Paris History and Fun Facts

Basia in Louvre, Paris 2019

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zCrdvJhWmyF44sR57

1.  There were 15 windmills in Montmartre and today there are only 2 left. They were owned by one family. The windmills were able to produce flour for the whole city for the whole year.

2.   For a long time Montmartre was a country village, organized around 12th-century Benedictine abbey and occupied by peasants craftsman, and millers.

3.  The only two remaining windmills today are the Radet and the Blute-Fin. These windmills, together with gardens and a farm, made up the Moulin de la Galette, famous for its popular ball immortalized by Renoir.

4.  Pierre-Auguste Renoir rented space at 12 rue Cortot in 1876 to paint Bal du Moulin de la Galette, showing a dance at Montmartre on a Sunday afternoon.

5.  Maurice Utrillo lived at the same address from 1906 to 1914, Suzanne Valadon, his mother, es well, and Raoul Dufy shared an atelier there from 1901 to 1911. The building is now the Musee de Montmartre. Montmartre is primarily known for its artistic history, the white-domed Basilica with the Sacre-Coeur on its summit, and as a nightclub district.

6.  Suzanne Valadon: Artist, Mistress, Model and Muse of Montmartre had a son, Maurice but didn’t know who the father was. Finally a famous artist Miguel Utrillo gave Maurice his name. Since then Suzanne’s son was named Maurice Utrillo.     https://bonjourparis.com/history/women-who-shaped-paris/suzanne-valadon/

7.  Basilica Sacre-Coeur stands for the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The Basilica of the Sacre-Coeur was built on Montmartre between 1876 and 1919, financed by public subscription as a gesture of expiation for the suffering of the city during the Franco-Prussian War and the 1871 Paris Commune. Its white dome is a visible landmark of the city. On the Place du Tertre the  artists set up their easels, tables and colorful umbrellas to create the new pieces of art each day.

8.  Near the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the twentieth many artists lived in, had studios, or worked in or around Montmartre, including Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Suzanne Valadon, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, and Vincent van Gogh.

9.  Montmartre is also the setting for several movies. The movie "Amelie" was shot in the bar called Cafe des Deux Moulins. Amelie worked there as a waitress.

10. Saint Denis, a Christian bishop, was decapitated on the hilltop of Montmartre in 250 AD on orders of the Roman prefect for preaching the Christian faith to the Gallo-Roman inhabitants of Lutetia.  Lutetia was the original name of Paris. Saint Denis after being decapitated held his head in his hands for six hours and then he died.

11. The Parisi tribe, who was not Christian, changed the capital’s name from Lutetia to Paris.

12. There is a small vineyard in the Rue Saint-Vincent, the last one in Paris, which continues the tradition of wine production in the Île de France. The vineyard produces  about 500 liters per year. The vineyards were owned by the church, the Benedictine abbey. All of them were sold, because the church didn't get funding from the government. In 1930, the artists asked the city to make a vineyard in thanks of all of the vineyards. The wine is poor quality but still expensive. The money the vineyard makes is given to charity. On the second week of October there is a wine tasting festival with 5000 people attending the event.

13. Moulin Rouge, means red windmill in French, and it is a cabaret. The original house, which burned down in 1915, was co-founded in 1889 by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia, originally opera, ballet and music hall, later a cinema and now a concert venue. Moulin Rouge is marked by the red windmill on its roof. Located in Montmartre in the Paris district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th Arrondissement. The closest metro station is Blanche.

14. Blonche means white. Blonche station near Moulin Rouge is called Blonche because it is made out of marble. It is designed in the form of Arte Nuevo, meaning new art. It was possible to build it because of the industrialization. Blonche station was built in 1901.

15. Moulin Rouge is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. Originally introduced as a seductive dance by the courtesans who operated from the site. The can-can dance evolved into a form of entertainment of its own and led to the introduction of cabarets across Europe. Today, the Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction, offering musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. The club's decor still contains much of the romance of fin de siècle France. Nowadays the dancers are carefully selected, well educated as professional dancers and very pretty. They usually come from Russia. It is prestigious to be a Moulin Rouge dancer.

