Hotel De La Marine, 2

 More opulence, more views, more naval opulence...

Hey, if you're the keeper of the king's furniture, you get to use it, right?

Looking across the Place de la Concorde to the National Assembly and 
the church of the Invalides

Artsy/architectural rendering of the twin Hotels; le Madeleine up the
Rue Royale and proposed equestrian status of Louis XV

Now in the very opulent navy bits...

Portraits of great admirals adorn the walls

Personal favorite: Jean Bart, greatest of all privateers--captured
386 ships and sank or burned many more--although a commoner,
rose to the rank of Louis XIV's admiral of the ocean sea; our
appartement, in the 6th, is on Rue Jean Bart

High tech depictions of navy balls from different eras

Enough opulence already

Even naval opulence

Hotel De La Marine, 1

Our next visit, thanks to Monuments Passion again, was the Hotel de la Marine, on the eastern periphery of the Place de la Concorde, with its twin, the Hotel de Crillon. See illustration. Both date from the design of the Place de Louis XV, the Hotel de Crillon to house assorted nobles, and the Hotel de la Marine--originally, the Hotel du Garde Meuble--to house the spare royal furniture, art, etc. Sort of like the Concierge, centuries before. 

After 1793, there was no need to house the royal furniture, etc., and the Hotel du Garde Meuble became the Admiralty, as the Brits would say, or the Navy, or, the Hotel de la Marine. The navy department expanded over the years, eventually taking over the entire building for another century or two, and thus many of the building's original contents were preserved. Well, except for the two ceremonial cannons that initiated the storming of the Bastille, but that's another story. 

After the navy moved out, the Hotel de la Marine was extensively restored, including a fancy restaurant or two, and opened a few years ago as another of Paris' historic sights. The tour...augmented with much high tech...is largely of the contents and rooms of the Hotel du Garde Meuble, finishing up with the navy's grand halls, with some nice views of the arcade and of the Place de la Concorde. Some say, if you don't have time for Versailles or the Palais Garnier, the Hotel de la Marine is another option for seeing the opulence of bygone ages.

Full frontal, from the Place de la Concorde

Interesting vaulting over the large interior courtyard

Paintings--not quite of Louvre quality--all over the place

Interesting 18th century flooring

The rooms are mostly the offices and private quarters of the keeper
of the royal stuff

Much faux-Roman decor

Alas, not a Hubert Robert, but a decent view of the twin Hotels...

Private dining room

Incredible tapestries

Game table

Madame Keeper's boudoir

Doggie lounge

Identified as an Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun, but in rather poor
shape, unlike those seen in the Louvre or at Versailles or
in great museums everywhere

Outside, enjoying the columns and the views

Grand Palais nearby

Back inside

Place De La Concorde

On several of our June visits, we happened by or through the Place de la Concorde, one of Paris' most famous scenes. It's a large old square with many monuments and much history. Long story short is that Louis XV wanted a big city square like France's other cities were developing (to be named Place Louis XV, of course; with an equestrian statue of himself, etc.) and chose this spot between the proposed Madeleine church and the National Assembly and also between the Tuileries and the beginning of the (now) Champs Elysees. The Revolutionaries of the 1790s renamed it Place de la Revolution and executed Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Danton, and eventually Robespierre there. Such cooler heads as remained renamed the square Place de la Concorde, hoping to move on from the Revolution. After Napoleon, it briefly became Place Louis XVI, but another revolution came along, the 1830 one, and it became Place de la Concorde once again. And so it has remained. Also the site of some major traffic jams.

Helpful aerial view; Madeleine upper left, Tuileries right, across the
river, the National Assembly, Champs Elysees, left

The Luxor Obelisk, with the Hotel de Crillon (left) and the Hotel
de la Marine (right); next post...

Plan from the time of Louis XV

Helpfully-labeled overhead view

And now just a few shots on the ground

Hotel Crillon in the background; also the monument
to the city of Rouen

Closer up of the obelisk, a gift from Egypt in the 1830s

The Fountain of Rivers, one of two grand fountains

Closer up with obelisk

Many monumental sculptures around...this, the Horse Tamer,
by Guillame Coustou

Monument to the city of Brest, on the spot where the
guillotine stood...