Conciergerie and place Lepine
From Paris Hotels Reviews
The Conciergerie and place Lepine
Nearby in the same complex, at 2 boulevard du Palais, is the Conciergerie (same hours as Sainte-Chapelle; €10;M° Cité), one of the few remaining vestiges of the old medieval palace and Paris’s oldest prison, where Marie-Antoinette and, in their turn, the leading figures of the Revolution, were incarcerated before execution. Inside are several splendid vaulted Gothic halls, including the Salle des Gens d’armes, built in 1301-1315; originally, before its transformation into a prison, this would have been the canteen and recreation room of the royal household staff. The far end is separated off by an iron grille; during the Revolution this area was reserved for the pailleux, prisoners who couldn’t afford to bribe a guard for their own cell and had to sleep on straw (paille).
Beyond is a corridor where prisoners were allowed to wander freely – there’s a number of reconstructed rooms here, such as the innocent-sounding “salle de toilette”, where the condemned had their hair cropped and shirt collars ripped in preparation for the guillotine. On the upper storey is a mock-up of Marie-Antoinette’s cell in which the condemned queen’s crucifix hangs forlornly against peeling feur-de-lys wallpaper.
Outside the Conciergerie stands the Tour de l’Horloge, a square tower built around 1350, and so called because it displayed Paris’s first public clock. The ornate clock face, set against a background of fleurs de lys, is flanked with statues representing Law and Justice, added in 1585. The clocktower’s bell, which would once have rung out to mark special royal occasions and would have sounded during the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, was melted down during the Commune.
East from here is place Lepine, named after the police boss who gave Paris’s coppers their white truncheons and whistles. The police headquarters in fact stands on one side of the square, better known as the Quai des Orfevres to readers of Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels, though rumour has it that the police will be moving out soon to new modern offices Livening up the square on the other side is an exuberant flower market, held daily and augmented by a chirupping bird market on Sundays.
