JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG

We are in the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens) let’s walk over to the fountain de Marie de Medici. The building you see is now the senate: this building was constructed and decorated by Marie de Medici to be her Palace.

Marie de’ Medici:

Queen of France was the second wife of Henry the IV of France. The day following her coronation in 1610, Henry IV was mysteriously assassinated. It was always rumored she may had been responsible, a suspicion which persisted throughout her life.

Henry IV and Marie de Medici had six children; the marriage had not been a happy one. Marie was often at odds with Henry IV and his mistresses. You know what they say, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

It was a well-known fact that Henry IV of Navarre and of France, her husband, was not a wealthy man, she brought her own fortune from Florence to finance French expeditions and projects.

After Henry’s assassination, Marie started construction on the Luxembourg Palace and acted as regent for her son King Louis the XIII of France. When he came of age in 1617, at 15, he exiled his mother to Blois (not a bad place to be, but it wasn’t Paris).

In 1621, with Richelieu’s help, (you remember Richelieu that clever French clergyman and statesman), she reconciled with her son and returned to Paris, where she devoted herself to the construction and decorating of the Luxembourg Palace. Peter Paul Rubens was commissioned by Marie to paint 24 paintings of her life, and family for the Palace. 

Marie de Medici was permanently banned from France by her son in 1631 and died in exile, in 1642 a lonely woman. 

Her life was filled with machinations, intrigues, and implications of political scandals.

This is the fountain of Marie de Medici, a beautiful and peaceful place.  It is perfect to come here to read, write, reflect, and meditate a complete contrast to her tumultuous life.