Comédie-Française

       ComedieFrancaise         

The Comédie-Française is not a comedy theater, despite the name. (Comédie traditionally referred to any type of theater in French, although that is less true today.) It is a highly prestigious national theater that has existed for almost four hundred years, and has resided for more than two hundred years in the southwest corner of the Palais-Royal complex, seen here.

The theater as an institution is unusual in that it has its own in-house troupe of actors. It is often linked to Molière, whose widow promoted the concept, even though he died before the theater’s troupe was formed.

There was still some renovation work going on at the time I took this photo.

Photographed on September 5, 2026.