Paris, France vacations ...
The Palais-Royal is a palace and an associated garden located in the first arrondissement of Paris. It stands opposite the north wing of the Louvre, and its famous forecourt (cour d'honneur), screened with
columns and, since 1986, containing Daniel Buren's site-specific artpiece, Les Deux Plateaux, faces the Place du Palais-Royal.
Originally, the palace was the home of Cardinal Richelieu. He hired the architect Jacques Lemercier to design it. It was completed in 1629. During the lifetime of the cardinal, the palace was known as the Palais-Cardinal. Upon his death in 1642, Richelieu bequeathed his lavish residence to the French Crown. After Louis XIII died, it became the home of the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, her advisor, Cardinal Mazarin, and her young sons, King Louis XIV and Philippe, duc d'Anjou. During the Fronde, the royal family fled there for safety.
... After the Restoration of the Bourbons, at the Palais-Royal the young Alexandre Dumas obtained employment in the office of the powerful duc d'Orléans, who regained control of the Palace during the Restoration. In the Revolution of 1848, the Paris mob trashed and looted the Palais-Royal. 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 House of Orléans did not occupy the northeast wing, where Anne of Austria had originally lived, but instead chose to reside in the palais Brion, where the future regent, before his father died, commissioned Gilles-Marie Oppenord to decorate the grand appartement in the light and lively style Régence that foreshadowed the Rococo. These, and the Regent's more intimate petits appartements, as well as a 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, a separate pavilion standing along rue Richelieu, to the west of the Palais Royal, had been purchased by Louis XIV from the heirs of Cardinal Richelieu. Louis had it connected to the Palais-Royal. It was at the palais Brion that Louis had his mistress Louise de La Vallière stay while his affair with Madame de Montespan was still an official secret.
Later on, the royal collection of antiquities was installed at the palais Brion, under the care of the art critic and official court historian André Félibien, who had been appointed in 1673.
The Palais-Royal is a palace and an associated garden located in the first arrondissement of Paris. It stands opposite the north wing of the Louvre, and its famous forecourt (cour d'honneur), screened with
columns and, since 1986, containing Daniel Buren's site-specific artpiece, Les Deux Plateaux, faces the Place du Palais-Royal.Originally, the palace was the home of Cardinal Richelieu. He hired the architect Jacques Lemercier to design it. It was completed in 1629. During the lifetime of the cardinal, the palace was known as the Palais-Cardinal. Upon his death in 1642, Richelieu bequeathed his lavish residence to the French Crown. After Louis XIII died, it became the home of the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, her advisor, Cardinal Mazarin, and her young sons, King Louis XIV and Philippe, duc d'Anjou. During the Fronde, the royal family fled there for safety.
... After the Restoration of the Bourbons, at the Palais-Royal the young Alexandre Dumas obtained employment in the office of the powerful duc d'Orléans, who regained control of the Palace during the Restoration. In the Revolution of 1848, the Paris mob trashed and looted the Palais-Royal. 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 House of Orléans did not occupy the northeast wing, where Anne of Austria had originally lived, but instead chose to reside in the palais Brion, where the future regent, before his father died, commissioned Gilles-Marie Oppenord to decorate the grand appartement in the light and lively style Régence that foreshadowed the Rococo. These, and the Regent's more intimate petits appartements, as well as a 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, a separate pavilion standing along rue Richelieu, to the west of the Palais Royal, had been purchased by Louis XIV from the heirs of Cardinal Richelieu. Louis had it connected to the Palais-Royal. It was at the palais Brion that Louis had his mistress Louise de La Vallière stay while his affair with Madame de Montespan was still an official secret.
Later on, the royal collection of antiquities was installed at the palais Brion, under the care of the art critic and official court historian André Félibien, who had been appointed in 1673.
