THE LIBERTARIAN GARDENS WHERE MODERN TIMES BEGAN

WHEN PHILIP'S DESCENDANT FORBADE POLICE FROM ENTERING HIS GARDENS AND REFUSED CENSORSHIP, PALAIS-ROYAL BECAME THE EPICENTER OF FREEDOM

There the ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity took wing.

         Lecture des journaux [Reading the newspapers] au Palais-Royal, engraving by Louis Léopold Boilly, 1829 / zoom.

Less intellectual activities flourished as well:

• Casinos...

• Balzac set the first pages of The Magic Skin ("La Peau de chagrin") in a Palais-Royal casino and in Father Goriot a woman bets her fortune there to save her lover.

• "N° 50," the salon of a woman from the court of Versailles court (please read on).

• "N° 113" had eight rooms and a priest to hear confessions before suicides. 

-- Palais-Royal, a Half-Century of Folies by Rodolphe Trouilleux, 2010 (in French) 

N° 113

• Six hundred sex workers consoled the losers or helped the generous winners celebrate, while arcades protected from rain and night lights flattered:

In front of n° 113.

Le Sérail [harem] en boutique, print by Claude François Fortin, 1800 / zoom.

 

                                 Les arcades du Palais-Royal, print by Louis Léopold Bouilly, 1809 (cropped) / zoom.

• In Lost Illusions Balzac mentions a procession where prostitutes' jewels and nude shoulders contrast with the somber costumes of the male spectators, in a spectacle that is "horrible and gay." In Colonel Chabert he situates the villainess by having the hero discover her in those gardens:

               Colonel Chabert by Yves Angelo with Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardent, 1994.

• Napoleon left a description of his first sexual experience, which began by making a girl tell her story in the gardens as she shivered from cold. 

-- Palais-Royal, pp.188-190

*    *

It was the place to see and be seen and to enjoy performances, booths and games, visit boutiques under the arcades that sold luxuries forbidden to commoners and announce our malls, patronize restaurants and cafés...   

        The Palais-Royal Garden Walk by Louis Le Coeur, 1787/ zoom.

     Jeu de dames [checker game] au café Lamblin du Palais-Royal by the same artist, 1824 / zoom.

          Arcades and Gardens of Palais-Royal, anonymous, no date / zoom.  

                 Drawing commissioned by Louis-Philippe, 1842 / musée Carnavalet. 

Source unknown

The protagonist of Lost Illusions, just arrived from his province, is astounded when a tailor and "déjeuner" cost half his funds.

The Café de la Foy attracted the greatest crowds because it sold the cheapest ice cream: More later.

Source unknown

Pauline Bonaparte* would meet her admirers in this restaurant, whose decor has never had to be restored.

*Napoleon's youngest sister, beautiful and fast.

Le Grand Véfour
17 rue de Beaujolais 

*    *

Palais-Royal became world-known as the place to spend a fortune. Title, origins or past did not matter: Only money did. 

When it was gone you paid your gambling debts,

saluted as in a salon and (later) 

joined the Foreign Legion — or blew your brains out.

*     *     *

Next,

Counter-power to Versailles