STRAIGHT STREETS AND MONARCHY

AT MONARCHY'S HEIGHT, ALL STRAIGHT STREETS LEAD TO SYMBOLS OF ROYALTY

(TOWARD 1600-1750)  

They are:  

• Those that lead to royal places, at the center of which is an equestrian statue of the reigning king (place Dauphine excepted because of its particular terrain and meaning). 

The model of place des Vosges

• The arch at Saint-Martin gate

Zoom (please scroll down)

A straight street zooms towards it from a fairground (where the Eastern Station is now).

• At Versailles and the Invalides, which was meant as Louis XIV's mausoleum, three straight streets converge: The next page explains. 

• A final expression of the Old Regime: The wide, straight street at a new toll gate that is called place du Trône*[Throne] to recall Louis XIV's royal entry, which took shape and began there. 

 * Now place de la Nation

For more information / zoom

It was built in 1787. The Revolution breaks out in 1789...

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There are no exceptions. Even the church of Saint-Paul Saint-Louis, that glorifies but does is not symbolize the monarchy, is off-center — the street that leads to it curves: 

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Toward 1750, there's a change:

Straight streets lead to
a church (the Panthéon, 1758), 

and a theater (the Odéon, 1779).

Royalty weakens. 

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Next,
Napoleon's tomb:

Straight streets lead to a sepulcher. Whose?