Paris: The Capitol City

Today was both a very long day, but also a very governmental day.  I was up at 7:30am and out the door by 8:45 to visit the French Senate, conveniently located less than a block away.  Le Sénat is housed in what used to be Marie de Medici's palace and the Luxembourg Gardens used to be the palace grounds.  Today the gardens are open to the public and the palace has been rebuilt and reconstructed into the French Senate building.

The inside of the building is absolutely beautiful.  It's full of red carpeting, gilt walls, and elaborate murals on the ceilings.  

There was so much red velvet in places that it almost felt a bit like an over-the-top bordello (not that I've ever been one, but TV tells me that's what they look like).  Fortunately the stateliness of the building saves it from appearing to be more unsavory.

The library was particularly impressive.  Though the library in the Assemblée Nationale was MUCH more impressive, I wasn't able to take pictures there.  So instead I can only show its slightly less impressive cousin located in the Sénat.

Apparently the libraries are reserved specifically for the députés (delegates) so that they can read up on science, history, law, medicine, or any other subject that comes up in their bills.  That's why the collections there are so extensive and so well-maintained.  It's a far cry from the United States where legislators are given elevator briefings on important topics by half-informed interns just before they go in to a vote.

The last thing we visited in the Senate building was l'escalier d'honneur, or the grand staircase.  It was positively huge with (of course) a scarlet red and bright gold runner going down the entire thing.  Very imposing.

After leaving the Sénat, we had a short break for lunch then had our first class of the day.  After suffering through a miserable hour and fifteen minutes of french literature, we escaped and were dragged off the the Assemblée Nationale.  The Assemblée Nationale is across town, so we took a bus and arrived just in time for our appointment.

This building reminded me of a slightly more luxurious Capitol Hill.  Inside it was all classical style columns, Greek and Roman statues, and glossy marble.  There were even ceilings painted by Delacroix and David.  The main meeting room wasn't quite as opulent as the Senate building, but it was still very impressive.

After leaving the Assemblée Nationale we had one last class (French History), which ended at 5:30pm. After enduring such a long day full of classes and trips to government buildings I decided I needed a bit of retail therapy so I went shopping at some of the stores in the quartier.  I didn't find anything in the way of clothes, but I did by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's famous children's book Le Petit Prince.  In french with the original illustrations of course.

On my way home after shopping I stopped into a bakery nearby to get dinner and ended up talking with the owner for a good fifteen minutes.  It turns out that he was a French professor in Paris before retiring and opening a bakery.  He corrected a few of my pronunciation mistakes and talked to me a little about french literature before another customer came in and I left.  Chances are I'll be going back since I got a vegetable quiche, pain viennoise (basically chocolate chip bread), and a soda from 5 euros, a fantastic price.

I spent the rest of my night catching up on True Blood and hanging out with friends here at the Foyer.  I'm going to go to bed soon because I'm pretty tired and today was quite a long day, but it was definitely a good experience and a very different look at Paris.

P.S. Happy Birthday Lexie!!!!