One of the best-preserved historic districts of Paris, the Marais, is famous for its town houses or hôtels particuliers built by the nobility in the 17th and 18th centuries. Our second walk through the district will take us into the courtyards of the hôtel Salé (now the musée Picasso), Bruant, Guénégaud (now the musée de la Chasse), Rohan and the spectacular Rococo apartments of the hôtel de Soubise. We will see how Baroque and Classical architecture provide the appropriate grand background for the mansions of the great aristocrats but also the wealthy tax collectors of the reign of Louis XIV. We will also look at the surviving public fountains and merchants’ houses of the era. Contemporary views of the district will be juxtaposed to historical paintings, prints and maps evoking the past and life in the Marais in the 17th and 18th centuries.