Why go
The era explains a useful contrast between districts. The historical axis from the Tuileries toward Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées reflects planned western expansion, while Faubourg Saint-Germain preserves the world of private mansions. Faubourg Saint-Antoine carries the different memory of furniture-making workshops and working life.
The full story
Paris expanded west in the eighteenth century through an avenue laid from the Tuileries toward the Rond-Point and onward to the area of today’s Place Charles de Gaulle. This line became the historical axis, later defined by a sequence of avenues and monuments. A large square created near its eastern end changed names with political upheaval and became Place de la Concorde. At the same time, wealth moved away from the Marais toward Faubourg Saint-Germain. Aristocrats built private mansions there, many of which later became national institutions, including Hôtel Matignon, Palais Bourbon and the Hôtel de Biron. East of the centre, Faubourg Saint-Antoine remained a working neighbourhood associated with woodwork and furniture-making. Together these areas show an eighteenth-century city already divided by function: ceremonial growth to the west, elite residences on the Left Bank and manufacturing skills in the east.