16. Musical performances were and still are presented in Moulin Rouge. The play ticket costs $100-200 because the producers invest millions to put on a show.

17. Polish-American brought the Polka dance to Paris. Polka is defined as a vivacious couple dance of Bohemian origin in duple time. It was a basic pattern of hop-step-close-step. A lively Bohemian dance tunes in 2/4 time.

18. In just over a decade Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter, created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.

19. His interest in art began at a young age. He was encouraged to draw as a child by his mother, and his early drawings are expressive, but do not approach the intensity of his later work.

20. Van Gogh though that his brother Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was selling his paintings but he never did.

21. Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting. Theo died at the age of 33, six months after his brother Vincent died at the age of 37.

22. Vincent Van Gogh's brother "Theo" was the most important person to him. The brothers communicated over letters. There are more than 600 letters from Vincent to Theo and around 40 from Theo to Vincent. Vincent loved writing and wrote his letters to many different people in Dutch, French and English.

23. Vincent Van Gogh lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend the money Theo sent him on painting materials and models. Bread, coffee and tobacco became his main diet. In February 1886 he wrote to Theo that he could only remember eating six hot meals since the previous May. His teeth became loose and painful.

24. In March 1886 Van Gogh moved to Paris where he shared Theo's rue Laval apartment in Montmartre, and studied at Fernand Cormon’s studio. In June the brothers took a larger flat at 54 rue Lepic. In Paris, Vincent painted portraits of his friends, still life paintings, views of Le Moulin de la Galette, scenes in Montmartre, Asnieres and along the Seine River. Conflicts arose between the brothers. At the end of 1886 Theo found living with Vincent to be "almost unbearable." Van Gogh moved to Asnieres, a northwestern suburb of Paris, where was more peaceful and could work on his paintings.

25. Vincent Van Gogh suffered from schizophrenia, psychotic episodes and delusions. He heard voices in his head and though the voices would stop if he cut off his ears, but they didn't.

26. On May 1, 1888, Van Gogh rented four rooms in Arles, France. He occupied two large ones on the ground floor to serve as an atelier (workshop) and kitchen, and on the first floor, two smaller ones facing Place Lamartine. The window on the first floor near the corner with both shutters open is that of Van Gogh's guest room, where Paul Gauguin lived for nine weeks from late October 1888. Behind the next window, with one shutter closed, was Van Gogh's bedroom. The two small rooms at the rear were rented by Van Gogh at a later time.

27. On one of his painting “Bedroom in Arles” Vincent drew a symbolic chair which was always waiting for his aunt to sit on.

28. Van Gogh's nephew and namesake, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890–1978), Teo’s son, inherited the estate after his mother's death in 1925. During the early 1950's he arranged for the publication of a complete edition of the letters presented in four volumes and several languages. He then began negotiations with the Dutch government to subsidies a foundation to purchase and house the entire collection. Theo's son participated in planning the project in the hope that the works would be exhibited under the best possible conditions. The project began in 1963; architect Garrit Rietveld was commissioned to design it, and after his death in 1964 Kisho Kurokawa took charge. Work progressed throughout the 1960's, with 1972 as the target for its grand opening.

29. The Van Gogh Museum opened in the Museumplein in Amsterdam in 1973. It became the second most popular museum in the Netherlands, regularly receiving more than 1.5 million visitors a year. In 2015 it had a record 1.9 million. 85 percent of the visitors come from other countries. https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/stories/brotherly-love#0

30. Galette from the Norman word gale meaning flat cake is a term used in French cuisine to designate various types of flat round or free form crusty cookies. Galette cookies are very famous simple cookies still found in bakeries. Galette were ate by workers.

31. Breton galette is a pancake made with buckwheat flour usually with a savory filling.

32. A baguette is a long, thin loaf of French bread that is commonly made from basic lean dough. It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust. A baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 cm and a usual length of about 65 cm.

33. Once a year there is a baguette contest in France. The competition is known as the “Grand Prix de la Baguette de Traditional Francaise de la Ville De Paris”. Every year a winner is chosen by a panel of judges using a complex scoring system to award the title of the best baguette in Paris for that year.

