La Chapelle Expiatoire

A fairly tragic place. Not taking sides in the French Revolution, I have to think that the King and Queen were genuinely shocked to discover that their subjects wanted to kill them. There is such a sense of innocent, naïve grievance in their own words — a letter that Marie Antoinette wrote to her sister, the last will and testament of Louis — carved on their monuments.
I still don’t know quite how I feel about this hagiographic monument. The after-​the-​fact attempt to glorify the murdered rulers seems so blatant… I guess it would be nice to have some accompanying exhibition about the conditions or motives of the revolutionaries, explaining why they felt so compelled to commit regicide.
The deaths of hundreds of Swiss Guards who had the responsibility of defending the Tuileries Palace are also commemorated here in a rose garden. Until this point, I had no knowledge that these Guards were killed in the Revolution, many of them massacred after surrendering, according to Wikipedia. (That said, the same Mighty Wiki also says that the Guards fired first upon the advancing crowd of revolutionaries, so might their subsequent deaths be somewhat justified? History is full of bloody moral questions such as these.)
For me, this was a sobering reminder that for all our attention on the ‘headline names’ — the King, the Queen, some of the leaders of the Revolution — there were hundreds and thousands of dead on all sides of the conflict who are nameless today but whose deaths were no less significant for themselves and their loved ones than the deaths that appear in the history books today.

Étonnant édifice que cette Chapelle Expiatoire… Souhaitée, et financée par Louis XVIII, sa construction dura plus de 10 ans, dans les années 1820, à l’emplacement exacte ou Louis XVI et Marie-​Antoinette avaient été enterrés.
Aujourd’hui réouverte au public une fois l’an, afin de satisfaire les légitimistes royalistes (oui oui, il en reste !), la Chapelle fait également l’objet de visites de groupe aux dates irrégulières, et pour lesquelles un petit tour sur le site internet est le seul oracle ! Côté architecture, un bâtiment plutôt étonnant, une large coupole et une allée bordée d’arches et de colonnes… c’est à voir ! Étrangement, le bâtiment est totalement méconnu, engoncé dans son parc, alors qu’il est très proche des grands magasins…
Dernière chose: n’y cherchez pas de tombe, les restes du Roi et de la Reine sont maintenant à Saint Denis !

Non de la gare St Lazare, se trouve dans un petit square, le square Louis XVI, avec des bancs et jardins entouré d’une petite grille verte, une église: la chapelle Expiatoire.
Cet église néoclassique a été construite aux XIX siècles et dédiée à la mémoiré de la famille royale.
Elle se trouve après le premier bâtiment et le parc.
Dès son entrée, vous admirez le sol somptueux et le formidable dôme ainsi que les sculptures et sa splendide architecture. Elle est sublime tout en pierre beige.
Vous né pouvez rater les hommages qui y sont fait à Marie-​Antoinette et Louis XVI.
N’oubliez pas de descendre pour y admirer quelques surprises.
Chateaubriand avait bien raison quand il a dit de ce monument qu’il est le plus remarquable de Paris. A voir absolument.

If you are interested in the French Revolution or fascinated by Marie Antoinette then you really need to visit this site. It is a gorgeous little Neo Classical chapel built upon the site where the bones of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were discovered during the Bourbon Restoration.
There is a small pathway lined with gravestones, which leads to the chapel, inside which there are statues of Louis, Marie Antoinette and Madame Elisabeth ascending to heaven. The interior is delightful and full of peace, quiet and calm. It really is an oasis in a busy part of Paris.
Be warned that it is only open on Wednesdays though!