Why go
This is the chapter behind much of central Paris’s ceremonial scale. The Louvre and Palais-Royal show royal and ministerial ambition; the Jardin des Plantes and Institut de France reveal institutions of learning; Les Invalides and Place Vendôme show how power was staged in architecture. These anchors work well in separate walks on either side of the Seine.
The full story
Under Louis XIII, the Louvre gained the ordered Cour Carrée, while Cardinal Richelieu created the Palais-Cardinal, now the Palais-Royal, with a vast garden. Paris also strengthened its cultural institutions: the Académie Française was founded under Richelieu, and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture followed. The Jardin du Roy, later the Jardin des Plantes, began as a botanical and medicinal garden and became the city’s first public garden. Louis XIV added another monumental layer. Across the Seine from the Louvre, the Collège des Quatre-Nations—now the Institut de France—housed students from newly attached provinces. Les Invalides was built for wounded soldiers, while Place des Victoires and Place Vendôme made formal urban spaces of royal display. The demolition of older walls helped create the future Grands Boulevards, marked by the Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint-Martin. These places show Paris moving from a defended medieval city toward a capital designed for institutions, ceremony and spectacle.