Place des Victoires

When this circle of mansions was built in 1685, it was for the sole purpose of offsetting the statue of Louis XIV that once stood here. The architect, Jules Hardouin Mansart, designed the proportion of the buildings and even the arrangements of the surrounding streets, all to show the statue to its best advantage. Unfortunately the angry mobs of 1792 tore down the statue in protest. A replacement, of a totally different style, was put up in 1822, to the detriment of the whole system of proportion of the buildings to statue. It's still a very nice roundabout, and has both a Kenzo and a Cacharel store.