Paris in the 18th century

Paris in the 18th century was the second-largest city in Europe, after London, with a population of about 600,000 people. The century saw the construction of Place Vendôme, the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the church of Les Invalides, and the Panthéon, and the founding of the Louvre Museum. Paris witnessed the end of the reign of Louis XIV, was the center stage of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, saw the first manned flight, and was the birthplace of high fashion and the modern restaurant and bistro. Louis XIV distrusted the Parisians; when he was young he had been forced to flee the city twice, and he did not forget it. He moved his residence from the Tuileries Palace to the Palace of Versailles in 1671, and moved his entire court to Versailles in 1682. But while he disliked the Parisians, he wanted Paris to be a monument to his glory; he declared in 1666 that he wished to "do for Paris what Augustus had done for Rome." He decorated the city with new squares and public buildings; the Collège des Quatre-Nations (1662–1672); the Pont Royal in 1685, and in the same year began construction of two new monumental squares: Place des Victoires and Place Louis le Grand, (now Place Vendôme). He also began the Hôtel des Invalides (1671–1678), a residence and hospital for wounded soldiers. In 1699, a monumental equestrian statue of the King was dedicated in the center of the place Vendôme. During his reign, Louis XIV spent more than 200 million livres for new buildings, of which ten percent was spent in Paris; ten million for rebuilding the Louvre and the Tuileries; 3.5 million for the new factories of Gobelins and the Savonnerie; and a little more than 2 million for Les Invalides. Several new churches were also begun during the reign of Louis XIV, but not finished until well into the 18th century; these included the Church of Saint-Sulpice, whose cornerstone was laid by the Queen, Anne of Austria, in 1646, but not finished until 1745; the Church of Saint-Roch, begun in 1653 and finished in 1740; the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet (1656–1765); and the church of Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin (1683–1770).