Page 142 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Paris

140  P ARIS AREA B Y AREA

1 St-Germain-des- this area. The first-floor apart-
Prés ment and garden studio now
form a national museum, where
3 Pl St-Germain-des-Prés 75006. Map regular exhibitions of Delacroix’s
12 E4. Tel 01 55 42 81 10. q St- work are held. The apartment
Germain-des-Prés. Open 8am–7:45pm has a portrait of George Sand,
daily. Concerts (call ahead for times).
5 7pm Mon–Fri; 12:15pm, 7pm Sat; self-portraits, studies for future
11am, 5pm (in Spanish), 7pm Sun. 8 works and artistic memorabilia.
3pm Tue, Thu & 3rd Sun of month. Call The charm of Delacroix’s
01 55 42 81 18. = ∑ eglise-sgp.org garden is reflected in the tiny
Fürstenberg square. With its pair
This is the oldest church in Paris, of rare catalpa trees and old-
originating in 543 when King fashioned street lamps, the
Childebert built a basilica to square is one of Paris’s most
house holy relics. This became romantic corners.
a powerful Benedictine abbey, An ironwork detail from the façade of the
which was suppressed during Palais Abbatial
the French Revolution, when 4 Les Deux Magots
most of the buildings were was sold. James Pradier, the 6 Pl St-Germain-des-Prés 75006.
destroyed by a fire in 1794. One 19th-century sculp tor who was Map 12 E4. Tel 01 45 48 55 25.
of the Revolution’s most horrific famous for his female figures, q St-Germain-des-Prés. Open
episodes took established a studio here. The 7:30am–1am daily. Closed for one
place in a nearby palace is now noted for its week in Jan. ∑ lesdeuxmagots.com
monastery when mixture of building materials
318 priests were and its vertical windows. The café still trades on its
hacked to death reputation as the meeting
by the mob on 3 place of the city’s literary and
September 1792. intellectual elite. This derives
The present church from the patronage of Surrealist
dates from about artists and writers including
the 11th century Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s
and was restored in and 1930s, and existentialist
the 19th cen tury. philosophers and writers in
One of the three the 1950s.
original towers The present clientele is
survives, housing more likely to be publishers
one of the oldest or people-watchers than the
belfries in France. new Hemingway. The café’s
The interior is an Eugène Delacroix name comes from the two
Our Lady of interesting mix of wooden statues of Chinese
Consolation statue in architectural styles, 3 Musée Eugène commercial agents (magots)
St-Germain-des-Prés with some 6th- Delacroix that adorn one of the pillars.
century marble This is a good place for
columns, Gothic vaulting and 6 Rue de Fürstenberg 75006. Map 12 enjoying an old-fashioned
Romanesque arches. Famous E4. Tel 01 44 41 86 50. q St-Germain- hot chocolate and watching
tombs include those of René des-Prés, Mabillon. Open 9:30am– the world go by.
5:30pm Wed–Mon (last adm: 4:30pm).
Descartes, the poet Nicolas Closed 1 Jan, 1 May, 25 Dec. & (free
Boileau, and John Casimir, king of 1st Sun of month). 8 =
Poland, who later became abbot ∑ musee-delacroix.fr
of St-Germain-des-Prés in 1669.
The leading non-conformist
Romantic painter, Eugène
2 Palais Abbatial Delacroix, known for his
passionate and highly coloured
1–5 Rue de l’Abbaye 75006. Map 12
E4. q St-Germain-des-Prés. canvases, lived and worked here
Closed to the public. from 1857 to his death in 1863.
Here, he painted The Entomb­
This brick and stone palace ment of Christ and The Way to
was built in 1586 for Charles Calvary (which now hang in
of Bourbon who was cardinal- the museum). He also created
abbot of St-Germain and, very superb murals for the Chapel of
briefly, king of France. Ten more the Holy Angels in the nearby
abbots lived here until the St-Sulpice church, which is part
Revolu tion, when the build ing of the reason why he moved to The interior of Les Deux Magots

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