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 The entrance to the Élysée Palace |
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| Palais de l'Élysée (French) | |
|---|---|
| Building | |
| Location | Paris, France |
| Address | 55 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris, France |
| Client | Henri-Louis de la Tour d'Auvergne |
| Current tenants | President of France since 1874 |
| Construction | |
| Started | 1718 |
| Completed | 1722 |
The Élysée Palace (Palais de l'Élysée, located 55, rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, not far from the Champs-Élysées), is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, where the president's office is located, and the Council of Ministers meets.
Important foreign visitors are hosted at the nearby Hôtel de Marigny (not a hotel in the English sense, but a palatial residence). The Élysee has large gardens, in which the president hosts a party on the afternoon of Bastille Day. Current resident and president is Nicolas Sarkozy.
History
The architect Armand-Claude Mollet possessed a property fronting on the road to the village of Roule, west of Paris (now the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré), and backing onto royal property, the Grand Cours through the Champs-Élysées. He sold this in 1718 to Henri-Louis de la Tour d'Auvergne, comte d'Évreux, with the agreement that Mollet would construct an hôtel particulier for the count, fronted by an entrance court and backed by a garden. The Hôtel d'Évreux was finished and decorated by 1722, and though it has undergone many modifications since, it remains a fine example of classic Régence style. At the time of his death in 1753, Évreux was the owner of one of the most widely admired houses in Paris, and it was bought by King Louis XV as a residence for the Marquise de Pompadour, his mistress. Opponents showed their distaste for the regime by hanging signs on the gates that read: "Home of the King's whore".
After her death it reverted to the crown until bought, in1773, by Nicolas Beaujon, banker to the Court and one of the richest men in France, who needed a suitably sumptuous "country house" (for the city of Paris didn't yet extend this far) to house his fabulous collection of great masters paintings. To this end he hired the architect Étienne-Louis Boullée to make substantial alterations to the buildings (as well as design an English-style garden). Soon on display there were such well-known masterpieces as Holbein's "The Ambassadors" (now in the National Gallery, London), and Frans Hals' "Bohemian" (now at the Louvre). His architectural alterations and art galleries gave this residence international renown as "one of the premier homes of Paris". Beaujon owned it until the year of his death, when he transferred the property to King Louis XVI.
During the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, the building receded in importance, becoming a furniture warehouse, then a print factory, then a dance hall.
Russian Cossacks camped at the Élysée when they occupied Paris in 1814.
Though it was first officially used by the government of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Hôtel d'Évreux was formally purchased for Louis XVIII in 1816. Under the provisional government of the Second Republic, it took the name of the Élysée National and was designated the official residence of the President of the Republic. (The President also has the use of several other official residences, including the Château de Rambouillet, a few miles outside Paris, and the Fort de Brégançon near Marseille.)
In 1853, following his coup d'état that ended the Republic, Napoléon III charged the architect Joseph-Eugène Lacroix with renovations and meanwhile moved to the nearby Tuileries Palace, but kept the Élysée as a discreet place to meet his mistresses, moving between the two palaces through a secret underground passage that has since been destroyed. Since Lacroix completed his work in 1867, the essential look of the Palais de l'Élysée has remained the same.
After the republic was restored in 1870, the Élysée once more became a presidential residence, but its new occupants maintained the building's racy reputation.
During World War I, a gorilla escaped from a nearby ménagerie, entered the palace and was said to have tried to haul the wife of President Raymond Poincaré into a tree only to be foiled by Élysée guards. President Paul Deschanel, who resigned in 1920 because of madness, was said to have been so impressed by the gorilla's feat that, to the alarm of his guests, he took to jumping into trees during state receptions.
The Élysée was boarded up during World War II and left empty until after the war. It was then occupied from 1959 to 1969 by the first President of the new Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle, who frowned on its reputation and lack of privacy. He had another luxurious building purchased nearby so he could receive official state guests there rather than at the Élysée itself. "I do not like the idea of meeting kings walking around my corridors in their pyjamas" he said.
Socialist President François Mitterrand, who governed from 1981-1995, is said hardly to have used its private apartments. He preferred returning at night to his own home on the more bohemian Left Bank, or to a discreet flat in another district occupied by the mother of his illegitimate daughter Mazarine.
By contrast, his successor Jacques Chirac lived throughout his two terms in office (1995-2007) in the Élysée apartments with his wife Bernadette.
Chirac increased the Palace's budget by 105% to 90 million euros per year, according to the book 'L'argent caché de l'Élysée'. One million euros per year is spent on drinks alone for the guests invited to the Élysée Palace. 6.9 million euros per year on bonuses for presidential staff, 6.1 million euros per year on the 145 extra employees Chirac hired after he was elected in 1995, and 81,012 euros per year as a salary for the President.
Chirac's successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, has announced he too will live in the Élysée, while his ex-wife Cécilia, had expressed doubts about life in the palace. "I don't see myself as a first lady. It bores me. I'm not politically correct," she told an interviewer. On October 18th it was announced that Nicolas and Cécilia Sarkozy would divorce. Mr Sarkozy and his wife never lived in the Palace when Mr Sarkozy was still married.
Bibliography
- René Dosière, L'argent caché de l'Elysée, Seuil, 2007
External links
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- This page was last modified on 2 January 2009, at 21:15.
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