Palais-Royal

Palais-Royal review

Built for Cardinal Richelieu by Jacques Lemercier, the building was once known as the Palais Cardinal. Richelieu left it to Louis XIII, whose widow Anne d'Autriche preferred it to the chilly Louvre and rechristened it when she moved in with her son, the young Louis XIV.

In the 1780s the Duc d'Orléans, Louis XVI's fun-loving brother, enclosed the gardens in a three-storey peristyle and filled it with cafés, shops, theatres, sideshows and accommodation to raise money for rebuilding the burned-down opera. In contrast to Versailles, the Palais-Royal was a place for people of all classes to mingle in, and its arcades were a trysting venue. Daniel Buren's modern installation of black-and-white striped columns graces the main courtyard; the stately buildings around it house the Conseil d'Etat and ministry of culture.