Plan de Paris - Turgot's Map of Paris in 1739

As the renovation process with our new home dragged on....

I was planning how I would decorate our new space.

There was one piece of artwork that we had been saving for a special place and I knew exactly where it would go.  Come on in and see the "after"......

I had been wanting a copy of Turgot's Historical Map of Paris published in 1739.  While in France, I searched the flea markets and book shops of Paris searching for a vintage version of this perfect souvenir.  I had no luck.

We finally found our map in Kansas City of all places!  We had seen it on a shop wall and the owner offered it to us at half price because he was taking it down to decorate for the holidays.  It was very large and since we were flying we turned down his kind offer.  It was one of those decisions you come to regret. 

This past May, about a year and a half later, we returned to that shop and I mentioned our regret over missing out on that opportunity while chatting with the shop owner.  "You're in luck" he said!  He had stored it in the basement and he kindly offered it to us at a great sale price.  This time we said "YES"!  We packed it in large shipping tubes, crossed our fingers that it would find its way back to Florida and it did....and now it hangs in our new living room....

According to Wikimedia.org.... 

"Turgot's map of Paris is possibly the most ambitious urban mapping ever undertaken. Shows the whole of 18th century Paris and offers a wonderful perspective on the city prior to Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann’s 19th-century redesign. Turgot, who held the mayor-like office of Prévôt des Marchands de Paris , commissioned Louis Bretez and Claude Lucas to produce this map in 1734. Oriented to the east on an axonometrical projection, this map is best understood as an aerial view where in every building, window, tree, shadow and park is shown. It took the team nearly five years of exhaustive sketching and surveying to assemble this masterpiece. In order to produce the thousands of sketches and surveys required to complete this map, Bretez was issued a permit to enter every building in Paris."

As my husband is an Urban Planner and I am such a dork about anything related to Paris, I feel like this is the perfect piece of art for our home.

And it's also useful!  While reading my French history books, I can go to the wall and locate the exact building or streets to put everything into perspective.  Not to mention that I am easily distracted during TV commercials and find myself retracing our steps when we were in Paris last year.  I see something new every time I look at it.

See Notre Dame?



...and the Louvre....

...and the Tuileries Palace which long ago burned down.....

Although the shop we purchased this from no longer has this map in stock, you can find a copy at Restoration Hardware, shown below....

 

...or with Majesty Maps,  HERE

 

 

xo ~ Joy