Esplanade des Invalides

The Esplanade des Invalides stretches as a vast, manicured lawn between the Seine and the golden dome of the Dôme des Invalides. Louis the Fourteenth ordered the space cleared in the late seventeenth century to provide an appropriately grand approach to his hospital for wounded soldiers. During the French Revolution, officials repurposed the site for military parades and public festivals. One July morning in seventeen ninety, laborers rushed to construct a massive altar here for the Fête de la Fédération, working through the night.