Palais / Jardins du Luxembourg :

A real Parisian favorite, the Jardin du Luxembourg is a magnificent, 
harmonious 25-hectare green oasis on Paris' fashionable Left Bank. 
The formal gardens are populated with many statues (including one of 
Sainte-Gèneviève, patron saint of Paris), fountains and beautiful flowers. 
In the southwest corner, there is an orchard where several hundred species 
of apple and pear trees blossom each spring. Children love the park, too,
 especially for its parc à jeux (playground) and the théâtre des marionettes 
(puppet theater); they can also rent boats and sail them in the glassy ponds. 
Sunday afternoon band concerts draw a crowd in the summer. The sprawling 
grounds are usually animated by lovers, students, chess aficionados, games of 
boules, and tennis players.

During the 19th century the palace was extensively remodeled: the garden facade 
was added (1836-41) by Alphonse de Gisors, and a cycle of paintings (1845-47) by
 Eugène Delacroix was added to the library. The building was a prison during the 
Revolution, used for the peace conference of 1946, and now houses the French Senate.

The Luxembourg Palace in Paris, the first great example of French classical architecture
 during the 17th century, was the culmination of the long tradition of the chateau as a 
building type. It was commissioned in 1615 by Marie de Médicis, regent of France,
 for a site on the Left Bank then occupied by the Hôtel du Luxembourg, from which
 the name was derived. The regent favored an Italianate structure modeled after Palazzo
 Pitti in her native Florence, but the architect Salomon de Brosse followed a typically 
French layout of wings surrounding a court, with the chief living quarters and chapel
 facing the garden. The west wing was the original site of the paintings (1622-25; 
Louvre, Paris) by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the regent's life.

Designed by architect Salomon de Brosse as a Florentine palace for Marie de Medicis, 
built in the years 1615-1627 and surrounded by sumptuous gardens, the Palais also once 
served as a prison, and currently houses the Senate. Paintings by Rubens and Eugène 
Delacroix embellish the large gallery and the library.