| Near Sainte Chapelle and in the same complex, at 1 boulevard du Palais, is the Conciergerie (same hours as Sainte Chapelle; €5.50, combined ticket with Sainte Chapelle €8; M° Cité), Paris's oldest prison, where Marie-Antoinette and, in their turn, the leading figures of the Revolution, were incarcerated before execution. Entering the Conciergerie, you find yourself in the vaulted, late-Gothic Salle des Gens d'armes, one of the few remaining vestiges of the old Capetian kings' palace and the oldest surviving medieval hall in Europe. This splendid and impressive space, consisting of three rows of columns and four naves, was, before its transformation into a prison, the canteen and recreation room of the royal household staff. The far end is separated off by an iron grille; during the Revolution this area was reserved for prisoners who couldn't afford to bribe a guard for their own cell and were known as the pailleux because all they had to sleep on was hay (paille). Beyond is a corridor where prisoners were allowed to wander freely – there's a number of reconstructed rooms here, like the euphemistically named "salle de toilette", where the condemned had their hair cropped and shirt collars ripped in preparation for the guillotine. On the upper storey is a reconstruction of Marie-Antoinette's cell. Pains have been taken to make it as authentic as possible, using evidence from contemporary accounts: watched over by a guard, a wax figure in black sits reading with her back to us; in front of her a crucifix hangs against torn and peeling fleur-de-lys wallpaper. Outside the Conciergerie stands the Tour de l'Horloge, built around 1350, and so called because it displayed Paris's first public clock. The original was replaced in 1585 and survives to this day – an ornate affair flanked with classical figures representing Law and Justice. East from here place Lépine was named after the police boss who gave Paris's coppers their white truncheons and whistles. The police headquarters in fact stands on one side of the square; more popularly known as the Quai des Orfèvres, it will be familiar to readers of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels. Livening up the square on the other side is an exuberant flower market, held daily and augmented by a chirruping bird market on Sundays.
| 
