After too much strenuous activity of bicycle riding and badminton in the country last weekend, I pulled my back out to the extent of having to pay an emergency visit to the chiropractor. Dr. Meldener, is located across the street from the Chapelle Expiatoire and I’ve passed this intriguing park many times but never made the time to see explore it. I decided to check it out and take full advantage of the pitch perfect sunny spring day. Chapelle Expiatoire is the former site of the Madeleine cemetery where King Louis XXVI and Marie Antoinette were both decapitated, and buried in 1793. Their bones were exhumed in 1815 and moved to the royal necropolis of St. Denis.
You would never know the headless Marie & Louis were thrown into a pit here, because today it is a small tranquil, lovely park with flower beds, a children’s play ground, and a handsome neo-classical chapel. The chapel, owned by Louis XVIII, was built in 1816 and designed by Pierre François Léonard Fontaine and Charles Percier. It took over 10 years to build and was completed in 1826.There’s a hall, two gantries and a vault, stylized after a Greco-Roman necropolis. Its nine arched arcades within the hall commemorate the Swiss Guards massacred at Tuileries Palace on August 10, 1792, while they were defending the Royal family. In 1862, the cypresses that surrounded the vault were cut down, and a public garden was created, with landscaping that isolates it from the busy and commercial boulevard Haussman.
Unfortunately, the chapel was closed the day I visited but I will go back soon. If you are looking for a peaceful retreat from the hubbub of Paris, grab yourself some lunch, park yourself on a dark green wooden bench and enjoy yourself. By the way, Dr. Meldener is an excellent chiropractor and kinesiologist (he speaks fluent English) if you are ever in need of one.
Dr. Richard Meldener
49 rue des Mathurins 75008
Tel. 01 42 65 87 20
Chapelle Expiatoire
29, rue Pasquier - Square Louis XVI , 75008
Call 01 42 65 35 80 for hours
Metro: Saint Augustin
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about including small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
"Chapelle Expiatoire is the former site of the Madeleine cemetery where King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were both decapitated, and buried in 1793. Their bones were exhumed in 1815 and moved to the royal necropolis of St. Denis."
En fait the unfortunate king and queen were not guillotined at the Chapelle Expiatoire but at the place de la Révolution, the present-day place de la Concorde.
Posted by: maitresse | May 06, 2007 at 10:23 AM
It was a little difficult to find
the location as it is hidden among law buildings, but we found the tour very interesting.
We were in Paris on April 9, 2007 and noticed they were making a WWII movie. Do you have any information about this movie? Thank you.
Posted by: Judy | May 12, 2007 at 01:55 PM
hi Judy,
thanks for yor comment. I'm sorry but i don'tknow what movie they were shooting. You can try
www.imdb.com to find out.
Posted by: richard | May 13, 2007 at 09:30 AM