PALAIS DE L’ELYSÉE – PRÉSIDENCE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE

The Palais de l’Élysée is the official residence of the French President. The current name of the palace derives from its proximity to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées which is behind the garden behind the palace. The building is both the official residence and the official workplace of the French Président de la République, but some presidents (such as François Mitterrand, predecessor to Jacques Chirac) have preferred to live in their existing homes or apartments, coming to the palace only to work.

La Madeleine

The Madeleine is an obese Napoleonic structure on the classical temple model which was built for the emperor as yet another monument to the victory of his army. Following many vicissitudes and changes of plan, the present building is now a windowless edifice with a Greek temple facade of Corinthian columns 20 metres high. Work on the church was begun in I764. However, following the death of the architect in 1777 a new scheme was considered, and a Greek cross building begun. Well before its completion the revolutionary government dreamt up more rational uses for the building in progress. Napoleon decided on a Temple of Glory dedicated to the Great Army and in I806 commissioned Barthelemy Vignon to build it. After the erection of the colonnades, Louis XVIII, restored to power in I8I4, ordered that the temple be once more a church. Unlike the exterior, the interior is lavishly overdecorated. At the east end a series of frescoes celebrates heroes of Christianity in a span which includes, surprisingly, Napoleon.

St-Augustin

The church of St-Augustin is definitely off the beaten path: no lines to get in, like Notre Dame. Built from 1860 to 1871, this church made use of structural iron to reach new heights. The architect, Victor Baltard, was responsible for the now-vanished Les Halles. Saint Augustin's dome is 50 meters high. If you visit the church, note the way the iron structure was incorporated into the design iron columns, iron angels.

Gare Saint Lazare

The Gare St-Lazare’s platforms and iron-vaulted canopy are a bit grubby, but not to be missed by train riders and fans of Monet’s painting “la Gare St-Lazare” and Zola’s novel about the station and its trains, “La Bete Humaine”.Chronologically the first Parisian railway station, it was first built (1837) a little further to the North, next to the Place d'Europe. Rebuilt by Alfred Armand between 1841-1843, it was later extended by Eugène Flachat (1851-1853).

Parc Monceau

The Duke of Chartres, later Duke of Orleans, built, near the village of Monceau, a “madness”. The comedies author and drawer, Carmontelle, with the help of the gardener Thomas Blaikie, created a garden of dream with fake gothic ruins, a Deutsch mill, a tartar tent, a pagoda, an Egyptian pyramid… The garden was a curious place revealing nature and civilisation charms. Paris sold the Half of the park to the Péreire brothers when Monceau was attached to the capital, in 1860. They built mansions, while the other half was transformed in an English style park by Alphand for the commissioner Hausmann. It soon became a public garden. Along its calm alleys the park still owns its beautiful statues, its pyramid –made by Carmontelle-, and its “Naumachie”. The park houses the largest tree in Paris: an oriental platane of 7 mt and 2 centuries old.