Flight to Varennes: The King's Escape, 1791

Louis XVI and his family chose the night of 20 June 1791 for their escape. Disguised, with the governess playing a Russian baroness and the King a valet, they slipped out of the Tuileries Palace; the King could leave only after 23:30, having pretended to go to bed. Their goal was Montmédy, about 200 miles away, and they went in a single heavy coach drawn by six horses rather than two light carriages, because the couple had promised never to separate. It was a choice that made the journey slow.

The coach was slowed by delays and broken traces that needed repair, and the King chatted with villagers while horses were changed. At Sainte-Menehould the postmaster, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, recognised him, perhaps from the portrait printed on an assignat in his possession. The royal party left before anyone acted on the recognition, but Drouet pursued them along the road to Varennes.

Location precision: The sources do not say where in the town the King was recognised; the pin marks the town hall area of Sainte-Menehould.

Varennes-en-Argonne lay 50 km short of Montmédy. Around 23:00 Drouet arrived with the news. As the tocsin sounded, locals barricaded the bridge over the Aire. The royal carriages were halted before the arch of Saint-Gengoult church, where the King admitted who he was and told the townspeople he was going to Montmédy, not abroad. The townspeople then decided to return the King to Paris.

Location precision: The exact house and street are not pinned; the marker sits on the town of Varennes-en-Argonne.

Montmédy was the destination that the royal party never reached. The marquis de Bouillé had gathered a force of 10,000 regulars of the old Royal Army nearby, and the King hoped to set up a counter-revolutionary base in the hilltop citadel. Instead, he was turned back 50 km short. Today the citadel is still used as a place to live and has a church dating back to the 17th century, although most of the buildings are derelict or already collapsed.

Visitor guidance: A tourist office is inside the citadel.

On the way out, townspeople at Châlons reportedly greeted and applauded the royal party. Returning under guard, the family reached the city on the evening of 22 June and spent the night at the hôtel de l'Intendance. The old Hôtel des Intendants de Champagne, an 18th-century building, now houses the Marne prefecture, so the pin is placed there.

Location precision: The account names the hôtel de l'Intendance; the pin assumes this is the Hôtel des Intendants de Champagne.

On 25 June the procession entered Paris by the Champs-Élysées. The Revolutionary crowd met the royal carriage with uncharacteristic silence, men keeping their hats on as a sign of disrespect. The family went back to the Tuileries, already their place of confinement, and was now guarded more closely. The King's credibility as a constitutional monarch had been seriously undermined, and abolition of the monarchy became an ever-greater possibility.

Location precision: The route of the final approach is described only as the Champs-Élysées; the pin marks the avenue.