Hôtel de Soissons

The site you are approaching was once home to a grand Renaissance palace built for Queen Catherine de Medici. She commissioned the residence in the late sixteenth century after a terrifying prophecy led her to abandon her previous home at the Tuileries Palace. An astrologer had warned the Queen that she would die near Saint Germain, and she mistakenly associated the name with the church serving her former residence. She hoped moving to this new estate would save her from that grim fate.