ALREADY KNOW YOUR NEXT DESTINATION?
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE AUDIOGUIDE
Very close to the Pont Marie metro station, the Hôtel de Lauzun will surprise you. Curiously, this 17th-century building was not built by the Duke of Lauzun but was a commission from Charles Gruyn des Bordes, a prosperous arms trader and son of an innkeeper, to the architect Louis Le Vau, one of the architects of the Court of Louis XIV.
The mansion took its name from the person who it is now known was the next owner after 1682, the Duke of Lauzun, commander of the French army, protégée of Louis XIV and known lover of the Duchess of Montpensier, the king’s cousin. After changing owners several times, it ended up becoming one of the centres of literary and artistic life in Paris.
The famous artists and art theoretician Charles Le Brun was responsible for its wall coverings as well as the paintings on the ceilings, before moving to Versailles. On looking at the mansion and its rooms it is easy to imagine what bourgeois life was like in 17th-century Paris. Without doubt, an important example of Parisian Baroque.
Among its most illustrious inhabitants, we can state that here lived the poet Théophile Gautier, who made this place the meeting point for the Club des Haschischines or Hashish Consumers Club. Among its leading members were Alexander Dumas and Eugene Delacroix.
Later, in the 19th century, the poet Charles Baudelaire also lived here for a while, on the third floor to be precise. Here he wrote a large part of his most famous work, “The Flowers of Evil”.
Other guests were the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the English artist Walter Sickert and the German composer Richard Wagner.
The property is currently used for official receptions but can be visited if you make a prior booking.
Arc de Triomphe (18)
Church of The Madeleine (23)
Fontaine de l'Observatoire (43A)
Jardin du Luxembourg (43)
Les Invalides (55)
Odeon Theatre (45)
Passage des Panoramas (67B)
Place des Vosges (74)
Pont Neuf (8A)
Saint Germain des Prés (46)
Bastille Opera (73)
Conciergerie (35)
Grand Palais et Petit Palais (29)
La Défense (100)
Montmartre (60)
Opéra Garnier (25)
Passages Couverts (67)
Place du Tertre (63)
Quartier Latin (38)
Sainte Chapelle (5)
Arènes de Lutece (75)
Belleville (88)
Champ de Mars (15)
Fontaine des Innocents (27B)
Île Saint Louis (7)
Jardins des Champs Elysées (11)
Le Défenseur du Temps (27C)
Metro Art-Noveau (36)
Moulin de la Galette (95)
Palais de l'Elysée (28)
Parc Monceau (82)
Place Pigalle (70)
Quai Voltaire (53)
Saint Severin (41)
The Seine (3)
Au Lapin Agile (64)
Bercy (81)
Cimetière du Montmartre (68)
Françoise Miterrand Library (78)
Institut du Monde Arabe (79)
Jardins du Trocadéro (14)
Les Catacombes de Paris (49)
Montparnasse Cemetery (48)
Moulin Rouge (69)
Palais du Luxembourg (42)
Passage Jouffroy (67A)
Place Saint-Sulpice (50A)
Rue des Rosiers (87)
Saint-Étienne du Mont (91)
Val-de-Grâce (92)
Auteil (94)
Cathedral Orthodox Saint Alexandre Nevsky (83)
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (85)
Hotel de Lauzun (9)
Institut Pasteur (54)
La Ruche (93)
Maison de Radio-France (17)
Montparnasse Tower (47)
National Library (77)
Palais Royal (26)
Passages Verdeau (67C)
Pont de l'Alma (8C)
Saint Eustache (27A)
Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre (66)
Villette Park (98)
Basilique Saint-Denis (97)
Chaillot (13)
Cour de Rohan (52)
Île de la Cité (6)
Jardin des Plantes (76)
La Sorbonne (51)
Marché aux Puces de St. Ouen (96)
Mosquée de Paris (80)
Palais de la Porte Dorée (84)
Palais-Bourbon. Assemblée-Nationale (30)
Passy (89)
Port de l'Arsenal (72)
Saint Julien le Pauvre (39)
Saint-Sulpice (50)
Carnavalet Museum (34)
Musée de la Magie (90)
Musée d'Orsay - Art (59B)
Musée Picasso (33)
Victor Hug's House (58)
Georges Pompidou Centre (32)
Musée de l'Orangerie (21)
Musée d'Orsay - History (59A)
Museum of The Louvre - History (19A)