Le Play
Le Play stands among trees and bushes in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris as a bronze statue by André Joseph Allar. Its tall marble pedestal gives this quiet garden spot a clear presence beside the surrounding paths.
André Joseph Allar created the sculpture in 1906 to honour Pierre Guillaume Frédéric Le Play, a French engineer, sociologist, and economist. Inscriptions on the pedestal recall Le Play’s work as inspector general of the mines and his survey of European workers. During the Second World War, someone found the statue at an ironmonger’s in 1945, after its removal from Paris. Restoration brought it back to the gardens in 1947, where wheelchair access makes the setting easier to reach.
The sculpture commemorates a thinker whose studies examined the social and economic conditions of working-class families across Europe. Its bronze figure, marble pedestal, and leafy surroundings bring that history together in one peaceful corner of the city.
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Image: JebulonPublic domain
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Paris. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.