Palais du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Palace), Paris

The Palais du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, north of the Jardin du Luxembourg, is the seat of the French Senate. The palace was built for Queen of France, Marie de Médicis, in a move that was perhaps intended to consolidate her hold on power, building being the time-honored way of expressing the solidity of one's place in society. The queen regent desired to make a palace similar to her native Florence's Palazzo Pitti; what she got instead was a French château dressed up in rustication vaguely inspired by the Pitti, but directly descended from the fortresses of the medieval era.

As for the queen, she would not see the work completed: her political machinations eventually have resulted in her being exiled from France by her own son, Louis XIII, in 1631, with her palace still unfinished. Curiously, it is not her name that has stuck to the building, but that of a certain François de Luxembourg, one-time owner of the adjoining "hôtel particulier" that today forms part of the Sénat complex.

All in all, the palace's design makes for a suitably majestic edifice, even in the absence today of the roofline statues, high, decorated chimneys and gilded ridgeline motifs that originally enlivened its attics. It remained in royal hands until the Revolution, at which time it was transformed into a prison to house major figures of the Revolution including Danton and Camille Desmoulins (the instigator of the French revolution) who were detained here in March 1794. After serving as a prison, it became home to the Directoire (1795), and later, in 1799, was occupied by the sénat conservateur, France's then second chamber.

Today, the Palace is only open to the public when the Senate does not meet. It is worth a waiting at a queue, having brilliant halls with painted ceilings, large libraries, rare paintings and statues. Also, you have the privilege to see the Senate Hall, where French senators debate important state problems.