nave evidences the thin vertical ribs, forming the arches above, in ogiva format. The plant, as in Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris, has chapels arranged in circles around the altar. These and other Gothic features were passed on to the other French cathedrals built thereafter.

Picture: Costa (2015)

Immediately after the altar are the tombs of the kings of France, adorned by beautiful funerary sculptures, from Clovis I (511) to Charles X (1830). Saint-Denis is a city close to Paris, where you can easily get to the subway (Basilique Saint-Denis Station, line 13)

The Saint-Martin-des-Champs

Picture: Costa (2015)

This beautiful church is one of the oldest in Paris, because it was built around the year 1060. At the time, this place was outside the urban area, hence its name of St. Martin of the Fields. In it began to appear the first elements that would initiate the Gothic architecture: the plant in semicircles, the supports of the dome in the form of arch, in the end, traces that would be developed in the later Gothic cathedrals.

Picture: Costa (2015)

After the Revolution, this church became one of the coolest museums in Paris: Arts et Métiers (Arts and Crafts). There, the most important inventions of science can be seen, divided into seven areas: scientific instruments, materials, construction techniques, communication, energy, mechanics and transport. Among the attractions, one can see one of the three original models used by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, as a study for the construction of the Statue of Liberty. The museum is easily accessed by the Arts et Métiers subway station (lines 3 and 11).