If you love Paris, why not help imrpove its beauty!

The Louvre needs your help to restore the Arc du Carrousel, and the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes, close to our hotels, is inviting people to adopt an orangutan so as to enlarge their enclosure!

Almost every visitor to the Louvre has seen the Arc du Carrousel, like a mini-Arc de Triomphe that sits between the museum and the Tuileries Gardens. The monumenet dates from 1809, and at first glance it’s impressive.

However, if you look closely, the monument’s statues are curmbling, pieces of marble have fallen off, water drips through the cracks of the frescoes…

A crowdfunding campaign called Tous Mécènes has just been launched as part of a restoration programme that will start in 2020. The wholes will be repaired, the gold leaf redone, the soldier statues will be restored or replaced with identical copies, the marble will be treated aand the sceptre of Charles X on the top of the monument, which was removed in 1930 and put into storage will be replace with a bronze copy.

In total, the campaign hopes to raise 1M€ in around three months, and every donation receives a little gift in exchange:

– 30€ gets you two free tickets for the Louvre
– 200€ gets you a provate visit on a Tuesdayn the day the museum is closed
– 300€ gets you a free pass to the museum for a year
– 500€ will see you invited to a special evening event…

If you would like to donate, simply click here.

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If you prefer animals to arches ?, the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes has just launched its own crowdfunding project that you might find interesting.

The venerable establishment, which has just celebrated the birth of two snow panthers, is asking for 30,000€ (out of a total of 3M€) to help build an extension to the orangutan enclosure. Some of its residents are nearly 50!

Again, donations earn you little gifts:

– 50€ gives you one free entrance to the zoo,
– 80€ gives you two tickets
– 100€ will get you an invitation to a showing of a documentary in the Museum’s Grand Amphitheatre in the presence of the zoo’s head keeper
– 150€ earns you a year’s free pas to the zoo
– for 300€ you’ll get invites to all the opening parties for the Jardin des Plantes’ exhibitions…

…and if you’re feeling particularly generous (1.000€ / 5.000€) you’ll get a guided visit behind the scenes at the zoo!

30,000€ is the first target, but if more is collected, it will help a bridge to be built between the old enclosure and the new one, or aid construction of viewing stations for visitors.

To donate, click here.

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. ?? Tous mécènes de l’arc du Carrousel ! Le Louvre a besoin de vous pour restaurer son arc de triomphe, chef-d’œuvre construit par Napoléon Ier à son retour victorieux d’Austerlitz. ? Pour faire un don RDV dans nos stories instagram ! – ? Become a Patron of the Arc du Carrousel! The Louvre needs you to save its arch, masterpiece built by Napoleon Ist on his victorious return from Austerlitz. ? To make a donation take a look to our instagram stories! – ?©️ Olivier Ouadah / Musée du Louvre . . . . #louvre #louvremuseum #museedulouvre #TousMecenes #MonCarrousel

A post shared by Musée du Louvre (@museelouvre) on Oct 9, 2018 at 6:40am PDT