Random Things #8

While strolling around Paris, we never know what we might find.  Here are some random things of a historical character.

While walking to a theater in Paris, we turned a corner and spotted the huge monument below.  

The monument is the Porte Saint-Denis.  Originally, it was a gate in the wall surrounding Paris, built during the mid-1300's.  After Paris grew far beyond the 1300's wall, making the wall obsolete, the gate was replaced in the 1670's with the triumphal arch you see above.  The arch celebrates military victories of Louis XIV, Ludovico Magnus (Louis the Great).  

Located in front of the French national assembly (the legislature), the Marianne is the personification of the French Republic and signifies Liberty and Reason.

Below is another symbol of liberty in Paris: an equestrian statue of George Washington by Daniel Chester French, inaugurated in 1900.  The base of the statue reads: "Offered by the women of the United States of America in memory of the fraternal help given by France to their fathers during the struggle for independence."

After visiting the Panthéon recently, we discovered a remnant of an early wall of Paris (pictured below).  The wall dates from the late 1100's and early 1200's during the reign of French King Philippe August.  The king was preparing to depart on a crusade.  To protect the expanded city of Paris from attack in his absence, he decreed that a new wall be built to encircle Paris on both sides of the Seine.  Remnants of the wall, like the one below, can still be found around Paris.   

We frequently see places where well-known persons lived, worked or died.  Below is Pablo's Picasso's home during the 1930's and 1940's, where he painted "Guernica."

Below is Richard Wagner's home for a time.

Below is Oscar Wilde's final residence, a hotel on the Left Bank.

Below is an amusing plaque in the cathedral of the town of Versailles.  The plaque celebrates the achievements of French architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart.  The plaque is amusing because of its uncharacteristic understatement.  The plaque refers to only three of Hardouin-Mansart's achievements and concludes with "ETC ETC".   In this case, the "ETC" represents many significant buildings in France, including Versaille's Hall of Mirrors and Trianon and Paris's Place Vendôme to name a few.  (In case you want to see more of Hardouin-Mansart's achievements, click here.)

Thanks for viewing some random things with us.