Palais-Royal

The Palais-Royal was a cardinal's house that became Europe's first shopping centre and then the place the Revolution started. Jacques Lemercier built it for Cardinal Richelieu between 1633 and 1639 as the Palais-Cardinal. It passed to the crown on Richelieu's death in 1642 and was renamed. In 1781–84 Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, had Victor Louis wrap the garden in colonnaded galleries and let the ground floors as commerce: 145 boutiques, cafés, salons, bookshops and museums, in a private enclosure the royal police could not enter. Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in winter. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in winter. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Metro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre or Pyramides. Yes. Worship, events, maintenance, weather and security can change ordinary access. No. Special tours, exhibitions and upgrades use separate tickets. Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in winter. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Metro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre or Pyramides. Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in

A quiet formal garden, an arcade of specialist shops, and 260 striped columns. Daniel Buren's Les Deux Plateaux, installed in 1985–86 in the Cour d'Honneur, is a field of black-and-white striped columns of different heights standing in the courtyard. It was hated on installation and is now the most photographed object on the site. The Comédie-Française occupies the Salle Richelieu, completed in 1786 and seating 2,000. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal, of 750 seats, is in the Galerie de Montpensier. Le Grand Véfour, the restaurant under the northern arcade, opened in 1784. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately. Metro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre or Pyramides.

An hour, and it is the best hour in the 1st arrondissement for the money, which is none. The courtyard with the Buren columns takes fifteen minutes. The garden beyond, with its double avenues of clipped limes and its central fountain, is where Parisians eat lunch. The arcades take another twenty minutes if you look into the windows: the shops here are antiquarian, one of them sells nothing but military decorations, and none of them is a chain. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas.

Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in winter. Metro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre or Pyramides. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately.

Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately. The base amount and currency follow the operator tariff; premium products and separate institutions remain excluded unless named. Yes. Worship, events, maintenance, weather and security can change ordinary access.

Metro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre or Pyramides. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in winter. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately.

Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Palais-Royal garden opens daily on seasonal hours, generally 07:00-23:00 summer and closes earlier in winter. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Historic surfaces, crowds and security remain relevant.

The Buren columns are the photograph and the way to make it well is from ground level between them, so the stripes stack — not from the arcade above, which is where everyone shoots and where the pattern flattens. Early or late light gives the columns their shadows; midday erases them. The garden's double lime avenues frame the palace at the north end and take morning sun. The arcades themselves are dim, symmetrical and the strongest architectural subject on the site — a long colonnade receding, with the garden bright at the end of it. Garden and courtyard access are free; theatre and exhibitions charge separately.