The palace that gives its name to the arrondissement was founded by Marie de’ Medici and built on the model of the Pitti palace at Florence by Salomon de Brosse between the years 1615-20. The site chosen was in the neighbourhood of the vast monastery and extensive grounds of the Chartreux. The duc de Luxembourg had an _hôtel_ there. It was sold to the Queen and razed; but vainly was the new edifice on the spot called by its builder “Palais Médicis.” The name of the razed mansion prevailed over that of the Queen. A garden was begun in 1613 on a space in the Abbey grounds where, in a previous age, a Roman camp had stretched. [Illustration: JARDIN ET PALAIS DU LUXEMBOURG] Marie left the palace to her second son, Gaston d’Orléans. It was the abode of various royal personages till the outbreak of the Revolution. Then it became a prison. Camille Desmoulins and many of his compeers were shut up there. The Chartreux fled and their monastery was levelled with the ground. The Terror over, the palace became successively Palais des Directeurs, Sénat Conservateur, Chambre des Pairs and, in 1852, Sénat Impérial. After Sedan it became the Sénat de la République. The gardens were extended across the property of the Chartreux. They are beautiful gardens. The Renaissance fountain is the work of Jacques de Brosse. The statues we see on every side among the lawns and the flower-beds, in the shady alleys, most of them the work of noted sculptors, show us famous men and women of every period of French history from Ste-Bathilde and Ste-Geneviève to our own day. The Petit Luxembourg is also due to Marie de’ Medici, built a few years after the completion of the larger palace. From the day of its inauguration by Richelieu it knew many inhabitants of note: Barras, Buonaparte and Joséphine, etc., sojourned there. It was used at one time as a senate house, then as a Préfecture. We see in an adjacent wall a marble _mètre_--the standard measure put there under the Directoire. Finally the mansion was chosen as the official residence of the president of the Senate.