I was amazed to read that a bunch of squatters have moved into a house in the Place des Vosges in Paris. Amazed and very jealous, because this is one of my favourite squares in Paris – as we make clear in our mp3 tour of Paris. Our guide to Paris, Romance and Revolution features it along the route and there is quite a bit of both romance and revolution in the decision by 33 squatters, including a lawyer, a pianist and an architect to take over a house in what is surely the most beautiful and tranquil square in Paris.
Dominique Strauss Khan, head of the International Monetary Fund is a resident of the Place des Vosges but we don’t know what he thinks about his new neighbours.
Walking through the square in an early spring afternoon you’ll find mothers and toddlers playing the gardens in the middle and people strolling past the antique shops under the colonnades or doing what Parisians do best – sitting at cafes and gossiping or contemplating life.
There had been a royal palace on the site of Place des Vosges, called the Palais de Tournelles since the early middle ages. This was where Catherine de’ Medici lived and where her husband, Henry II, was killed in a jousting tournament. Overcome with grief, and unwilling to carry on living in the home she had shared with Henry, Catherine moved out of the Palais de Tournelles and into the Louvre.
Tournelles was later knocked down and this square was laid out on the site in the early seventeenth century. Soon, wealthy Parisians began to move in – and this was when the surrounding Marais district started to become very sought after. This square was known as the Place Royale until the Revolution after which it became the Place des Vosges.
It was King Henri IV who initiated the building of this square but it was his successor Louis XIII who finished the project and you can see his statute in the middle here. Needless to say, the original was destroyed during the Revolution and this version dates from the early nineteenth century.
The Place des Vosges is probably the first example of a properly planned residential square with uniform houses and a coherent design. The great squares in London, Madrid and many Italian cities followed this ideal. There are either 36 or 39 houses here, depending on who you ask, each with matching red brick and stone facades and dark grey slate sloping roofs. The arcades underneath the houses are also unusual in Paris and, along them you’ll find the occasional restaurant and café, gallery and antique shop.
On northern edge of the square is the Queen’s pavilion and opposite it, on the southern side, the King’s pavilion rises above the other houses. The square’s trees and fountains were added during the eighteenth century.
As well as its aristocratic residents, the Place des Vosges has literary associations. The great letter writer Madame de Sevigné was born here and Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables and the Hunchback of Notre Dame also lived here. His home is now a museum devoted to his life and work and you can find it at number 6, which is in the corner to the left of the King’s pavilion.