Institut de France

On the Left Bank quay facing the Louvre, this domed 17th-century palace houses the five learned academies of France, including the celebrated Académie française that guards the French language. Designed by the architect Louis Le Vau on the orders of Cardinal Mazarin, whose bequest funded it, its curved facade and cupola form one of the most recognisable riverside silhouettes in Paris. Within lies the Mazarine library, the oldest public library in the country. Its hall hosts the induction of new academicians.