Palais Bourbon - Paris, France
Posted by: 
manchanegra
N 48° 51.744 E 002° 19.134
31U E 450045 N 5412383
The Palais Bourbon is a palace located on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde, Paris. It´s the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government.
Waymark Code: WMCT9K
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 10/10/2011
Views: 47
The palace was originally built for the legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan - Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, duchesse de Bourbon, to a design by the Italian architect Lorenzo Giardini, approved by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Giardini oversaw the actual construction from 1722 until his death in 1724, after which Jacques Gabriel took over, assisted by L'Assurance and other designers, until its completion in 1728.
Rather than a palace, for it was not a royal seat of power, the French termed it a maison de plaisance overlooking the Seine, facing the Tuileries to the east and the developing Champs-Élysées on the west. At the start it was composed of a principal block with simple wings ending in matching pavilions. Bosquets of trees—planted in orderly rank and file—and parterres separated it from the nearby Hôtel de Lassay. In 1756 Louis XV bought it for the Crown, then sold it to the grandson of the Duchess, Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, for whom Jacques-Germain Soufflot directed an enlargement in 1765.
The first National Assembly was held during the French Revolution. when the Palais Bourbon was nationalized, and the Council of the Five Hundred met in the palace from 1798. Then, as part of Napoleon's plans for a more monumental Paris, Fontanes, the president of the Corps législatif as it was now called, commissioned the magnificent pedimented portico by architect Bernard Poyet, added to the front of the Palais that faces the Place de la Concorde from the south. It mirrors the similar classicizing portico of the Madeleine, visible at the far end of the rue Royale.
The Bourbon-Palace is open to groups invited by members of the Assemblée nationale. Non invited can only see the palace from the outside.
Text from wikipedia and parisinfo.com
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