34. Lapin Agile is a famous Montmartre cabaret, at 22 Rue des Saules, 18th Arrondissement of Paris, France. It existed in 1860 under the name Au rendez-vous des voleurs. Some twenty years later the walls were decorated with portraits of famous murderers and the place became known as the Cabaret des Assassins. The legend said that the cabaret received this name because a band of gangsters broke in and killed the owner's son in a robbery attempt.  

35. In 1875, the artist Andre Gill painted the sign that was to suggest its permanent name, Lapin Agile. It was a picture of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan, and residents began calling their neighborhood night-club Le Lapin à Gill, meaning Gill's rabbit. Over time, the name had evolved into Cabaret Au Lapin Agile, or the Nimble Rabbit Cabaret. The original painting on canvas was stolen in 1893; a reproduction on timber was painted to take its place.

36. The Lapin Agile painting was bought in the early twentieth century by the cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant to save it from demolition. The Lapin Agile became a favorite spot for struggling artists and writers, including Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, and Utrillo.

37. The Lapin Agile is located in the center of the Montmartre district in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris, behind and slightly northwest of Sacre Coeur Basilica. Since this was the heart of artistic Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, there was much discussion at the cabaret about "the meaning of art."

38. The Lapin Agile also was popular with Montmartre residents including pimps, eccentrics, poorer people, local anarchists, as well as with students from the Latin Quarter and a sprinkling of upper-class bourgeoisie.

39. Au Lapin Agile is a 1905 painting by Pablo Picasso. The harlequin is a self-portrait of the artist. Pablo Picasso made a printing to pay for his food in that cabaret bar. Pablo Picasso's 1905 oil painting, Au Lapin Aglie (At the Lapin Agile) helped to make this cabaret world-famous. The cabaret was often captured on canvas by another Montmartre artist, Maurice Utrillo.

40. Frédéric Gérard (depicted in the painting playing the guitar) commissioned the painting for $20 and exhibited it at its namesake Montmartre cabaret, the Au Lapin Aglie, from 1905 to 1912.

41. On November 27, 1989, Walter H. Annenberg bought the painting at auction from the Joan Whitney Payson family for $ 41 million. He gave the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Montmartre, Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, Saint Denis, Lutetia, Musée de Montmartre, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,  PaulGauguin, Suzanne Valadon, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, MauriceUtrillo, Raoul Dufy, Apollinaire, and Vincent van Gogh.  VanGogh Museum,  AndreGill, AristideBruant, LatinQuarter

42. Dalida was the biggest French pop star, born in Egypt to Italian parents. She was depressed and committed suicide in the age of 54. She left a note "Life is unbearable for me... Forgive me." She is buried in Montmartre. There is a statue of her where she lived.

43. Bistros are called that way because Russian soldiers were not allowed to drink alcohol but they wanted to do so. They were shouting to the bartenders “biastro,” what means "quickly," not to be caught by their officers.

44. The Basilica Sacre-Coeur stands on top of the hill of Montmartre, but, before its construction, this place was already a place of worship. Paganism used to be practiced and Gallo-roman temples were once built there in dedication to Mercure and Mars. Being the highest point of the city, this place has always been chosen by the believers, due to the feeling of being closer to the sky, which holds the idea of being closer to god, to heaven and forgiveness in Catholicism.

45. The first Christian sanctuary was built on that site in 270 AD in honor of Paris’ first bishop, St. Denis. According to the legend the Patron Saint was beheaded there by the Romans. After his execution the body of Denis would have picked its head up and started to walk while the mouth was delivering a complete sermon. The body stopped its stroll somehow and at the site where it fell completely dead was later erected a small shrine: the present-day St. Denys-la-Chapelle. The name was eventually anglicized as Sydney.

46. In 1870 the French army was defeated by the Prussians army. Alexandre Legentil, a believer, wanted to relieve the French people from the pain and the humiliation they went through. He wanted the French people to feel better and to rise again, giving them a new basilica. The purpose of the church was to protect the French, but also for them to be forgiven for all their sins since the French Revolution. Legentil managed to get a law from the National Assembly declaring that the construction of the Sacre-Coeur was of public interest.

