The secrets of the Élysée – The palace of a thousand and one rooms

The hall of honor

HASith its appearance of a political theatre, it is the place in the palace most familiar to the French and the one they know best. Located behind huge glass doors (installed under the presidency of Vincent Auriol, at the beginning of the 1950s, to replace a gigantic glass roof), at the back of the famous porch where the French president receives his foreign guests and where the secretary general of the Élysée announces the composition of the governments, this is the passage through which visitors reach the main courtyard.

This vestibule houses a monumental sculpture in white marble entitled Tribute to the 1789 revolution. Commissioned by François Mitterrand in 1984 from the artist Arman on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Revolution, it represents 200 flags…