FRANCE - Best of Europe 2014 - page 318

▲ Place des Vosges
Henry IV (r. 1589-1610) built this centerpiece of the Marais in 1605 and called it “Place
Royal.” As he'd hoped, it turned the Marais into Paris' most exclusive neighborhood. Walk
to the center, where Louis XIII, on horseback, gestures, “Look at this wonderful square my
dad built.” He's surrounded by locals enjoying their community park. You'll see children
frolicking in the sandbox, lovers warming benches, and pigeons guarding their fountains
while trees shade this escape from the glare of the big city (you can refill your water bottle
in the center of the square).
Study the architecture: nine pavilions (houses) per side. The two highest—at the front
and back—were for the king and queen (but were never used). Warm red brickwork—some
real, some fake—is topped with sloped slate roofs, chimneys, and another quaint relic of a
bygone era: TV antennas. The insightful writer Victor Hugo lived at #6—at the southeast
corner of the square, marked by the French flag—from 1832 to 1848. This was when he
wrote much of his most important work, including his biggest hit, Les Misérables . Inside
you'll wander through eight plush rooms and enjoy a fine view of the square (free, fee for
optional exhibits—usually about €7, and usually not worth paying for, audioguide-€5, Tue-
Sun10:00-18:00,closed Mon,last entryat17:40,6Place desVosges;Mo:Bastille, St.Paul,
or Chemin Vert; tel. [phone], www.musee-hugo.paris.fr ) .
Sample the upscale art galleries ringing the square, then exit the square at its northwest
corner, and head west on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois.
▲ Carnavalet Museum (Musée Carnavalet)
At the Carnavalet Museum, French history unfolds in a series of stills—like a Ken Burns
documentary, except you have to walk. The Revolution is the highlight, but you get a good
overview of everything—from Louis XIV-period rooms to Napoleon to the belle époque.
Though explanations are in French only, many displays are fairly self-explanatory.
The Revolution section is the best. No period of history is as charged with the full range
of human drama: bloodshed, martyrdom, daring speeches, murdered priests, emancipated
women, backstabbing former friends—all in the name of government “by, for, and of the
people.”
You'llseepaintingsoftheEstates-Generalassemblythatplantedtheseedsofdemocracy
and a model of the Bastille, the hated prison that was the symbol of oppression. Read the
“Declaration of the Rights of Man.” See pictures of the ill-fated King Louis XVI and Queen
Marie-Antoinette, and the fate that awaited them—the guillotine. You'll see portraits of
all the major players in the Revolutionary spectacle—Maximilien de Robespierre, Georges
Danton,CharlotteCorday—aswellasthedashinggeneralwhowouldinheritdemocracyand
turn it into dictatorship...Napoleon Bonaparte.