47. The Sacre-Coeur was designed by Paul Abadie and build between 1875 and 1914. The architectural style is Romano-byzantine and was inspired by churches, like Hagia Sofia in Constantinople and San Marco in Venice. Both the exterior and interior architecture of the Sacre-Coeur are in Romano-byzantine style. The construction of the church was financed by the faithful Parisians through generous donations.

48. One of the most impressive things about The Sacre-Coeur is its whiteness. Paul Abadie chosen a very specific stone for the construction of the Sacre-Coeur.  It is the same stone that was used for the Arc de Triomphe and the Alexandre III Bridge in Paris. It is very resistant and water does not infiltrate. In fact, in contact with water, when it rains, the stones release a substance, called “calcite” that cleans the stone and enables it to keep its white color. Many Parisian didn't like the Basilica Sacre-Coeur. They said “It is big and white and looks like a wedding cake.”

49. Many people contributed to the construction of the church. For example, the Savoie, a French department located in the Alps, offered a gigantic bell called the “Savoyarde“, melted by the Paccard company. They brought the bell to the Sacre-Coeur in 1895 with the help of 21 horses that dragged the bell to the top of hill of Montmartre. The “Savoyarde” is one of the biggest and heaviest bells in the world, it weighs about 19 tons.

50. Louis IX was the King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is the only canonized king of France, leading to him being commonly referred to as 'Saint Louis'. King Louis IX was canonized in the Sacre-Coeur.

51. The Sacre-Coeur is the second highest point of the city after Eiffel Tower. The Sacre-Coeur comes rights after, because it was built on top of the Montmartre hill, at a height of 130 meters. Both the dome and the bell tower is 91 meters tall. The total height of the Sacre-Coeur is of 213 meters while the Eiffel Tower is 300 meters above the sea level.

52. The Sacre-Coeur welcomes more than 10 million visitors per year, while the Notre Dame welcomes about 13 million visitors per year. After the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Sacre-Coeur is the most visited church in France.

53. The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel for the Universal exposition. Each country presented their own pavilion, France showed The Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was opened in 1919. It was postponed by 5 years because of the World War I. Parisians thought that the Eiffel Tower was ugly and wanted to tear it down. Gustave Eiffel helped save the tower by putting a radio antenna to revolutionaries the radio tech. At that time it put the tower as the tallest building in the world.

54. The Eiffel Tower was useful during the World War II because French army could spy on the Axis Powers and collaborators, and communicate through the antenna.

55. The Eiffel Tower is the most visited place after the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. 13 million people visit the Eiffel Tower each year.

56. Paris city was reconstructed through 1850-1870. During the Second French Empire, the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (1852–1870), Paris was the largest city in continental  Europe and a leading center for finance, commerce, fashion, and the arts. The population of the city grew dramatically, from about one million to two million people, partially because the city was greatly enlarged through the annexation of eleven surrounding communes. These additions, which led to the creation of eight new arrondissements, brought the city to its present boundaries.

57. In 1853, Napoleon III and his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugene Haussmann, began a massive public works project, constructing new boulevards and parks, theaters, markets and monuments, a project he continued seventeen years until his downfall.

58. The Latin Quarter is the oldest district of Paris. It was called this way because an official language at the Sorbonne University was Latin. It is where the first university of Paris was built.

59. The Sorbonne University is one of the oldest universities in the world and it was opened in 1217.

60. Many important people are buried in the Pantheon de Paris, ex. Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille, Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Jean Jaurès and Soufflot, its architect.

61. The Luxembourg garden is the most beautiful garden in Paris. It was inspired by the Boboli Gardens in Florence and created in 1612 upon the initiative of Queen Marie de Medici, the widow of Henry IV. Dating back from the XVII century, Luxembourg gardens were the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace.

