What is Luxembourg Palace?
[[File:Veüe du Palais d'Orléans appelé Luxembourg - Hustin 1904 p8.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The building while home of [[Gaston, Duke of Orléans]].]] [[File:Luxembourg palace panorama.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Panorama of the gardens.]] The '''Luxembourg Palace''' (known in French as the '''''Palais du Luxembourg''''') is a former royal palace in [[Paris]], [[France]]. Since 1958 it has been the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic. ==Brief history== The palace was originally built in 1612 by [[Marie de' Medici]] on lands she owned.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.senat.fr/lng/en/the_luxembourg_palace.html |title=The Luxembourg Palace |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Sénat |accessdate=14 March 2015}}</ref> The [[design]] was based on [[building]]s from her native [[Florence]]. The building is often compared to the far larger [[Palazzo Pitti]] where Queen Marie was born in 1575. In 1642, Marie left the Luxembourg to her second and favourite son, [[Gaston, Duke of Orléans]]. He called it the ''Palais d'Orléans'' but it was still known by its original name. Upon Gaston's death, the palace passed to his widow, Marguerite of Lorraine. Then it passed to his elder daughter by his first marriage, [[La Grande Mademoiselle]]. [[File:Plcelux.png|thumb|The inside of the palace|left]]In 1660, Anne de Montpensier sold the Luxembourg to her younger half-sister, Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans, Duchess of Guise. The Duchess, in turn, gave it to her cousin, king [[Louis XIV]], in 1694. In 1717 [[Philippe, Duke of Orléans, Regent of France]] gave the palace to his favourite daughter the Duchess of Berry. The building became [[wikt:infamous|infamous]] for the duchess's parties and sexual activities. She also [[wikt:host|host]]ed [[Peter the great]] there in 1717. The pregnancies of the young widow make scandal. At the end of March 1719, a new confinement badly prepared by her excesses, goes very badly. On the verge of death, she begs for extreme unction, which the church refuses her. On April 2, she is delivered of a stillbo