Place des Vosges 1604
Built in the reign of King IV
36 identical houses over arcades
Access to the square was under the House of the King (n°1) and of the Queen (n°28)

Hôtel de Sully 1624
This belonged to Sully, minister and adviser to King Henri IV
Inside, apply for guided tous of Paris historique

Eglise Saint Paul Saint Louis 1627
The plan, the dome (53 m high) and the façade, in Corinthian style, are inspired by the Churh of Gesù in Rome. Inside can be seen French Seventeenth-century paintings and Christ on the Mount of Olives, one of the rare religious paintings of Delacroix

Hôtel Carnavalet 1544
Madame de Sévigné lived here in 1677
The Four Seasons sculpture on the courtyard façade is the work of Goujon

Hôtel Salé 1656
This houses the Picasso Museum

Eglise Saint Gervais Saint Protais 1494
The churh has retaired its riches from the sixteenth-century paintings, stained glass and 43 choir stalls

L’Hôtel des Archevéques de Sens 1475
An example of the transition between the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.

Hôtel de Soubise 1709
Houses the National Archives
See the vast courtyard with its 56 columns

Originally, the Bastille was merely a fortress which served to defend the Saint Antoine gates: it was comprised of two towers hastily erected in 1356.
Its construction was commissioned by Etienne Marcel, provost of the Parisian merchants and leader of the Third Estate, who became the mayor of Paris when John II the Good was captured by the English following the disastrous defeat of Poitiers It is to this wealthy draper that we owe the emblem symbolising the emancipation of the Parisian bourgeoisie: a red and blue coif which was imposed on the future monarch Charles V. Such humiliation was to recur only four centuries later, by which time the Bastille had ceased to stand .Etienne Marcel was assassinated outside the Saint Antoine gates on the orders of Jean Maillard, a councillor dedicated to the Dauphin.

Back in Paris, Charles V the Sage decided to take up residence at the Hotel Saint Pol, better suited to his lifestyle than the sinister Palais de la Cité. The next step was to fortify the dual structure that lay nearby. The new defence lines built around this period became the ramparts of Charles V. The former walls - the work of Philippe Auguste - were not demolished and slowly slipped into a state of neglect. Consequently, a number of additions had been made over the years: the population of Paris soared from 190,000 to 280,000 within a century and a half.

On 22nd April,1370 the mayor of Paris Hugues Aubriot gave orders to raise the two existing towers named Tour de la Chapelle and Tour du Tresor and set the foundation stone of one the two new towers later known as Tour de la liberte and Tour de la Bertaudiere. He also had the Saint Antoine gate moved to the left of the new edifice. There remained a secret passage under the Bastille, linking the capital to the country. In May 1418, it was used by young Charles VII when he fled Paris, occupied by the Burgundians, and met his fate in the person of Joan of Arc.
When Charles V died, the fortification process was well under way. The events that followed have given rise to various interpretations. Some historians claim that the last Four towers, crenellated in 1382, were also the doing of Hugues Aubriot. Others believe that he fell into disgrace and that the Bishop of Paris sentenced him to a "perpetual diet of sorrow and pain symbolised by dry bread and water "in one of the very dungeons he himself had conceived.

With the exception of a few minor changes, the 1789 Bastille closely resembled the project cherished by Charles V. The outer walls were completed under Henry II. In 1643, the nuns from the Visitation convent got permission from the king to have 23 identical house built on the inside of the fosse. These were converted into workshops and rented out to the artisans who plied their trade at the foot of the Bastille.
Designed to ward off the fiercest enemies, this Parisian stronghold saw a dozen assaults between the XVth and the XVII th century. Each was result of internal dissension within the country and each prompted rapid capitulation. Thus, it was the ravages of time and not cannon balls, which gave the Bastille a pitiful appearance, making it an easy target for satire.

Louis XIV's hatred of the Frondes was so great that the culprit was immediately sentenced to death on the place de Greve.
The preservation of this relic required vast sums of money and was seen as an unjustified expense for the regime .The Bastille was an embarrassing symbol, a sort of stumbling block. It also served to encourage the intrigues and misunderstandings that proliferated in the early months of 1789. And yet, it was obvious by then that the fortress was doomed to disappear.
Although it still housed banned publications, it no longer welcomed new prisoners: a royal decree dated August 30th, 1780, ordained that undesirables be sent to the Hotel de la Force, the Conciergerie or the Grand Châtelet, This decision delighted Messrs Corbet and Davy de Chauvigné, both committed royalists. Each suggested that a statue be erected on the empty site as a tribute to Louis XVI. A number of other, equally respectful proposals were put forward, several of which emanated from the Third Estate. The matter seemed settled.
All that was needed was permission from Versailles.

And then Palloy appeared on the scene: a quiet Parisian bourgeois who claimed to be the "supervisor of royal architecture". In actual fact, he proved far more efficient than the king's retinue of advisers. This artisan had already contributed to a number of major operations such as the construction of the Vénerie Royale and the ramparts around the Fermiers Généraux. Naturally, the prospect of a new venture excited his interest and this did not escape the attention of the Grand-Orient Masonic order. As a result, Palloy, who was not passionately interested in social affairs, discovered he had been made Souverain Prince Rose-Croix.
The man was a shrewd, methodical worker and an impressive collection of documents was preserved for posterity, consisting of hand-written registers and notes. These are now the property of French public libraries.
Following in the footsteps of Bournon and a few other historians, Romi pored over this research material. It transpired that during the night of 13-14 July the Brothers informed Palloy that the assault was to take place the next day. The last bribes had just been fixed and he was asked to stand ready. Although he remained sceptical, this sorcerer's apprentice thought out a plan of action.

On the morning of 14 th July, some of the four hundred people involved in the operation took up position near the Saint-Antoine gates. Each had brought a pickaxe. None knew what to expect. All they had been told was that they should await further instructions. The foremen around 5p.m gave these. Since midday, a large crowd had gathered at the foot of the Bastille, cannons had been fired and a small white flag slowly materialised in the midst of the smoke: it was a handkerchief belonging to the governor of the citadel.
Meanwhile, Palloy had closed down all his building sites, summoned his men and started to recruit. While the victors rejoiced and chopped off a few heads in a self congratulatory mood, the workers employed by Palloy rolled up their sleeves and looked forward to receiving a daily income of twenty-six sous for their brave new task: the demolition of the Bastille.