Hotel de Ville

 This past weekend France had what they called the "Patrimony Days" which always a weekend during September in which they promote for people to get to know their national building and museums. During this days, there will either be a discounted entry fee, or no fee at all, as well as some exceptional openings of some buildings that are closed to the public the rest of the year.
Since I had to take this opportunity to visit places that are usually not opened to the public, on Saturday I decided to go to the Hotel de Ville, which is Paris' town hall. This building has a plaza in front of it, that used to be the main location for executions, such as hangings, burning of people, among others.
This building was burned at some point, and then rebuild, and fully redecorated, by painters and sculptors. The decorations evoke the magnificence of the cities famous festivities.

Entry staircase

Ceiling detail of one of the rooms

Detail of wall decorations (paintings)

Entry to the Salon de Arcades with decorations  dedicated to the science, arts, and literature

Sample of wall and part of ceiling decoration

Salon Georges Bertrand with decorations reflecting agriculture

Decoration detail

One of the statues decorating the room

Now here is the "salon de fetes" which is the main ball room with paintings all along the wall/ceiling depicting the main regional areas of France.

Entrance to the room

View of the ceiling

The "sale de fetes"

      

     

They also where showing the Library of the Hotel de Ville

     

After the Library you would be led into the Office of the former Mayor of Paris

     

They were also showing the Paris' Council room

     

After that, I went to the Mayor of Paris' office

Mayor's Anteroom, or waiting room

Mayor's Office

Mayor's Office

Mayor's Office

And that's it for the Hotel de Ville. Hope you can see a bit and get an idea of how pretty this place is.