Place des Vosges

Today we went to Place des Vosges to visit Victor Hugo's museum, which is located in one of the apartments of this square.

Place des Vosges is a stunning Middle Ages square in "Le Marais", Paris, that measures 140 x 140 meters . It was originally know as "la Place Royale" and it was King Henri IV who commissioned its construction in the sixteen hundreds.

Back in time, Knights tournaments were organized here. Today Parisians enjoy the grassy patches and kids play football around.

I sketched one of the main pavilions (of the Queen or the King, I don't know...) which rises above the main skyline of the square and connects this space to a street through an arched gate.

Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, Paris

This is one of the most popular streets in "Le Marais", one of the nicer neighborhoods in Paris.

"Le Marais" means the Swamp, just because it used to be one (in the Roman era). There are some buildings from the Middle Ages and I drew one of these.

You can see that the old buildings are distorted because of the swampy terrain. 

Le Corbusier  had a plan to destroy this place and replace it with "hygienic" buildings : the infamous "Plan Voisin".  This plan would have been a complete disaster for the city, and buildings like this would be thing of the past.

Just check the plan here

Grande Galerie de l'évolution, Paris

I went to the "jardin des plantes" to visit one of their museums last weekend.: "la grande galerie de l'évolution".

It was built in 1889 and after the WWII started declining because of lack of maintenance. It was almost closed for security reasons in the 60's, but a large public campaign saved it from the ruin.

It was reopened and restored in 1994 by Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro (a Chilean architect!).

The exhibition is quite good, but the building itself is worth the visit: an immense canopy of glass, steel structure and old wooden book shelves.

Provins, Ile de France, Unesco World Heritage

There are four UNESCO's World Heritage sites in Île-de-France. Provins is probably the most unknown.

This medieval city used to be a very important spot for trading. "Les foires the champagne" were very important and brought wealth to the city. You can still see part of their glorious past.

Pantin, Nearby Paris

I drew this view in Pantin, a few meters from the "peripherique", the highway that defines the limit of Paris.
The main building used to be the customs warehouse. It was built in the '30s.
It has been abandoned for decades, and now is a great playground for street artist.
The gentrification of this area today is obvious.
See some photos at this link

Aigues Mortes

Last weekend we went to the south of France, near Nîmes. We attended a friend's wedding and the following day we rented bikes and we spent the day visiting Aigues Mortes, in the Camarge area. This medieval town has a very well preserved city wall. 

We visited the Constantine tower and the walls, where I sketched this view. 

LA ROTONDE : a Ledoux building

This is one of the few buildings left that was designed by Nicolas Ledoux ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Nicolas_Ledoux ).

He was a prolific architect in the 18th century, and he worked mainly for the king. Unsurprisingly, after the French revolution there was not much work for him.

Many of his buildings, which represented the king's power, were destroyed.
La Rotonde did make it to our days, which quite incredible considering it was one of the 60 toll houses that the king ordered to be constructed.

Now it is a very trendy cafe.