Originally laid down in 1757 as the 90-gun Impétueux, she was renamed Ville de Paris in 1762 in recognition of her construction being paid for by the city of Paris as part of the don des vaisseaux, Duc de Choiseul’s campaign to solicit donations for the navy from the cities and provinces of France.

In 1778, on the French entry into the American Revolutionary War, she was formally commissioned at Brest and assigned as the flagship of Admiral Guichen.

At some point during the next two years, she underwent renovations to have her previously unmanned quarterdeck fitted with fourteen small guns that could be manned by individual sailors, thus making her a 104-gun ship.

[1] In March 1781, she sailed for the West Indies, this time as part of a fleet of twenty ships of the line under De Grasse.

[5] The ship sank in September 1782 with other vessels, including HMS Glorieux, when the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane hit the fleet off Newfoundland under the command of De Grasse's enemy, Admiral Graves.