Les Journées du Patrimone

This was a great weekend to have as my first weekend in Paris because it was les Journée du Patrimonie. It's a weekend where many many buildings all over France that are usually not open to the public are open, and for free too! It's usually military, government or justice buildings that have too much security to be open year round. Often there are very long lines to get into them but I ended up waiting maybe an hour for the building I chose to visit which was L'Assemblée Nationale, the home of the French equivalent of our House of Representatives.

What was great was that the French were really taking advantage of this opportunity! While waiting in line, I noticed that almost all of the people in line were French, not tourists. There was a special pamphlet for the event and a television with a welcome message from the President of the Assemblée.

The building is the old Palais Bourbon, built by the Bourbon kings in the 1700s. One of my favorite things in the building was the Salle Delacroix, with murals painted by Delacroix.

There also was a very beautiful library which includes in it's collection a transcription of the trial of Joan of Arc! Some of Rousseau's documents are also housed there. Of course the entire building was surrounded by beautiful gardens that were impecably groomed. It was also very interesting to see where the Assemblée sits. There was a very large tapistry depicting the "School of Athens" by Raphael which is in the Vatican Museums. I thought it a nice choice.