L
est the reader think I advocate only the
homespun, flashback forty years: to the
Place Vendome. I am fifteen, and it is my
first time in Paris; I had not even seen New
York. Big is beautiful, too, and I marveled at
the apparently octagonal expanse of Place
Vendome, so unlike the wide open spaces
of Los Angeles—a freeway cloverleaf, or
tennis court in Beverly Hills.
The Place Vendome, originally the Place
des Conquetes, was laid out under Louis
XIV in 1702. The architect HardouinMansart, in the 1720s, designed ranges
of Corinthian pilasters to create palacelike fronts at the center of the square's
long sides, accounting for the octagonal
appearance of the square. In 1806, to
commemorate the battle of Austerlitz,
Napoleon erected the Vendome Column
at the center of the square. Modeled after
Trajan's Column, the Vendome Column is
veneered in 425 spiraling bas-relief bronze
plates designed by the sculptor PierreNolasque Bergeret, and surmounted by a
statue of Napoleon, crowned with laurels.
Since 1718, Place Vendome been the
address for the Ministry of Justice, known
as the "Chancellerie," located at the Hotel
