Hotel de Ville and the Eglise Réformée du Marais and Hotel de Sully

 I spent the afternoon at three places.  The first was the famous Hotel de Ville. Built in the mid-14th century, it is now the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Among many other famous events in its history, the Hotel de Ville is where Charles de Gaulle gave his speech during the Liberation of Paris when he greeted the crowd from a front window.  There is a Rodin sculpture of a famous 18th century mathematician, but was unable to locate it.  Unfortunately, I can't recall the mathematician's name either.  The facade is simply stunning. Today, they had a carnival in the piazza and were teaching young children how to play basketball. :)

When you walk around the back of the Hotel (the east side), you walk right into the facade of the L'église Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais. The church was built around the fourth century by wine merchants.  The church has been modified throughout the centuries and its current facade is French Baroque.  During WWI, a german bomb struck the church during the service on Good Friday collapsing the roof  killing nearly 100 people.  It was the greatest loss of civilian life during the war.  When parts of the church were rebuilt they left the scarring on some of the columns as a memorial. I photoshopped a picture indicating the visible damage.

The church has an amazing pipe organ.  There were people preparing for a musical performance and the organist was playing several chords when I was there.

All of the places we visited are in an area known as the Marais, meaning marsh. The area has long been a heavily populated Jewish area and, as a result, was targeted by the nazis during the occupation. There are many more wonderful churches that we did not visit, but these were wonderful

The next stop was the Eglise Réformée du Marais.  The church's facade shows a lot of scarring from the French Revolution and is badly in need of restoration.  Here are some pics of the interior.

Last stop of the day was Hotel de Sully. It was built in the 17th century as a hotel, with gardens and an orangery originally to be an entrance to the Place des Vosges.  The first courtyard has six sculptures in niches and four of theses represented the four seasons.  One of the niches was striking in its resemblance to Ingres' The Source, which I found remarkable.