Place Vendôme

Place Vendôme is the most formal of Paris's royal squares, a piece of pure Louis XIV planning set between the Tuileries garden and the Opéra. Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed it at the end of the 17th century as a setting for the king: begun in 1698 as Place Louis-le-Grand, it was lined with identical façades before the buildings behind them existed, and its corners were cut across by pedimented fronts so that the rectangle, about 213 by 124 metres, reads as an octagon. Arcades at ground level, giant pilasters above and steep mansard roofs hold it together as a single piece of architecture, finished around 1720.

At its centre stood François Girardon's equestrian statue of Louis XIV, unveiled in 1699 and believed to be the first large modern equestrian statue cast in one piece; the Revolution pulled it down in 1792. Napoleon replaced it between 1806 and 1810 with the Vendôme Column, about 44 metres high, wrapped in a spiral of 425 bronze relief plates cast from cannon captured from the armies of Europe. It has had a life of its own. The Paris Commune toppled it on 16 May 1871 at the urging of the painter Gustave Courbet, who was later ordered to pay for its reconstruction; it went back up in the 1870s, crowned by a statue of Napoleon dressed as a Roman emperor.

Behind the uniform fronts lie private mansions that have housed some of the city's most famous addresses. Frédéric Chopin died at No. 12; the Ministry of Justice occupies Nos. 11 and 13; the Hôtel Ritz stands on the site of former aristocratic mansions. Since Boucheron opened at No. 26 in 1893, the square has become the address of high jewellery, and its windows are part of the spectacle. The best moment is early morning, when the stone is empty and the proportions of Mansart's design stand out undisturbed.

Getting there

The square is in the 1st arrondissement, between Rue de la Paix to the north and Rue de Castiglione to the south. The nearest metro stations are Tuileries (line 1), Pyramides (lines 7 and 14), Madeleine and Concorde. Paris-Orly Airport (ORY) is about 16 km away.