les journées du patrimoine

last weekend were les journées du patrimoine (rough translation: heritage days) during which many historical and government buildings, which are not usually open, are open to the public.  we tried to go to the palais de l'élysée - the french version of the white house - but by the time we got there the line was waaay too long.  instead we walked to the place de la concorde which features a large obelisk which our seine boat cruise guide told us was a gift from egypt to france but the story i'd heard goes something like: napoleon just wanted one so he took it...hmmm...

the place de la concorde is also where marie antoinette was guillotined as well as louis xvi and robespierre.

after that we walked to the lourve and from there to les jardins de luxembourg where the palais de luxembourg is located.

the palais de luxembourg was built by marie de medici (yes of the florence medicis, she married a french king, henri iv, who died and then she basically dominated/mismanaged france until her son louis xiii, became old enough to rule, all the while launching a massive propaganda campaign in the form of a series of rubens paintings, see below)

anyway, it is now the house of the french senate and has a magnificent library over which i freaked out due to its resemblance to the library in the disney version of beauty and the beast, aka the room of my dreams.

also home to a throne of napoleon.  c'est très petit, n'est-ce pas?