Marais Return to ParisNearby: [ Notre Dame | Luxembourg Gardens | Races | Cluny Museum | Rodin Museum| D'Orsay Museum | Les Gobelins | Marais |Montmartre ]

Because after the Revolution, the Marais became one of the most deprived and dissolute area in Paris, it was spared the attention of Baron Hausmann, the man rebuilt Paris in the mid-19 th century. This blessed oversight left us with a whole untouched quarter that has been since extremely well restored. It hosts many architectural gems, mostly Renaissance, Louis XIII., and Louis XIV. styles. People lived in the homes which were between the courtyard and the garden.

Place des Vosges, formerly Place Royale, constructed under Henri IV. on the site of the famous Palais des Tournelles, where Louis XII. and Henri II. died. In the center of the square a statue of Charles X. replaces that of Louis XIII., destroyed in the Revolution

Henry IV developped this marshy land on the right bank opposite the lle,Saint Louis, into the Place des Vosges. Parcelled out under Louis Xlll, he had a fine square built here. In 1612, it was officially inaugurated for the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. Covered by a steep roof pierced by dormer windows, the center of the southern facade stood the King's House facing and the Queen's on the northern side. A number of other popular faces lived on Place des Vosges, Richelieu, Madame de Sevigné, Bossuet (Nr. 17), and Alphonse Daudet . Victor Hugo had his apartments in house Nr. 6 from 1832 to 1848. Hugo wrote a large part of Les Misérables here. It is also there that Victor Hugo was named a member of the Academie Francaise. Many Parisians consider Place des Vosges as one of the most beautiful plazas in the city. In the center of the Place, there is a statue of Louis XIII which dates back to 1825. This replaces the original that was a reminder of the anti-aristocratic fury of the revolution.

The Marais area contains the Place des Voges and many 17C French townhomes. The old area still has a few of the original alleys that have stories to tell. The beautiful old Hôtel Barbette was built by Etienne Barbette, master of the mint, in 1298. It was here, at ' le petit séjour de la reine,' that the wicked Isabeau de Bavière, wife of Charles VI., received the visits of her brother in law, Louis d'Orléans, after one of which he was murdered in the street by the emissaries of the Duc de Bourgogne. The same Isabeau de Bavière who used to say of her crazy husband, Charles VI: " If the king bothers me when he is crazy, he bothers me even more when he is not." .

Sunday afternoon often included music by strings under the arches of the Place des Voges