Louis the Builder
In the mind of the king, the greatness of a kingdom must also be measured by the embellishment of it. On the advice of Colbert, one of the king's first projects will be the restoration of the palace and the Tuileries Garden entrusted to Louis Le Vau and André Le Nôtre. The interior decorations were entrusted to Charles Le Brun and the painters of the brilliant Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In addition to the Château de Versailles, which Louis XIV had gradually enlarged throughout his reign, he also had the Château de Marly built in order to invite his close friends. In these two castles, as in Saint Germain, the castle which saw the beginning of his reign, he entrusted the restoration of the gardens to Le Nôtre. In Paris, we also owe him, among other things, the Pont Royal (financed with his own money), the observatory, the Champs-Elysées, the Invalides, the Place Vendôme, but also the Place des Victoires which commemorates the victory over the Spain, the Empire, Brandenburg and Holland. Two triumphal arches on rue Saint-Denis and rue Saint-Jacques celebrate the victories of the Sun King during his European wars. He also had the structure of French towns such as Lille, Besançon, Belfort, Briançon also profoundly modified by fortifying them thanks to the works of Vauban. Some cities such as Versailles for the Court or Neuf-Brisach to defend the acquisitions of Alsace are created or developed. To facilitate the development of La Royale, he developed the ports and arsenals of Brest and Toulon, created a war port in Rochefort, commercial ports in Lorient and Sète and had the free port and galley arsenal built in Marseille. .
* In 1680, creation of the Comédie Française.
* In 1681, opening of the Canal du Midi, which connects the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, passing through Toulouse.
* In November 1682, the king placed the royal college Louis le Grand in Paris under his high patronage.
* In 1702, Paris was divided into twenty districts. Creation of public lighting and a police force in the streets of the capital.
Louis XIV, Patron of the Arts
After Fouquet's arrest, the king seems to want to imitate his lavish life. He proved to be extremely spendthrift, allocating immense sums at the expense of the royal court. He behaved as a patron and patron of the arts by financing the great cultural figures of the time such as Molière (as a sign of friendship, the king agreed to be the godfather of his first child), the musician Jean-Baptiste Lully or the decorator Charles Le Brun as well as the gardener Le Nôtre. He places the French Academy under his control and becomes his "protector". He also spent large sums improving the Louvre before finally choosing the Palace of Versailles as his royal residence. He moved there in 1682 after more than 20 years of work.