I have a test tomorrow in my French painting class, and here's a brief snippet from my notes that I'm studying (just for those who might be curious):
"La forme de la salle de bal ne se prête pas aisément à la décoration peinte. Commencée sous François Ier en 1540, elle fut achevée sous le règne de son fils Henri II. Conçue à l'origine comme une loggia à l'italienne, c'est-à-dire une galerie ouverte de part et d'autre, elle devait étre surmontée d'une voûte. A la mort de François Ier en 1547, un autre parti fut adopté et on décida de fermer la loggia, qui fut couverte d'un plafond à caisson et on commanda le décor au Primatice. Les fresques ornent les écoinçons qu se rejoignent au-dessus des arcs."
I've been studying today. Yesterday I went exploring in parts of Paris I had yet to see (Rue du Rivoli, le Marais, etc.) and went shopping without really buying much (some leggings and a shirt). I've been making a list of what to get people for Christmas so I can have it all ready and packed before I have to leave to go home on the 20th of December.
I took the first photo with my iPhone as I walked back to St. Michel last night across Pont Neuf. This is where I live. The second is one of the courtyards of the Louvre.
And on Friday after class, I went on a tour of Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie. Sainte Chapelle is a small chapel built by St. Louis, aka Louis IX, in the 13the century. It was Louis's private chapel that he had direct access to from his chambers in the royal palace that used to exist there (and what remains of it is the Conciergerie which became a prison in the Revolution—Marie Antoinette spent her last few weeks there). It's very well preserved, 2/3 of the stain-glass windows are original and there's still painting on the walls which most Medieval cathedrals have lost. Because way back when, the cathedrals on the inside and outside were painted on every surface. They weren't gray stone towers, they were colorful and decorative. Sainte Chapelle is a good example on the inside of what they used to look like. It's also celebrated for the enormous ceilings held up by walls that are almost entirely stain-glass (or they appear to be. There's support from the lower level, where the servants of the king were allowed to pray.)
This is the bottom section of the cathedral:
The Conciergerie was built originally as a royal palace, occupied first by Hughes Capet (my ancestor!). But under Charles VII, the royal residence was moved to the Louvre, because he witnessed the murder of his father's advisors in the Conciergerie (the advisors were killed and laid out on the king's marble table in front of the Dauphin, Charles VII). The Conciergerie was mostly destroyed: the grand hall was burned to the ground after the death of Henri IV, and what remains are a few towers and the salle des gens d'armes (room of the men of arms). They have some recreations of cells during the Revolution, as well as a small corner of Marie Antoinette's original cell which is now a sort of memorial to the queen, created under the restored monarchy. The walls are painted black with tears. In the other half of what used to be her cell is a recreation of what her cell looked like when she occupied it. I didn't take many pictures here because A) I didn't have my camera, only my phone, and B) I went there last summer. I did take pictures of anything to do with Antoinette because I happen to be a fan.
The recreation of her cell:
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