Marguerite d'Angoulême

The Jardin du Luxembourg is a public park in Paris's sixth arrondissement, and the French Senate meets in the Palais du Luxembourg on its grounds. On the wheelchair-accessible western terrace rises the marble figure of Marguerite d'Angoulême, 2.3 metres tall. From her terrace you look over the formal central area of the garden to the grand bassin.

Marguerite was born in April 1492, sister to King François I of France. Her first marriage, to Charles IV of Alençon, was a political match that ended with his death in 1525. She then wed Henry II of Navarre and became its queen. Contemporaries ranked her among the most intellectual women of her era: she wrote poems and plays and supported the arts. When the Spanish captured her brother, she took a leading part in negotiating his release. Through her daughter Jeanne III of Navarre she was grandmother to Henry IV of France, so the Bourbon kings descend from her.

Joseph Stanislas Lescorne carved the figure in 1845. King Louis Philippe I commissioned a series, "Queens of France and Famous Women", meant to line the terraces above the pool. Look at her pose: one arm crosses her midriff, and the left index finger supports her chin. It is the gesture of a mind at work, and the marble keeps it there above the water.