We follow the river to the harmonious gardins where Monarchy was first defied, then, strolling through the Tuileries, arrive at grandiose Place Concorde, site of the kings' demise. |
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 - "Palais-Royal promenade", 1787
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Toward the end of the 18th century, these gardens became the center of gastronomy and pleasure, and so the hub from which fashion and the new ideas of liberty and equality radiated out.
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Put into practice, these ideas were to shatter nobles' privileges, which were brakes on capitalism. The pace-setters were middle-class...
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- Where the Revolution began
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 - "I jumped up on a table..." (Camille Desmoulins)
It was in front of a Palais-Royal ice-cream parlor that the crowd that stormed the Bastille took shape. Yet the garden's owner was the king's cousin. By voting for Louis's execution, he doomed not only his relative, but the monarchy itself... |
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- A last royal Place, to guillotine a king and queen
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 - Vigée-Lebrun, "Marie-Antoinette in 1784" ...
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 - and in 1793 (David's sketch from window)
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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.
We tell about nobles who knew how to die.
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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 interesting traditional restaurants whose price-quality ratio is excellent, even in this highly touristic area.
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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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Eighteenth-century illustrations / engravings, origin not given
•Top of page
•Walking into history
•Ramparts, gates & arches
•"Royal Way"
•Crossroads, gods & governors
•The Left Bank: brains & taverns
•Rise of an empowered monarchy
