First French Empire

The Palais Royal wears a uniform row of limestone arcades and zinc roofs that hold the bustling city at arm's length. Cardinal Richelieu built this palace in the sixteen thirties to house his private collection, but it eventually became the engine room of the French Revolution. In the late eighteenth century, the Duke of Orléans turned the gardens into a commercial hub, cramming the galleries with cafes, gambling dens, and brothels where agitators plotted the end of the monarchy under the police's noses.