PLACE VENDOME, Palaces

Now let's take a look at the buildings that surround Place Vendôme in a uniform, symmetrical fashion. By the way, I still haven't told you how the square got its final name: it is named after the illegitimate son of King Henry IV, the Duke of Vendôme, who owned a palace in the square that no longer exists.

A series of arches runs along the bottom of the buildings, while in the floors above you can see pairs of overlapping windows that alternate with Corinthian columns decorated with bas-reliefs, all covered by apartments with characteristic windows cut out of the spaces under the roofs: these spaces are called "mansards" in honor of the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the square's architect and one of the protagonists of European Baroque architecture.

After having daydreamed in front of the boutiques that, with elegance and glamorous pieces and prices, keep the tradition of French luxury jewelry, watchmaking, and haute couture alive, stop for a moment at number 12: the great composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin lived here for a few years.

Instead on the opposite side of the square on the façade of number 13, the current Ministry of Justice, look for the marble sculpture of the meter that was placed at the end of the 18th century. It was put here to help the Parisians get acquainted with the new national measurement that had been adopted during the Revolution.

But the square's pièce de résistance is at the nearby number 15: I'm talking about the entrance to the legendary Ritz Hotel, whose lavish walls have hosted the most famous names of literature such as Marcel Proust, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, JD Salinger, and Ernest Hemingway. The latter drank a great number of martinis in the bar that still bears his name. And don't forget the great fashion designer Coco Chanel, whose emblematic shop you've undoubtedly noticed in the square at number 18.

FUN FACT: the Ritz Hotel has truly been through a lot, but its most eccentric guest was probably the Italian marquis Luisa Casati, who would wander the halls wearing only a fur coat, while walking her two cheetahs on leashes. But the biggest problem was her beloved python, who ate a live rabbit every day and would escape her room every now and then, terrorizing the other guests.