Palais Bourbon

The Palais Bourbon (pronounced: [pa.lɛ buʁ.bɔ̃]) is a government building located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde. It is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government. The Palace was originally built beginning in 1722 by Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, the duchesse de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV, as a country house, surrounded by gardens. It was nationalized during the French Revolution, and from 1795 to 1799, during the Directory, it was the meeting place of the Council of Five Hundred, which chose the government leaders. Beginning in 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte added the classical colonnade, to mirror that of Church of the Madeleine, facing it across the Seine and the Place de la Concorde. The Palace complex today includes the Hôtel de Lassay, on the west side of the Palais Bourbon; it is the official residence of the President of the National Assembly.

Plan of the ground floor of the Palais Bourbon (1752)

Drawing of the Palais Bourbon in 1730

Louise Francoise de Bourbon, the creator of the Palais Bourbon, shown as a widow (1737)

The Palais Bourbon (upper left) and the Hôtel de Lassay (lower right), as depicted on the Turgot map of Paris (1739)

The palace was built for Louise-Françoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), the duchesse de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. Begun in 1722 and finished in 1726, it was located in what was then a largely rural quarter at the edge of Paris, which was about to become a very fashionable residential neighborhood, the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Until that time, the area, called the Pré-au-Clercs, a wooded area popular for fighting duels. After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, following the example of the Regent, the aristocracy began to move their residences from Versailles back to Paris. Building space land was scarce in the traditional residential area of the nobility, the densely-populated Marais, so the aristocracy of the Regency looked for land with space for gardens at the edges of the city, either near the Champs-Élysées on the right bank or on the left bank.

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