.: Paris, Seine & Trocadero

29.6.18

Paris, Seine & Trocadero

And I am back in Paris again! gotta love this city... the vibrant, the sun, the color and the diversity of the people... Been spending a good week at my cousin. It was fabulous as always...

Apollon Musagete (Apollo with Lyre) is in front of the Palais de Chaillot on the terrace overlooking the Jardins du Trocadero (Trocadero is in 16th Arrondissement of Paris). This statue was sculpted by Henri Bouchard. Henri Bouchard was actually born in Dijon in 1875 and initially studied art & sculpture in his home town before going to Paris & entering the Ecole des Beau Arts, winning the Prix de Rome in 1901, which meant he could further his studies at the Villa Medici in Italy.

The Jardins du Trocadéro occupy the open space bounded to the northwest by the wings of the Palais de Chaillot and to the southeast by the Seine and the Pont d'Iéna.

The present garden has an area of 93,930 square metres (23.21 acres) and was created for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937), on the design of architect Roger-Henri Expert. The entire site was formerly the garden of the old Palais du Trocadéro, laid out by Jean-Charles Alphand.

Trocadero...

we were taking the tourist boat on Seine river...

The Pont Alexandre III is a deck arch bridge that spans the Seine in Paris. It connects the Champs-Élysées quarter with those of the Invalides and Eiffel Tower. The bridge is widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the city. It is classified as a French Monument historique since 1975. The Beaux-Arts style bridge, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses at either end, was built between 1896 and 1900. It is named after Tsar Alexander III, who had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892. His son Nicholas II laid the foundation stone in October 1896. The style of the bridge reflects that of the Grand Palais, to which it leads on the right bank. The construction of the bridge is a marvel of 19th century engineering, consisting of a 6 metres high single span steel arch. The design, by the architects Joseph Cassien-Bernard and Gaston Cousin, was constrained by the need to keep the bridge from obscuring the view of the Champs-Élysées or the Invalides.

The bridge was built by the engineers Jean Résal and Amédée d'Alby. It was inaugurated in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle (world's fair).

The Nymph reliefs are at the centers of the arches over the Seine, memorials to the Franco-Russian Alliance. The Nymphs of the Seine has a relief of the arms of Paris, and faces the Nymphs of the Neva with the arms of Imperial Russia. They are both are executed in hammered copper over forms by Georges Récipon.