She was completed in 1764 as a 90-gun First Rate, just too late to serve in the Seven Years War. She was one of the first three-deckers to be completed for the French navy since the 1720s.

In 1778, on the French entry into the American War of Independence she was commissioned at Brest, joining the fleet as the flagship of the Comte de Guichen. In July she fought in the Battle of Ushant (1778).  At some point during the next two years, she had an additional 14 small guns mounted on her previously unarmed quarterdeck, making her a 104-gun ship.

In March 1781 she sailed for the West Indies as flagship of a fleet of 20 of the line under the Comte de Grasse. She then fought at the Battle of Fort Royal, the Battle of the Chesapeake and the Battle of St. Kitts as De Grasse's flagship.

She was taken at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, when the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.

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This Ville de Paris masterpiece features:

• Scratch-built

• plank-on-frame

• All parts are wooden or metal

• Realistic old-looking thin sails

• Extremely fine deck details

• Extreme and perfect rigging

• Exact beautiful stern gallery that no other models can match

• Wooden base