Staying in hotels that formerly housed royalty is an increasingly popular attraction worldwide. Travelers to Paris can now stay at the former resilience of Marguerite of Valois, La Reine Margot. The Domaine de la Reine Margot Paris Issy MGallery Collection just opened as the city’s newest 5-star hotel, and one with quite an impressive backstory.
Queen Margot navigated a treacherous path as a French princess during the bloody religious conflicts of the 16th Century. Married to King Henry of Navarre in a political attempt to unite Catholics and Protestants, she found herself trapped between her powerful mother, Catherine de Medici, and the escalating violence. Despite the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre’s horrors, she possibly offered sanctuary to some Huguenots. Though Queen of Navarre and later France through Henry’s ascension, their marriage remained strained. La Reine Margot’s life embodied the complexities of the era, forever marked by political machinations, religious strife, and a fight to carve her own space within the rigid confines of royalty.
