Paris France Temple, Modern religious temple in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, France.
The Paris France Temple is a limestone building with a flat roof, a central section rising above two wings, and a tall arched window with white mullions above glass entrance doors. Its design draws on the Palace of Versailles and French monuments. The 2.26-acre site includes gardens, courtyards, and a visitors' center with a reproduction of Thorvaldsen's Christus statue.
A temple in France was first mentioned by Spencer W. Kimball in 1976, and Gordon B. Hinckley renewed the promise in 1998. The Le Chesnay site, a former EDF-GDF facility used from 1971 to 2011, was bought in 2009; the building permit was issued on 27 October 2011. Ground was broken on 24 August 2012 without a ceremony, work began in November 2013, and Henry B. Eyring dedicated the temple on 21 May 2017.
In Latter-day Saint teaching the temple is the "house of the Lord", the most sacred place on earth, where worthy members receive individual and family ordinances, including eternal marriage held to last beyond death. The Paris temple was the first built in metropolitan France, the second in France after the Papeete Tahiti Temple, in service since 1984. Its art-glass windows carry floral motifs based on plants native to France and on Claude Monet's garden designs, and the decor draws on the fleur-de-lis.
The site lies on boulevard Saint-Antoine in Le Chesnay, about 20 km west of Paris, with its main entrance at number 46; the boulevard marks the boundary with Versailles, and the Saint-Antoine gate of the Palace of Versailles park is close by. Reach it by the A13 motorway or on foot from Versailles-Rive-Droite station, as no bus serves the temple directly. The gardens are open to the public.
The Paris France Temple has no steeple and no angel Moroni statue, one of only four LDS temples of its kind at the time of construction, alongside Cardston Alberta, Laie Hawaii and Mesa Arizona. Its flat roofline follows local limestone buildings rather than standard temple design.
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