A ROYAL STATUE FOR A BRIDGE

THE PROCESSION CROSSES THE SEINE, PASSES NOTRE-DAME AND FOLLOWS THE RIVER TO PONT NEUF:

     Adapted from a map of 1749 / zoom

Its highlight is circling in front of the statue of Henri IV before

concluding at the palace:*

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

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

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That statue is at the apex of place Dauphine, which was conceived at the same time as place Royale / des Vosges. It adapts the model to the cramped terrain. The statue can't be at the center of converging straight lines, so it's placed on the bridge, at the end of a single straight street:

Adapted from a map of 1615 / zoom

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Was it meant to be the apex of a triangle, with place Royale and place de France the two corners of the base? 

Adapted from 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 there 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.

 Vue du pont Neuf by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, toward 1775 / zoom

Please read on.

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Next,

The King among his people