SPECIAL REPORT: France & America, 250 Years Together

Once the home of the Duc d’Orléans, the Palais-Royal and its gardens were a hotbed of anti-royalist discussions in the years leading up to the French Revolution. Free from the authority of the Paris police, revelers from all walks of life debated, drank, gambled, and generally misbehaved, without fear of rebuke or worse. The ideas discussed had been around for a while: questioning the divine right of kings to rule; advocating the right to self-determination. France had supported the successful American quest for such independence a few years earlier. Now, France would launch its own revolution.

Reporting from Paris Editor-in-Chief Shellie Karabell talks with Edith de Belleville, author, lawyer, tour guide and professor.

[videographer/editor: Celine Marchand]

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Shellie Karabell has spent more than 40 years in broadcast journalism as a news executive, anchor, producer, and field reporter in her native USA, Europe, the USSR/Russia and the Middle East for ABC/WTN, PBS, Dow Jones Broadcast, CNBC, and Forbes.com. She has covered some of the major news events of the 20^th century: the release of the American hostages from Iran in 1981; the collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989); civil wars in Lebanon (1983) and Yugoslavia (1991-92), and USSR/Russia (1986- present). She is currently VP of the Anglo American Press Association of Paris (President 2022-2025).