Many a tourist visiting Paris looks over the Palais Royal, attends a performance of the Comédie française in the theatre that is established in the Palais, or goes for a stroll in the gardens.

 Originally, the Palais was the residence of cardinal Richelieu when he served France as a prime minister. When he died (1642), the house became the property of the royal family; Anne of Austria, widow of Louis XIII, moved into it, with her two sons Filips of Orléans and the later king Louis XIV, hence its name Palais Royal. When he had become a king, Louis preferred to live in the Louvre, and from that time on the Palais was mostly occupied by members of his family. First Henriëtte Maria of France, widow of king Charles I of England (until her death in1669), then her daughter (until she died in 1670), then her husband Filips of Orléans, the king's brother (until 1701), then his son Filips II (until 1723), then Filips' son.

 The Palais Royal was more than a home for royal persons. The title page of Pierre Mallet's draughts book (1669) for example recommended to buy the book in one of the book shops of the Palais. In the 1750's, many prostitutes had their workplace there [Mathorez 1919 I:322].

Louis Léopold Boilly, c. 1820. Game of draughts in Café Lamblin in the Palais Royal [Musée Condé, Chantilly]

Filips' son seldom lived in the Palais and for this reason he gave the property to his son Louis-Filips of Orléans (in 1741). Louis-Filips altered in twice. In 1752 the renovation was rather modest. In the 1780's, however, the building was greatly expanded with rows of two-story houses enclosing a courtyard and arcades of shops lining the interior garden. The Palais Royal became a lively public place, with coffee houses, gambling dens, music, filles de joie, drunkenness, brawls and so on. This was the situation in 1787, in the last years of the ancien régime, when Manoury wrote his story about the birth of Polish draughts.