- From Place des Vosges we follow the Seine to come upon gardens that are serene today
- At the end of the 18th century this was the place to see and be seen...
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 - "Palais-Royal promenade", 1787
This epicenter of fashion meant that people came to meet. Cafés sprang up and with them, discussions. Palais-Royal became the place from which the new ideas of liberty, equality an fraternity radiated out.
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The demand for "equality" was particularly subversive. Put into practice, it shattered the privileges by which nobles maintained their power. The pace-setters were middle-class...
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- The site where the Revolution began
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 - "I jumped up on a table..." and made the celebrated call to arms.
The crowd that attacked the Bastille gelled in front of the café that sold the least expensive ice cream.
These gardens belonged to a radical-chic prince who encouraged the agitation...
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and who, as a member of the revolutinary government, voted for the execution of his cousin, Louis XVI. Decades later, that vote contributed to permanently ending the possibiity of monarchy in France. For a glimpse of that story, please CLICK...
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The Bastille was a medieval fortress to which kings could send anyone on whim, making it a symbol of tyranny. The crowd shown above seized it by force on July 14, 1789. That event is considered the start of the "French Revolution" (to be explained). July 14 remains France's national holiday and Russian revolutionaries sang the French national anthemt until the Soviet revolution in 1917... |
- A last royal Place, to guillotine a king and queen
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 - Place de la Concorde
The spectacular Place de la Concorde is the frontier between royal and modern Paris. Last of the great royal spaces, its boundary is open to the west, anticipating coming expansion.
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The guillotine towered over the Place on the spot where the Obelisk stands now. Here Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were guillotined separately in 1793.
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- The kings re-enter History...
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 - The sublime panorama that saved our city.
...when the beauty they created saved Paris from Nazi destruction. We end this story with the Liberation and how Paris didn't burn. |
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For "déjeuner" we recommend traditional restaurants whose price-quality ratio is excellent, even in this highly commercial part of town.
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For tea or an apéritif, we suggest one of the great hotels, because their story directly fits in with the end of our walk.
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Credit: I8th-century illustrations / flea-market copies, origins not given ; photos / Claude Abron
