The Palais Bourbon is the building which houses the French National Assembly, located on the Quai d’Orsay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris (France) on the Seine river, adjoining the Pont de la Concorde and the Place de la Concorde. The Minister of Foreign Affairs’ hotel is adjoining, but the two architectural groups do not communicate. It is guarded by the 2nd infantry regiment of the Republican Guard.
This site is served by the Assemblée nationale, Concorde and Invalides Paris metro stations.
The original palace was built beginning in 1722 for Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon, the legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and the Marquise de Montespan. Four successive architects – Lorenzo Giardini, Pierre Cailleteau, Jean Aubert and Jacques Gabriel – completed the palace in 1728. It was then nationalised during the French Revolution. From 1795 to 1799, during the Directory, it was the meeting place of the Council of Five Hundred, which chose the government leaders. Beginning in 1806, during Napoleon’s French Empire, Bernard Poyet’s Neoclassical facade was added to mirror that of the Church of the Madeleine, facing it across the Seine beyond the Place de la Concorde.
The palace complex today has a floor area of 124,000 m2 (1,330,000 sq ft), with over 9,500 rooms, in which 3,000 people work. The complex includes the Hôtel de Lassay, on the west side of the Palais Bourbon; it is the official residence of the President of the National Assembly.
Working Hours
Only guided tour from Monday to Saturday – 9:30 am, 10:30 am, 2:00 pm, and 3:00 pm.
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