Conciergerie, 2025

As you walk from the right bank to the Cite, to see Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle and other stuff, the Conciergerie is the imposing building on your right, often sporting no few heavily-armed police. (The Palais de Justice is next on your right, and that's where the highest-profile criminal trials are going on). If you happen to look up, you'll see the great clock on the Clock Tower. The Conciergerie is a major part of the royal palace complex that was situated on the Ile de la Cite back in the high Middle Ages. (Sainte-Chapelle was the royal chapel for this complex.) When the royal palace complex moved across the river to what is now the Louvre complex, the Conciergerie became, for a few centuries, the storehouse for royal possessions not in use, overseen buy a Concierge. Get it? When the Revolution came along, the Conciergerie became a prison, a holding tank for those accused, and a court of justice ("justice"). Most of those accused went on to the (now) Place de la Concorde to meet with Mssr. Guillotine. After the Revolution, the Conciergerie became an expiatory sort of place, with monuments to the king and queen and others who did some time here. Now it's an historical tourist destination. In any case, there's a lot of history to be seen at the Conciergerie.

The Conciergerie, from the Pont au Change, one of Paris' most familiar
sights, although I suspect few foreign tourists actually visit; Vicki says
we did in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, but I have no memory of the place; we're
here this day (June 4th) because of our desire to see to Penelope's 
education and also because with our Passion Monuments pass it was free

Each of the towers has a name, but I'll hold you only to

the Clock Tower

Now inside the vast Great Hall, said to be at one time the largest secular building in France; it certainly
has the footprint of the great cathedrals, if not the height

Stairs to one of the towers

Now in the kitchen, looking at one of the four humongous fireplaces...
twenty or so feet wide

Great Hall again, aft to bow

Appropriately huge gift shoppe

Now in the hall where the men-at-arms hung out, looking
at interesting photos and models...here an aerial of the
Ile de la Cite, and, trailing behind, the Ile of St. Louis;
you can plainly make out Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle,
and the Conciergerie

Heplful model of the complex

Fast forward: we are now in the Revolution part of the Conciergerie,
in the Salle des Noms, the Room of Names, wherein are inscribed the
names of all who were imprisoned and/or tried in the Conciergerie...
some thousands...

A few of the biggies, not a few of which were themselves
Revolutionaries as the Revolution split into factions...
Girondists vs. Jacobins...

Typical cell

"Justice" was swift and certain

Monsieur Guillotine's invention

No escape; no breaking in, either

Robespierre, head of the Jacobins, head of The Terror

Spent his last moments here, before losing his...; I can't resist 
observing that the Revolution renamed all the months and restarted
the calendar from year one..."Thermidor" was the hot month, July-
August...

Vicki and Penelope take in one of the many multi-media exhibits

Now we are in the expiatory section, where the royals who
came to power after Napoleon erected various monuments
to their predecessors, mourning them, apologizing for the
Revolution, etc.

Shrine for Marie Antoinette; built approximately where her cell was...

For Louis XVI

The expiatory chapel

Marie Antoinette relics

Famous painting, original in the Carnavalet, of the Queen leaving
the Conciergerie (George Cain)

The visit ends with a large display on the women of the
Revolution...

Personal favorite, Charlotte Corday, Girondist, who
assassinated the Jacobin Marat, stabbing him in his bathtub,
giving rise to one of David's greatest hits, The Death of Marat