Palais Royal

For a romantic and secluded stroll, you can choose to walk the flower-lined avenues of the Palais Royale Gardens surrounded by elegant arcades full of boutiques.

The Palais Royal, commissioned and built by Cardinal Richelieu in 1624, is now closed to the public but you can admire its magnificent public gardens spanning 21 hectares.

You can stroll among the rows of trees, flowering hedges and fountains, the ideal place for a romantic tet a tet, or explore sculptor Daniel Buren’s controversial installation, a tangle of black and white striped columns, a gigantic chessboard that spreads over 3000 square metres, another attempt to bring history and modernity together.

But the gardens also hide some really delightful nooks and crannies that you simply cannot miss: three rows of arcades that will take you back in time and give you the illusion of seeing some aristocrat walking by with a bowler hat on his head.

The Galerie de Valois is home to the richest and most luxurious shops with haute couture boutiques and coats of arms engravers who have been in business since 1785.
The Galerie de Montpensier, on the other hand, became the centre of the revolution with the Café du Foy where revolutionaries gathered.
In contrast, the Galerie Beaujolais is crossed by the charming Passage du Perron