62. The Notre Dame Cathedral was built between 1163 and 1345. It took almost 200 years. It is designed in the Gothic style. The Gothic style buildings were tall to be closer to God and to honor Him. One of the first flying buttresses were used in the construction of  the Notre Dame Cathedral to distribute the weight of walls. The architects wanted them to look light as the God is light. There were gargoyles on the roof to scare away bad creatures like them and also they served as water pipes. The church authority wanted a symmetry in the church because symmetry represents perfection which means the glory of God.  At the same time they had to build the church a little imperfect because only God can be totally perfect. The cathedral has numerous statues and stained glass windows. There were about 100 stone men/sculptures with heads chopped off by invaders. In the 1970’s the heads were found  hidden in an old hospital.

63. People back then couldn't understand messes because they were led in Latin so many scenes were drawn and painted to help those people understand the bible.

64. The Notre Dame Cathedral become famous thanks to Victor Hugo’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame” published in 1831.

65. The roof was one of the most modern part of the cathedral.  It was made out of medieval wood but on 15 April 2019 it was completely destroyed by fire. The spire of the Notre Dame is totally lost. One red rose window is damaged.

66. 2,200 years ago the Gallic tribe Parisii built their oppidum Lutetia on the small island (Ile de la Cité) that stood in a shallow section of the Seine River. The Parisii built their immense wealth and influence from hunting and fishing, but mostly from the river trade. They erected their Governors Palace on the site of the current Palais de Justice, and their Temple of Jupiter on Notre-DameCathedral's. The antic walled city or Cité and its forum, jail, markets, shops and dwellings stretched between these two major buildings. Lutetia kept thriving after the Roman conquest of 52 BC, as the Romans installed their local administration on the island. The town was Christianized in the 3rd century AD, and after the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was occupied by Clovis I, the King of the Franks, who made it his capital in 508. Finally the city was called Paris to honor the first people in Paris. He converted the old Governors Palace into a royal residence, which his successors improved and enlarged until the 14th century.

67. The Palais de Justice (Palace of Justic), formerly the Palais de la Cité (Palace of the City), is located on the Boulevard du Palais. It includes  King Louis IX's private chapel called the Sainte-Chapelle, and Conciergerie, the medieval prison,  now a museum, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before being executed on the guillotine. From the sixteenth century to the French Revolution this was the seat of the Parlement de Paris. In 1367, Charles V deserted the Ile de la Cité and moved the Parliament in the old royal palace. The Salle Haute was converted into the Law Courts waiting room, Salle des Pas-Perdus and led to the Supreme Court of Parliament (the current First Civil Court).

68. The Saint Chapel was built between 1238 and 1248. Louis IX was a strategic king. He bought the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ and the cross, and placed them in the Saint Chapel. They came straight from Constantinople. People start coming to Paris to see the relics. Paris became a city of pilgrimage, tourism and prosperity. It has one of the most extensive 13th-century stained glass collections anywhere in the world. The chapel suffered its most grievous destruction in the late eighteenth century during the French Revolution, when the steeple and baldachin  were removed, the relics dispersed (although some survive as the "relicsofSainte-Chapelle" at Notre Dame de Paris), and various reliquaries, including the grande chase, were melted down.

69. The French Revolution was a period of time in France when the people overthrew the monarchy and took control of the government. The French Revolution lasted 10 years from 1789 to 1799. It began on July 14, 1789 when revolutionaries stormed a prison called the Bastille.

70. Causes of the French Revolution was political conflict between the Monarchy and the nobility over the “reform” of the tax system led to paralysis and bankruptcy.

71. The French revolution was successful in its struggle to achieve rights and freedom for the common populace of France. The absolute power of the French monarchy was beginning to collapse as the lower class attained more rights and privileges that allowed them to control their destiny in the government.

72. The French Revolution failed to establish a constitutional monarchy or a representative government. France began with the absolute monarch of Louis XVI in 1789 and ended with the military dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte. After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d'état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804.

73. Paris started mobilizing for WWII in September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, but the war arrived to France on May 10, 1940, when the Germans attacked France and quickly defeated the French army. The French government departed Paris on June 10, 1940 and the Germans occupied the city on June 14, 1940.

74. Adolf Hitler, arrived to Paris on June 24 for a rapid tour by car. He was accompanied by the German sculptor Arno Brekerand and by his chief architect, Albert Speer, both of whom had lived in Paris and guided his tour. He saw the Opera House and viewed the Eiffel Tower from the terrace of the Palace of Chaillot because the lift cables were cut by the French, visited Napoleon's tomb, and the artist's quarter of Montmartre during his first and only visit to Paris. German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and it was replaced by a smaller one.

