Luxembourg Gardens - Queens’ Statues

Who said women don't get recognition in France? When you stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens, you can see twenty statues of Queens or ladies who played an important part in the history of France!

The most notorious figures are Sainte-Geneviève (Patron of Paris) ; Marie Stuart (also known as Mary Queen of Scots) ; Anne d'Autriche (wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV) ; Anne de Bretagne and of course, there is a statue of Marie de Medicis (second wife of Henry IV and mother of Louix XIII) who commissioned the gorgeous Luxembourg Palace, Gardens and Medicis Fountain.

Marie de Medicis did not however commissioned statues of all these ladies... They date back to 1840's, time of Louis-Philippe, third and very last king of France during the Restoration period (succeeding Napoleon I and precedding Napoleon III).