Place des Vosges is Paris’ oldest square. It was built for King Henri IV in the 1600’s and it is truly a beautiful place. The king’s residence was on one side, the queen’s on the other. The buildings are all covered with lovely pink brick and there are covered walkways all the way around. There is a park in the middle where duels were once fought and it is now a popular place to come and sit under a tree with your lunch if the day should be nice. On one side is the entry in the very beautiful Hotel de Sully, first the yard, then the house with the library having the original ceiling, then the entry courtyard leading out onto Rue de Rivoli.
On the other side is the former home of Victor Hugo who lived there from 1832 to 1848 which has been turned into a museum with free entry. It contains some of his former furniture including his bed and the desk he wrote all of those books on, such as les Miserables. He was wildly famous in his own time and I once saw some old photos of his funeral. His coffin was huge, covered in black under the Arch de Triumph and it was surrounded by thousands and thousands of people.

Here is a painting of Victor Hugo hanging in the museum.

What I especially liked was seeing the park of Place des Vosges from a window up above in the museum.

All of the Marais, of which Place des Vosges is found, if worth a visit from the Picasso Museum, the Jewish Quarter to the fabulous mansions left from times past when the Marais was the area to live in as it has once again become.