The Palais Royal is a palace and garden located near the first arrondissement of Paris. It was constructed in the 17th century for Cardinal Richelieu, and was the residence of Louis XVI during his childhood.
Built for Cardinal Richelieu, the Palais Royal was begun in 1624 and created by architect Jacques Lemercier. Originally known as the Palais Cardinal, Richelieu bequeathed it to the French Crown. After Louis XIII died, it housed the Queen-Mother Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin and later the young Louis XIV. Later it became the Paris seat of the dukes of Orleans, a branch of the ruling House of Bourbon.
Today it houses the Conseil d'État, the Constitutional Council, and the Ministry of Culture. At the rear of the garden are the older edifices of the Bibliothèque Nationale, the national library, which houses a collection of more than 6 million books, maps, prints and documents.
In a more recent development, a huge controversy ensued in 1980, when Daniel Buren added striped columns, which were seen as out of character for the somber palace. But today, as seen from many beautiful apartments in Paris, a number of neighboring establishments have adopted the striped style of the columns, making it a hallmark look for the area.
Unbeknownst to many passers-by, a long rectangular garden lies behind the Palais Royal, surrounded by some shops, restaurants and art galleries. It’s hidden by rows of identical buildings that encircle it from every side. Look for the little doorways that allow you to get there.
The history of the Palais is actually quite fascinating and filled with interesting developments. It actually began as a small private theatre in the residence of Cardinal Richelieu. The theatre was, in fact, the first theatre in France, with movable scenery wings. After his death it became royal property in accordance with his will and was used for shows and entertainment.
In an interesting bit of history, as you will learn when seeing the sights from one of our vacation apartment in Paris, the uprising which led to the fall of the Bastille began in the gardens of this palace. On July 12, 1789, Camille Desmoulins, a young agitator, leapt on a café table and announced to the crowd that Necker had been dismissed. Drawing two pistols from under his coat, he declared that he would not be taken alive. "Aux armes" (“To arms!”), he cried. He descended amid the embraces of the crowd, his cry echoing on all sides. Two days later, the Bastille was taken.
From the late 18th century to 1837 the Palais Royal was the center of Parisian political and social intrigue and the site of the most popular cafés. There were many lovely paris apartments, then and now: many of them unchanged on the outside. The historic restaurant "Le Grand Vefour" still stands here. In 1786 a noon cannon was set up by a philosophical amateur, set on the prime meridian of Paris, in which the sun's noon rays, passing through a lens, lit the cannon's fuse. The noon cannon is still fired at the Palais-Royal today.
Later in the French Revolution, the gardens were opened to the public and arcades built to attract upscale shopping: the same type of shopping you will enjoy from your Paris apartment rental Palais Royal. (In yet another interesting historical aside, the knife used to murder Jean Marat was purchased here). It remained a center of Paris social life until the mid-19th century, when it was looted during the Revolution of 1848.
Under the Second Empire the Palais-Royal was home to the cadet branch of the Bonaparte family, represented by Prince Napoleon, Napoleon III's cousin.
The light and lively Style Régence, that presaged the future rococo, was for a time in evidence here. The Regent's more intimate Petits Appartements, and his gallery painted with Virgilian subjects by Coypel, were all demolished in 1784, for the installation of the Théâtre-Français, now the Comédie- Française.
The Palais Brion is a separate pavilion standing along rue Richelieu, to the west of the Palais-Royal, which been purchased by Louis XIV from the heirs of Cardinal Richelieu. Under the care of official court historian André Félibien, the royal collection of antiquities was installed at the Palais Brion in 1673.
During the minority of Louis XV, the regent of France Philip II, Duke of Orléans, ruled from the Palais-Royal. The Orléans did not occupy the northeast wing, where Anne of Austria had her apartments, but the Palais Brion, where the future Regent when duc de Chartres commissioned the decor of the Grand Appartement. The Regent's great-grandson, Louis Philip II, Duke of Orléans, who would become known as "Philippe-Egalité" during the more radical phase of the Revolution, opened the gardens of the Palais-Royal to all Parisians and employed the neoclassical architect Victor Louis to rebuild the structures around the palace gardens. Previously these had simply been the backs of houses. He also enclosed the gardens with regular colonnades lined with nice shops. Along the galeries ladies of the night lingered, and gambling casinos were lodged in second-floor quarters.
A theatre could be found at each end of the galleries; the larger one has been the seat of the Comédie-Française, the state theatre company, since Napoleon's reign. Under Louis XIV, the theater hosted plays by Molière, from 1660 to Molière's death in 1673, followed by the Opera under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Take a stroll by the Seine, head to the first arrondissement and will see this beautiful Palais, located in the heart of Paris and a mere stone’s throw from the Louvre, Tuileries and all that Paris has to offer.
