Royal Louvre and Tuileries

The Galerie Vivienne is a covered walkway topped by a long, arched glass ceiling that lets in steady, muted light. It connects the Rue des Petits Champs to the Rue Vivienne, serving as a quiet shortcut between busy streets. In eighteen…

The Palais-Royal features an interior courtyard filled with two hundred and sixty black and white striped octagonal columns of varying heights. Cardinal Richelieu commissioned the structure in sixteen thirty-three to serve as his private…

The Cour Carrée is the oldest part of the Louvre, defined by a massive square courtyard enclosed by high, ornate walls that tell the story of French royal architecture over three centuries. Pierre Lescot designed the western wing for King…

The glass and metal pyramid rises from the center of the Cour Napoléon, its sharp geometric slopes contrasting against the heavy, ornate masonry of the surrounding palace wings. When architect I. M. Pei proposed this structure in the early…

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel stands as a marble and limestone gate topped by a bronze chariot pulled by four gilded horses. Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned this arch in eighteen oh six to celebrate his victory at the Battle of…

The Tuileries Garden is defined by a rigid, symmetrical grid of gravel paths, manicured lime trees, and wide basins that separate the Louvre from the Place de la Concorde. Catherine de Medici commissioned these grounds in fifteen…

The Place de la Concorde sits as a vast, paved octagon between the Tuileries Garden and the Champs Elysees, dominated by a towering ancient Egyptian obelisk. King Louis the Fifteenth commissioned the square in the mid eighteenth century,…