Palais-Royal: Buren's Columns and the Spark of 1789
Why is it significant?
First, the courtyard: a field of black-and-white striped columns, some tall, some no higher than a stool, with children hopping from one to the next.
Key Facts
| Place | Palais-Royal: Buren's Columns and the Spark of 1789 |
|---|---|
| Address | Jardin du Palais-Royal, 8 Rue de Montpensier, 75001 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.86490, 2.33780 |
| Part of Walk | Glass Roofs and Royal Secrets: From the Louvre to the Covered Passages of Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
First, the courtyard: a field of black-and-white striped columns, some tall, some no higher than a stool, with children hopping from one to the next. Then, through the arcades, a long rectangle of clipped lime trees, gravel and a fountain, so calm that it is hard to believe what this garden has seen.
The columns are Les Deux Plateaux by Daniel Buren, installed in 1986 in what had been a car park. There are around two hundred and sixty of them, and the outrage was spectacular: petitions, lawsuits, a debate in parliament. Today they are among the most photographed works of art in the city, and generations of children have used them as stepping stones.
The palace was built for Cardinal Richelieu in the 1630s, left to the crown, and later given to the Orléans branch of the royal family. In the 1780s the Duke of Orléans, desperately short of money, ringed the garden with the arcades you see and rented them out as shops, cafés, gaming rooms... and worse. Because it was the duke's private property, the police could not enter. It became the most notorious pleasure ground in Europe.
And the most political. On the twelfth of July 1789, a young lawyer named Camille Desmoulins climbed onto a table outside a café here and shouted that the people must take up arms. The crowd tore leaves from the trees and pinned them on as green cockades. Two days later, Paris stormed the Bastille. The Revolution had found its voice in a shopping arcade.
Before you leave, look on the lawn on the south side for a tiny cannon. Since the 1780s a midday gun has stood here: the sun's rays, focused by a magnifying lens, lit the fuse exactly at noon, and Parisians set their watches by the bang. The present gun is a replica, still fired at noon on some days. Now leave by the east side of the garden and cross the Rue de Valois towards a narrow arcade lined with mahogany.