Royal Palaces and Parks of France

nirs of its historic past than this hybrid palace of Richelieu. One dreams even to-day, of its sumptuousness, its legends, its amusing and extravagant incidents which cas

d, too, in almost regal state until Armand du Plessis de Richelieu came to humble their pride, by fair means or foul, by buying up or destroying their sumptuous dwellings, levelling off a vast area of

to be overshadowed by it. The edifice enclosed a great square of ground laid

ts of the compass; there were also, besides the living rooms, a chapel, two theatres, ball

s ardour for building knew no restraint. He added block upon block of buildings and yard upon yard to garden walls until all was a veritable labyrinth. Finally the usually subservient Louis saw the condition of things;

mit the right of an apostolic prelate of the church to lodge himself so luxuriously when the very precepts of his religion recommended modesty and humility. Richelieu's contem

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acres of greensward set about and cut up with gravelled walks, great alleyed rows of trees, groves without number and galleries and colonnades innumerable. Without roared th

the Cardinal visited the capital. At other times it was as quiet as a cemetery. Moss grew on the fla

ed surrounded by his choicest pictures and tapestries, and paid the price of his merciless arrogance towards all men-and women-by folding his wan hands upon his breast and

ightened himself out and expired without a shudder, with the feeling that he was well beyond the reach of invisible foe

sessed the Rambouillets and the Merc?urs, intending at first to erect only a comparatively modest town dwelling with an ample garden. Vanity, or some other passion, finally

losed an elaborate Salle de Spectacle while that to the left enclosed an equally imposing chamber with a ceiling by Philippe de Champaigne, known as the Galerie des Hommes Illustrés, and further ornamented with portraits of most o

Richelieu-great man of politics that he was-made a present of the entire lot of curios t

f Richelieu, came to Anne d'Autriche, the regent, who, with the infant Louis XIV and the royal family, i

caprice. Mazarin had succeeded Richelieu, and to escape the anger of the Frondeurs, he, with the re

the Luxembourg, they took a coach in the dead of night for Saint Germain. It was a long and w

residence again in the old abode of Richelieu and turned it over to Henriette d

ments had been carried on from time to time, but nothing so radical as to change the specious aspect of the palace of the Cardinal's time, though it had been considerably enlarged by extending it rearw

from the Austrian court. Richelieu's theatre was made into an opera-house, and masked balls of an unparalleled magnificence were frequently giv

ved it. Having become the sole proprietor of the edifice and its gardens, by Letters Patent of February, 1692, the Duc d'Orleans left this superb property, in

tre for debauch and abandon. It is from this epoch, too, that date the actual structures which to-day form this va

ss, replacing even the edifices of the Cardinal with more elaborate structures, his so

considerably increased the extent and number of the arcades from one hundred and eighty to two hundred and seven. These the astute duke immediately rented out to shopkeepers at an annual rental of more than ten millio

Palais Royal, and in 1781 the Theatre des Varietés Amusantes was constructe

to much smaller plots than they were in Richelieu's time. In spite of this there is still that pleasurable tranquillity to be had therein to-day, scarcely a stone's throw from the rush and turmoil of the whirlpool of wheeled traffic which centres around the junction of the Rue Rich

ffairs, financiers, speculators and agitators of all ranks and of questionable respectability. Milords, as strangers from across the Manche came first to be known here, delivered themselves to questionable society and still more questionable pleasures. It was at a little later period that the Duc de Chartres authorize

led themselves in the Palais Royal in 1789. This "Eden de l'Enfer," as it was known, has in late years bee

nnes, though its popularity was seemingly due to the charms of the maitresse de la maison, a Madame Romain, whose husband was a dried-up, dwarfed little man of no account whatever. Madame Romain, however, lived well up to her reputation as being "incontestablement la plus jolie femme de Paris." By 1

This is quoted from the advertisements of the day. The café was called the Café des Circassiennes, and there was a sultane, who was the pres

reviously one smoked only in the estaminets. Three cafés of the Palais Royal resisted the innovation, the Café

oises and the Musée Curtius, perhaps the first of the wax-works shows that in later generations became so popular. The Palais Royal had now become a vast amusement en

cus, half underground and half above, and there were innumerable booths and kio

mbling which went on in the royal apartments became notorious for even that profligate time: in one night the Duc de Chartr

lais Royal, which, by an ingenious disposition, was fired each day at midday by the action of the sun's rays.

e being shown, deplored the lack of good manners on the part of the

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lace confines. It was a long, double row of booths which only disap

sort of refuge whereby those who sought to escape from the police might lose themselves in the throng. The monarch himself w

oad. At the same time it was learned that the regiment known as the Royal Allemand, under the orders of the Prince de Lambesc, had charged

id not cease reverberating for months. The careless, unthinking promenaders suddenly grew grave, then violently agitated and finally raving, heedlessly mad. A young unknown limb of the law, Camille Desmoulins, rushe

o choose our colours. Quelle couleur voulez vous? Green, the colour of hope

rther with our hands not our hearts! We a

ly, the Frenchman's "glorious fourteenth

its seat, and during the Hundred Days Lucien Bonaparte took up his residence there. In 1830 Louis Philippe d'Orleans gave a great fête here in honour of the King of Naples who had come to the capital t

s Philippe. The heraldic embellishments of this family tree offer a particular interest in that the armorial blazonings are in accord with a decree of the French Tribunal, handed dow

large

Later it served the same purpose for the son of Prince Napoleon. It was at this epoch that the desecration of scraping out the blazoned lys and the chipping off the graven Bourbon armoiries took place. Whenever one or the o

inal outlines. Through all its changes of tenure and political vicissitudes little transformation took place as to the ground plan, or sky-line silhouette, of the chameleon palace of

f a shallow courtyard separated from the street by an iron grille and flanked by two unimposing pavilions. The princi

pied by the Cour des Comptes. The Aile de Valois fronts the street of that name, and here the Princes d'Orleans and K

charms may be they are mostly equivocal. It is more a desert than an oasis or a temple de la volupté, and it was each of these things in othe

ers, but for all that its transition from the Palais du Cardinal, Palais Egalité, Palais de la Revolution and Palais

ical persons have demanded as to what should be made of it, a vélodrome or a skating-rink, but this is apart from a real consideration of the question for certain it is that much of its for

its theatre and its gardens, that it came to its first debasement. "One went there on tip-toe, and spoke in a whispe

has sunk lower and lower. The solitude of the Palais Royal has become a mockery and a solecism. It is virtually a campo santo, or could readily be made one, and this in spite of

tions carry out the idea of a cloister still further, for actually the clients are few, and those mostly strangers. One holds his breath and ambles through