• facebook
  • twitter
  • pinterest
  • 500px
  • instagram
  • flickr
  • google
  • rss

Travel To Eat

Look...Learn...Eat...Live

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Categories
    • Arabia
    • Belgium
    • Bridges and Buildings
    • California
    • Cathedrals & Churches
    • Clocks and Astrolabes
    • Colorado
    • Cooking and Recipes
    • Egypt
    • Ethiopia
    • Events
    • Food and Drinks
    • France
      • Versailles
      • Paris
      • Rouen and Normandy
    • Plants and Gardens
    • History
    • Jewels and Jewelry
    • Las Vegas
    • London
    • Maps
    • Monument
    • Museums
      • Painting
      • Sculpture
      • The Louvre
      • British Museum
    • Portugal
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • Rome
    • This and That
  • Blog
  • Glossary

September 17, 2013 by Max Distro LLC

Loire Valley and French History

Wine Regions of the Loire Valley

Wine Regions of the Loire Valley

The architectural heritage in the Loire Valley's historic towns is notable, especially its châteaux, such as the Château d'Amboise, Château de Chambord, Château de Chinon, Château du Rivau, Château d'Ussé, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau. The châteaux, numbering more than three hundred, represent a nation of builders starting with the necessary castle fortifications in the 10th century to the splendor of those built half a millennium later. When the French kings began constructing their huge châteaux here, the nobility, not wanting or even daring to be far from the seat of power, followed suit. Their presence in the lush, fertile valley began attracting the very best landscape designers and architects. The Loire Valley is an area steeped in history and because of its riches, one that has been fought over and influenced by a variety of adversaries from the Romans to Atila the Hun. The formation of the region as we know it today began after its conquest by Julius Caesar in 52 BC. It is however, Emperor Augustus who is credited with bringing peace and stability to the Loire Valley. This stability saw the growth of towns such as Orleans (Genabum), Tours (Caesarodunum), Le Mans (Noviodunum), Angers (Juliomagus), Bourges (Avaricum) and Chartres (Autricum). The Roman's greatest influence however might be considered to be the introduction of the first grape vines to the region, as shown in the wine AOC map shown above.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: France, History, Loire Valley Tagged With: Angevin Empire, Anjou, Aquitaine, Black Death, Blois, Brittany, Bubonic Plague, Burgundy, Calais, Castle of Angers, Castle of Chinon, Catherine de Medici, Catherine de Médicis, Catholic League, Chambord, Charlemagne, Charles VI of France, Charles VII, Charles VII of France, Château Chenonceau, Château Clos Lucé, Château d'Amboise, Château de Blois, Château de Chinon, Chenonceau, Chinon, Duke of Burgundy, Duke of Guise, Duke of Orléans, France, Francis I, French Religious Wars, Fulk III, Fulk IV, Fulk V, Gascony, Geoffrey V, Henry Curtmantle, Henry II, Henry II of England, Henry II of France, Henry III, Henry III of France, Henry IV, Henry IV of France, Henry of Navarre, Henry V of England, History, Hugenots, Hugh Capet, Joan d'Arc, Joan of Arc, King Henry III of England, King Philip VI, Lancasters, Leonardo da Vinci, Loire Valley, Maine, Nantes, Normandy, Orléans, Philip II Augustus, Plantagenêt, Poitou, Queen Claude of France, Richard the Lionheart, Touraine, Treaty of Verdun, Tudors, War of the Roses, William the Conquerer, Yorks

October 1, 2012 by Max Distro LLC

The Pont Neuf and Pont des Arts

The Pont Neuf. Paris, France

The Pont Neuf. Paris, France

The Pont Neuf runs between the right and left banks of the Seine River in the middle of Paris, on its way touching one end of the Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame stands. As you can see in the photograph it is divided into two parts, one of seven arches joining the right bank to the Île de la Cité, another of five joining the island to the left bank. The little park in the center is called Square du Vert-Galant, a park named in honor of Henry IV, who was nicknamed the “Green Gallant”. The park is a great place to relax if you are at Notre Dame or the Louvre, go up to the other end of the island if you are at Notre Dame or just down from the Louvre. The best views are from the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge just upstream, which is why I included both in the post. Get some ice creme from Berthillon (see my post) or bring a lunch.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Bridges and Buildings, France, Paris Tagged With: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, France, Henry IV, Kurt Buzard MD, Napoleon I, Paris, Pont des Arts, Pont Neuf, The Louvre

