Faubourg Saint-Germain

In its early history, Faubourg Saint-Germain was an agricultural suburb of Paris, lying west of the historical Saint-Germain-des-Prés urban district.

Stretching 196 metres along the Seine River, the complex had 15 courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honour") for military parades.

"[3] During the French Revolution, many of these mansions, offering large reception rooms and exquisite decoration, were confiscated and turned into national institutions.

The French expression "les ors de la Republique" (literally, "the golds of the Republic"), referring to the luxurious environment of the national palaces (official residences and institutions), comes from that time.

The Ultra pushed towards counter-revolutionary laws, reinforcing the Catholic Church's power (Anti-Sacrilege Act) and enacting the Loi du milliard aux émigrés [fr] (literally, the "Law of the Billion to the Emigrants" [meaning "Exiles"]), which allowed the French nobility to return from exile and compensated them for their loss of fortune and land in the Revolution.