In the summer of 1909, Lenin spent a month’s holiday from mid-August to mid-September in a cheap guesthouse in Bombon, together with his mother and sister.
In 1981, it was in Bombon that Jean Girault’s film “La soupe aux choux” was shot with Louis de Funès, Jean Carmet and Jacques Villeret.
Its name comes from the old French “espesse” which means thickness, a dense wood, itself derived from the lower Latin spissum. It is therefore easy to imagine that at the time, its tower and crenellations dominated thick thickets and were surrounded by a real forest.
Its origins are very old, we find it cited for the first time in 1285, in the charter of sharing of the viscounty of Melun between the two brothers Adam and John; John has in his share the cens and rents of the Epoisses.
In 1878, on the occasion of the World Fair, the Epoisses estate became famous when an exhibition of agricultural equipment was held there, which was very popular at the time and attracted a huge crowd of about 20,000 people. The Minister of Agriculture, prefects, senators, general councillors of the department, foreigners, Kabyle chiefs and Japanese people gathered to admire the miracle of the first harvester which, driven by a single man, cut, bind and shape sheaves of wheat.
Despite its name, the Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge in town. It was built between 1578 and 1607 to a design by Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau.
Emmanuel is the big church bell of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the second biggest bell in France, after the Savoyard bell in the campanile of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre, also in Paris.
It is only rung on major religious occasions (major Catholic holidays) or civil occasions, in order to preserve it. It is also sounded for sad events (ex: Charlie hebdo). The bell weighs a total of 13 t and its clapper weighs 500 kg. The diameter at the base of the bell is 2.62 m. Before it was motorized, it had to be operated by eight men.
The Eiffel Tower has been re-painted 18 times since its initial construction, an average of once every seven years. It has changed colour several times, passing from red-brown to yellow-ochre, then to chestnut brown and finally to the bronze of today, slightly shaded off towards the top to ensure that the colour is perceived to be the same all the way up as it stands against the Paris sky.
25 painters strip, clean, apply rust-proofing and the final coat of paint to the whole 300 metres.
It should be mentioned that even today the painters still work using traditional methods dating back to Gustave Eiffel’s day – the painting of the Eiffel Tower is done only by hand! All “remote” work is forbidden, and so the painters must have the brush in their hand. Paint guns are of course ruled out.
Both the brasserie on the first floor and the class restaurant on the second floor are run by Sodexo! The Jules Verne restaurant on the second floor has even been awarded a Michelin star. The cuisine is led by 3-star chef Frédéric Anton (Pré-Catalan) and the offer was co-developed by two-star and celebrity chef Thierry Marx.