75. Paris became the primary destination for the rest and recreation of German soldiers. Under the slogan "Jeder einmal in Paris" ("everyone once in Paris"), each German soldier was promised one visit to Paris.

76. General Dietrich von Choltitz has been called the Saviour of Paris for preventing its destruction. He was an unrepentant Nazi, and had been ordered by Hitler to leave the city a "heap of burning ruins." Hitler said that if he couldn't have Paris, no one could and ordered to detonate the bombs, which cowered 90 percent of the city. They were placed in the main monuments. General von Choltitz realized the battle of Paris was lost, and he did not want to be captured by the Resistance. He ignored Hitler's orders and arranged a truce. In the afternoon of August 25, 1944 he traveled from his headquarters to the headquarters of General Leclerc, where, at about 3pm he and Leclerc signed a surrender. The occupation of Paris was officially over. Paris was liberated by French and American troops on 25 August 1944.

77. General Dietrich Von Choltitz and his family were kidnapped in Germany on their way to Berlin. He was only considered a soldier and wouldn't get good head for of as the main general he really was. As a punishment he only got 4 years in prison and safely returned to his family and lived long healthy life. He died on November 5,  1966 (aged 71) in Baden-Baden, West Germany https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_in_World_War_II

78. Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans", is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War against England. She was a 17 year old girl when she asked the king to let her fight in the war like a man. She said that God sent her to help France.

79. At age 18 she led the French army to victory over the English at Orléans. Captured a year later, in the 4th battle, on May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake as a heretic by the English and their French collaborators. In the trial Joan was ordered to answer to some 70 charges against her, including witchcraft, heresy and dressing like a man. After her death her mother was trying to clear her name and finally after 25 years Joan of Arc was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint and became the patron saint of soldiers and of France. To this day Joan of Arc is a Symbol of Freedom. She is one of the most important female figure of France.

80. The oldest and the first public clock in Paris is the Conciergerie on Île de la Cité. It dates back to 1371. The statues on either side are representing Law and Justice. Justice doesn't have covered eyes because it shows that the king is always watching.

81. King Henry II and his wife Catherine de' Medici are represented on the clock.

82. Catherine de' Medici, queen consort of Henry II of France (reigned 1547–59) and subsequently regent of France (1560–74) was important to the development of ballet because she introduced stylistic influences from her Italian homeland into the French court.

83. Diane de Poitiers was King Henry II mistress and was influencing his decisions.

84. When King Henry II was exercising on his horse a sharp spire injured his eye and brain. Catherine de' Medici was desperate to cure her husband. She ordered the doctors to wound some prisoners the same way her husband was wounded to let them practice different treatments on the patients. Nothing worked. King Henry II died of sepsis 10 days after the accident. It was a very long and painful death.

85. Catherine de' Medici threw Diana out of France. She took power in her hands and was a successful leader.  She is most remembered as the Queen Mother to her three sons, who successively became Kings of France and relied on Catherine’s guidance through the 16th century Wars of Religion.

86. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Calvinist Protestants, or Huguenots, as they became known. She failed, however, to grasp the theological issues that drove their movement. Later she resorted, in frustration and anger, to hardline policies against them. In return, she came to be blamed for the excessive persecutions carried out under her sons' rule, in particular for the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, in which estimated  3,000 French Protestants called Huguenots were killed in Paris and as many as 70,000 in all of France. The impact of the massacre was profound. Persecution of Protestants officially ended with the Edict of Versailles, signed by Louis XVI in 1787.

87. The first of the Bourbon kings of France, Henry IV brought unity and prosperity to the country after the ruinous 16th-century Wars of Religion. Though he was not a great strategist, his courage and gallantry made him a great military leader.

88. King Henry IV also known by the epithet Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre. King Henry was loved because he was generous. He let every peasant family get a chicken for lunch every Sunday. He didn't let people be prosecuted for the religion. He had many mistresses and illegitimate children.

