Embark on a voyage along the Seine River

In the canon of French cuisine, few dishes are more universally loved than French onion soup—a savory blend of caramelized onions, beef stock and sherry topped with grilled Comté or Gruyère cheese. The origins of this classic soup stretch back thousands of years, and far beyond France. Recipes for onion broth can be traced to ancient Rome, and onion soup has been a staple for the less fortunate in almost every national cuisine, thanks to the ubiquity and affordability of the main ingredient. According to legend, however, it was a French monarch who elevated the humble soupe à l’oignon to regal status.

Allegedly, after a day of hunting, King Louis XV returned to his lodge to find the cupboards bare—save onions, butter and champagne. Cooking alongside his great aunt, who was visiting, the king threw everything into a pot, and a classic was born. While it’s hard to believe that an absolute monarch lacked a retinue of chefs and a well-stocked larder, the story remains a charming piece of folklore.

A slightly more plausible origin story centers on King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland. While he was en route to Versailles to visit his daughter, Queen Marie (the wife of Louis XV), he stopped at an inn in Champagne called La Pomme d’Or. The cook there was Nicolas Appert, known as the father of food preservation and canning. Stanislas was so taken with Appert's onion soup that he snuck into the kitchen at night to observe the chef. He then brought the recipe with him to Versailles. In 1831, Appert published a cookbook that included a recipe called onion soup à la Stanislas. Members of the court loved it, and soon, so did the rest of French society.

By the mid-19th century, it was common for workers and shoppers at the famed Parisian outdoor food market, Les Halles, to huddle around steaming cauldrons of onion soup. Soon, local restaurateurs added the coup de grace—the golden gratinée of bubbling cheese atop a crouton. In the wee hours, stevedores on their way to work and aristocrats leaving the cabarets would all seek out a bowl of what then became known as gratinée les Halles. Today, it remains the star dish at those same bistros, such as Au Pied de Cochon and the Poule au Pot.

Claude Monet is known as the “father of impressionism,” a radical artistic movement that broke away from the conventions of academic painting. Instead, it embraced freely applied colors, visible brushstrokes, blurred contours and a depiction of light that conveyed the passage of time. This movement introduced a new way of seeing the world and eventually extended beyond painting to other media, including music and literature.

The term “impressionism” was originally used derisively by a reviewer critiquing Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise. Monet and his fellow artists—including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pisarro, Édouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cézanne and others—proudly and defiantly adopted the label.

Among Monet’s most celebrated works are those inspired by Normandy, including the more than 30 paintings he made of Rouen Cathedral and his iconic series of water lily scenes painted in the gardens of his home in Giverny. Here are some important facts about his life:

• Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840 to a grocer father and singer mother. He was raised in Normandy.
• As a youth, Monet was mentored by Eugene Boudin, who taught him oil painting techniques and how to paint outdoors (en plein air).
• Monet moved to England in 1870 at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, where he was inspired by the artist John Constable.
• That same year he married Camille Doncieux. After the birth of their second child, they moved to Vetheuil and shared a house with wealthy department store owner Ernest Hoschede, his wife and their six children.
• Doncieux died from uterine cancer at age 32. Monet’s painting Camille on her Deathbed captures her passing with a blizzard of blue-gray brushstrokes that seem to be on the verge of enveloping her face. It was his final tribute to his wife.
• When Hoschede went bankrupt in 1878, he left his family. His wife Alice helped the widowed Monet care for his children. The two became romantically involved, and in 1883, the couple moved to Giverny with his two children and Alice’s six. They bought a large house with two acres of garden. The couple married in 1892, following Ernest Hoschede’s death.
• Despite failing eyesight and lung cancer, Monet painted until the day he died—on December 5, 1926, at age 86. At his funeral, his longtime friend, French statesman Georges Clemenceau, removed the black cloth draped over his coffin and replaced it with a floral one, exclaiming, “No black for Monet!” Monet is buried in Giverny cemetery.

Before 1623, Versailles was a tiny village nestled amid woodlands about 12 miles southwest of Paris. Louis XIII (1601-1643) proclaimed it as his favored hunting ground and built a modest château there—just two stories tall and surrounded by a moat. Given the excesses of royalty in the 17th century, several expansions followed, the most notable overseen by Louis XIV (1638-1715), the flamboyant “Sun King.”

Expansion began in the 1660s, and by the 1680s, the palace looked much like it does today. With an architectural style both sober and colossal, cohesive and stately, royal architect Jules Hardouin Mansart created a palatial wonder that became the model royal residence for other monarchs over the next 100 years. Beyond its vast scale, the lavish interior also astonished visitors. Marble, stucco, bronze and gold accented a rich array of frescoes, tapestries, furnishings, chandeliers and other opulent accessories.

Outside, the renowned landscape architect André Le Nôtre designed a 225-acre (43,560 sq ft.) garden—a series of geometric pathways lined with flowers, hedgerows, streams, ponds and fountains. Intended to be viewed from the western terrace of the palace, they stretched as far as the king could see, satisfying His Majesty’s belief that he even ruled nature. These landscapes remain the world’s finest example of the French formal garden. Altogether, Versailles unabashedly symbolized the power of the absolute monarchy.

Of its 700 rooms, the most famous is the Galerie des Glaces, or the Hall of Mirrors. Its 246-foot (75 m) length was impressive, but it was transformed into a glittering spectacle by the placement of 17 mirrors, each facing an arched window overlooking the gardens. More than 3,000 candles lit the hall during royal events. Most famously, the Treaty of Versailles was signed here, bringing an end to World War I.

Louis XIV moved his court of 6,000 here from Paris in 1682. In 1715, with his palace recently completed, the Sun King died, leaving the throne to his great-grandson, Louis XV. The new king was only five years old and was moved to Paris with Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was appointed regent. He returned to Versailles at age 12, once he came of age. After a lengthy reign, Louis XV died in 1774. His grandson Louis XVI was crowned as his successor.

During Louis XVI’s reign, the Peace of Paris of 1783 was signed at Versailles, giving the newly formed United States freedom from England. Famously, Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were removed from Versailles during the French Revolution, imprisoned and later executed in Paris.