From Clovis to Louis XVI: a thousand years of crowns, castles and drama
Crowns, castles and one very famous palace. Follow the kings of France from a baptism in Reims to the guillotine in Paris. And see where it all happened.
For more than a thousand years, France had kings. Some were wise, some were cruel and some were just lucky. Clovis was baptised in Reims around the year 500, and many later kings were crowned in the same city. Philip Augustus built a fortress by the Seine that grew into the Louvre. Louis IX built the Sainte-Chapelle, a chapel made almost of glass. Then came Louis XIV, the Sun King. He turned his father's hunting lodge into Versailles and made the nobles live there, where he could keep an eye on them. But a palace of gold could not feed a hungry country. In 1789 the people said: enough. Four years later, Louis XVI lost his head. Most of the kings now rest in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, just north of Paris.
Pick a colour to follow one story. Every moment shows where you can still see it.
Clovis, king of the Franks, is baptised in Reims. Later, many kings of France are crowned in the same city.
See it at: Reims CathedralThe nobles choose Hugh Capet as their king. His family will sit on the throne, in different branches, for more than 800 years.
Philip Augustus builds a strong castle by the Seine to protect Paris. Its old walls are still there, under the museum.
See it at: Louvre MuseumLouis IX builds a chapel of coloured glass for what he believes is the Crown of Thorns of Jesus. The relic cost him more than the building.
See it at: Sainte-ChapelleDuring the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc takes Charles VII to Reims to be crowned. Two years later she is burned in Rouen.
See it at: Reims CathedralKing Francis I invites Leonardo da Vinci to France. The old painter brings the Mona Lisa with him.
See it at: Louvre MuseumLouis XIV makes Versailles the home of the king and his government. Thousands of nobles follow him.
See it at: Palace of VersaillesUnder Louis XIV, France writes the Code Noir, the rules for slavery in its colonies. It treated enslaved Africans as property.
Locked out of their hall, the deputies meet in the king's tennis court. They swear not to leave until France has a constitution.
See it at: Royal Tennis CourtLouis XVI is executed in Paris in January. In October, Queen Marie Antoinette follows him, after weeks in a cell in the Conciergerie.
See it at: ConciergerieThe museums and places where this story comes alive.
Walk through the Hall of Mirrors and the king's bedroom, where his day began in front of an audience. Then get lost in the gardens. Wear good shoes: they are huge.
See the golden coaches of the kings, like the one made for the coronation of Charles X in 1825. Easy to combine with the palace.
Before the paintings, go down to the medieval Louvre in the Sully wing. You walk along the real walls of Philip Augustus's fortress. Then look for the famous portrait of Louis XIV in his royal robes.
First a royal palace, then a prison during the Revolution. See the giant medieval hall and the chapel built where Marie Antoinette's cell was.
Meet the Middle Ages up close: crowns, swords and the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. Do not miss the stone heads from Notre-Dame (see the hidden story).
The museum of the history of Paris. In the Revolution rooms, look for a small model of the Bastille, carved from a stone of the prison itself.
There are 357 mirrors, a very expensive luxury in the 1680s.
She spent her last weeks in a cell in the Conciergerie, on the Île de la Cité.
Philip Augustus built it around 1190 to protect Paris.