89. Henry was the subject of numerous attempts on his life.  Henry's coach was stopped by traffic congestion related to the Queen's coronation ceremony. He was finally killed in Paris on May 14, 1610 by a Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac, who stabbed him in the stomach in the Rue de la Ferronnerie.

90. François Ravaillac was put in the dungeon and tortured for 7 days (all of his fingers were fractured.) He was condemned to die publicly for people to be afraid in the future. On May 27, 1610 he was taken to the Place de Grève in Paris and was tortured one last time before being pulled apart by four horses, a method of execution reserved for regicides. "Before being drawn and quartered... he was scalded with burning sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin, his flesh then being torn by pincers." Following his execution, Ravaillac's parents were forced into exile, and the rest of his family was ordered never to use the name "Ravaillac" again.

91. The Pont Neuf is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia, and during the medieval period, the heart of the city.

92. King Philip IV of France, called Philip the Fair, was King of France from 1285 until his death on 29 November 1314. He set his sights on the fabled riches of the Knights Templar.  He had a debt. He asked the Knights Templar gave him a loan and they did. He and the pope made an alliance. His aim was to destroy the Templar Order and confiscate all their treasuries and properties in France, but he had to achieve it legally.

93. At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, later to be tortured in locations such as the tower at Chinon, into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order. Then they were put to death.

94. The head of the Knights Templar put a curse on the king before he died. 2 months later the king died. 6 months later the pope died. 2 sons of Philip the IV also died. There was the Bubonic plague and crops didn't grow. Many people starved. They believed that it was the result of the curse.

95. The Bridge of Locks, or the Bridge of Love, fell into the Seine River because of the heavy weight of the locks. The mayor ordered to cut them off and prohibited to put the new locks on.

96. The French Academy has a lot about the French language and is on one side of the bridge of love and on the other side there is Louvre.

97. The Louvre was originally built as a fortress in 1190 by King Philippe Auguste as a defensive fortress, by the 14th century the Palais du Louvre had become a pleasant residence that occasionally served as a royal home. In 1534 Francis I became the first French king to make the Louvre his residence to serve as a royal palace. Over time, a royal estate gradually developed. Louis XV lived in the Tuileries Palace until 1722, then moved to Versailles. From 1725 to 1789 the Louvre Palace was once again let to artists.

98. The National Assembly opened the Louvre as a museum in August 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings. Louvre is the second biggest museum in the world after the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.

99. The Louvre Museum is 10 km long in galleries. If you ever have 100 days spare, you could probably squeeze in every piece of art, but you could only spend 30 seconds on each piece, and that's if you were there all day, every day. It used to be free, for any social class but not anymore.

100. The British Museum was built before Louver, but only rich could go there.

101. In the Louver Museum there is a whole room given just for Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and there is still not enough space for the crowd to enjoy it. Mona Lisa become famous in 1911 after it was stolen. The burglar felt that Mona Lisa belongs to Italy that’s why he took it back to his country. After the incident many people came to see the empty space on the wall. Now Mona Lisa is well secured behind a thick and bulletproof glass.

102. In 1981 the glass pyramids were built in front of the Louvre museum to serve as the entrance. The biggest pyramid has 666 glass panels. Only president Mitterrand wanted the pyramids. There are many speculations why, but nobody knows for sure. Parisians hate them. In the space where the glass pyramids are now was a parking lot and the entrance used to be on the Rivoli Street.

103. Louis XIV became a king at the age of 4. Later he proclaimed himself Sun King so people had to revolve around him, like the planets around the Sun.

104. Later he built himself a new palace in Versailles, 20 km away from Paris. It was a strategic decision. He did it because he wasn't trusted by the bolt who wanted to manipulate him and kill him. He didn't punish them. He brought nobility closer to him, to his new palace. Everything showed that the king is more powerful than you.

105. The addition on for the Louvre Palace has statues of people who help the society move forward.

106.  The black Montparnasse Tower is a skyscraper and it is hideous.

What I like about art:

When it is detailed.
When it depicts winter.
When it is happy.
When it has lot of light.
When there are animals, especially cows.
When it has chunks of paint and looks like 3D.