Paris Day Five: La Conciergerie

While there was still so much to see and so little time, we had to eat something. So we walked, in the rain, of course, to a little cafe across from Notre Dame. We had hot coffee, French onion soup and a crisp savory crepe. Everything was delicious!

After lunch we walked to our next stop. I just had to take a few shots of some of the beautiful buildings we saw on the way to...

The Conciergerie, a former royal palace of Philippe the Fair and Jean the Good. It was built in the 1300s. The Great Hall was used to seat up to 2000 guests and was built between 1302 and 1313. Now it is a large empty space filled only by a modern art piece that is a wooden water trough.

It was more famously used as a prison during the French Revolution. It housed up to 1200 prisoners at once before they were sentenced to die at the guillotine or released. Poor prisoners had nothing and slept on straw on the floor. Wealthier prisoners could pay for their own private cells. Either way, conditions were horrid and disease was rampant.

This room was filled with the names of 4000 people who were tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal between 1793 and 1795.

The most famous prisoner here was Marie-Antoinette. She was here from August 2 to October 16, 1793 when she was taken to the guillotine in the Plaza de Concorde. (the place with the ferris wheel)

The site of her cell was made into a chapel in the early 1800s and contains some of her personal affects and paintings of her.

Outside was the women's court, where women could go outside to wash clothes and eat.

There was also the Corner of the Twelve, where 12 prisoners would be called to wait for the cart to take them to the guillotine.

We weren't sure what this place was or what that sign means, but one of the guys clearly has been beheaded...