Journees du Patrimoine

This past weekend was the Journees du Patrimoine, which is when historic buildings are open to the public. Our arrondissement had many of these places, so many that it was hard to decided what to see. I knew that I wanted to see l'Hotel de Beauvais, because many years ago we peaked into the courtyard when the gate was open, and saw the placque about Mozart playing there when he was a child. The place was dirty, appeared to be used as apartments, from the mail boxes in the stairway, but now it's renovated and being used for government purposes. We waited briefly on line, then were pointed to join a group and listened while a guide spoke about the place...in French. I caught some of it, Chuck more than he thought (like Doric column) he would, and with the guide giving directional gestures, we knew where to focus our attention. The place was beautiful. We got to go down into the lower level, quite far under ground, with a high ceiling, and good contemporary lighting, but we have no idea what they used the place for. The date for this building: 1655!