Most sources say Catherine de Medici built the Tuileries, a French Renaissance palace. Her reason? Because she refused to live in the Louvre after her beloved husband, Henri II, died there. So, she needed another home in the centre of Paris. Laura de Pre has a different take.
Laura de Pre tends to think of the Tuileries as one of Catherine de Medici’s projects. Like the Hotel de Soissons, it’s a Parisian home that she associates with Catherine’s widowhood.