A ROYAL STATUE FOR A BRIDGE

THE PROCESSION CROSSES THE SEINE, PASSES IN FRONT OF NOTRE-DAME, FOLLOWS THE RIVER TO PONT NEUF:

     Adapted from a map of 1749 / zoom

Its highlight is circling in front of its statue of Henri IV,

before concluding at the palace:*

        The Royal Entry of  Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse of Spain in 1660, source unknown / zoom

 

*The Louvre, the very long building on the right.

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At the apex of place Dauphine, it was conceived at the same time as place Royale / des Vosges and built immediately after it.

It adapts the model to the cramped terrain, a single street leading to the statue on the bridge:

Adapted from a map of 1615 / zoom

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Was that statue meant to be the apex of a triangle of which place Royale would be one edge of the base and place de France the other ? 

Adapted from A Bridge over Time ("Un Pont sur le temps") by Sophie Drexler, 1973

Zoom

Place de France, abandoned after the king's assassination (rue de Poitou is its tangible trace).

That would explain the absence of a statue on place Royale, for their could not be two points of focus.

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 Be that as it may, 

Henri IV's urban innovations

preface Louis XIV's Grand Axis.

 View from pont Neuf by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, toward 1775 / zoom

Please read on.

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Next,

The King among his people