September 21, 2012 by Max Distro LLC

Galerie des Batailles, Versailles

Galerie des Batailles, Versailles

Galerie des Batailles, Versailles

The Hall of Battles is longer than the Hall of Mirrors, 394 feet, and is lined with huge paintings of French victories through the ages, including oils by Delacroix and Fragonard. Its creation was the idea of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French and it replaced apartments which had been occupied in the 17th and 18th centuries. There are literally hundreds of busts and 39 paintings, I will not present them all.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: History, Museums, Painting, Versailles, Weapons and War Tagged With: Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard, Brittany, Catholic, Charles the Bold, Eugène Delacroix, Galerie des Batailles, Hall of Battles, Henry IV, King Clovis, King Henery VIII, King Louis VII, Kurt Buzard MD, Louis XIV, Museums, Painting, Palace of Versailles, Saint Louis, The Siege of Yorktown, Versailles, William the Conquerer

September 10, 2012 by Max Distro LLC

Palace of Versailles, the Entrance

Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

Versailles started out as a hunting lodge for King Louis XIII. When Louis XIII was younger, he had accompanied his father King Henry IV on hunting trips to the estate of Albert de Gondi, a French general originally from Florence. At this time, Versailles was a fair distance from Paris, heavily forested, with only about 500 people living around an old castle. In 1622 Louis XIII bought land for his private hunting reserve and in 1624 bought more land to build a small hunting lodge on top of a hill. In 1634 he bought the rest of the land and gradually enlarged the building to a small chateau by 1635.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: France, History, Monument, Museums, Painting, Sculpture, Versailles Tagged With: Andre Le Notre, Chapel of the Palace of Versailles, Charles Le Brun, He, Henery III, Henry IV, Kurt Buzard MD, Louis Le Vau, Louis XIV, Mansart, Marble Courtyard of the Palace of Versailles, Palace of Versailles, Philip XIII, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles

July 28, 2012 by Max Distro LLC

French Maritime Museum, Paris

Napoleon III Visit to Genes, Maritime Museum Paris

Napoleon III Visit to Genes, Maritime Museum Paris

If you are visiting the Eiffel tower and looking for something else to do, you might consider the French Maritime Museum at the Trocadero, the largest in the world. Apart from Napoleon’s canot, seen below, another striking feature in the first room at the Paris Musée de la Marine is the painting of the arrival of Napoleon III at Gênes in 1859, by Théodore Gudin seen above.

Napoleon I Canot, French Maritime Museum at the Trocadero, Paris

Napoleon I Canot, French Maritime Museum at the Trocadero, Paris

In 1748, Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau offered a collection of models of ships and naval installations to Louis XV of France, with the request that the items be displayed at the Louvre and made available to students of the Naval engineers school, which Duhamel headed. The collection was put on display in 1752, in a room of the first floor, next to the Academy of Sciences; the room was called “Salle de Marine” (Navy room), and was used for teaching. King Charles X decided to create the maritime museum in 1827, which he named the Musée Dauphin but after 1830 the name was changed to what we know it as today, the Musée de Marine.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: France, History, Museums, Painting, Paris, Sculpture Tagged With: Cannon, Chevalier de Tourville, French Maritime Museum, Henry IV, Henry V, Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager, Jean-François Hue, Kurt Buzard MD, Le Louis Quinze, Louis XIV, Louis-Philippe Crépin, Model Ships, Musee de la Marine, Museums, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, Painting, Paul Emmanuel Gallard-Lepinay, Sculpture, Théodore Gudin, Valmy, Venguer

Search the Site

Site Tags

Africa Ancient Egypt Auckland Australia Birds Birdwatching Botswana British Museum California Cappadocia Cathedrals & Churches Colorado Costa Rica Denver Eiffel Tower Flowers France Garden Istanbul Kunsthistorisches Museum Kurt Buzard MD Larco Museum Las Vegas Lima London Louis XIV Madagascar Mesopotamia Montreal Museums Napoleon I Napoleon III Nevada New Zealand Normandy Painting Paris Peru Restaurant Sculpture Sydney The Louvre Tomatoes Turkey Vienna

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on Twitter

Welcome to Travel to Eat

This website has been redesigned from the ground up to make it easier for you, the reader to find posts that might interest you. Just click on a photo to select the topic or the blog for the most recent posts

Buzardweb@gmail.com

Civilization

Every society has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique. Because ancient civilizations continue to influence us today, and because I love history, I have devoted many posts to prehistory and ancient civilizations.

About the Blog

This blog is a collection of my thoughts on places, things and places, that I find interesting. There are no advertisements, no cookies and I do not share your email address with anyone. I hope you enjoy your visit and I hope you will return and leave a comment.

Subscribe Us

Copyright © 2021 · Travel To Eat · Built on the Genesis Framework