Understanding the Domaine national du Palais Royal 

• Three centuries of architecture. Built for the Cardinal Richelieu by the architect Lemercier, who also built the Sorbonne, the main body (1634) opposite the Louvre became a royal residence (during the Regency of Anne of Austria) and then the seat of the Orléans family from 1661. Works were completed and then modified in the 18th and 19th centuries. The three wings around the gardens date from the late 18th century. 

• A hotbed for shady dealings. Today’s magnificent monumental surroundings give no hint as to revolutionary fervour which characterised the place in the 18th century, nor of its reputation in the 19th century as a place of promiscuity and women of easy virtue, as immortalised by Balzac.

• Two famous residents. Colette (1873-1954) and Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) both lived in the Palais Royal.