Paris - Elysee Palace - 8me

Plate LXXVIII – Elysee Palace …

I have great respect, and more than a little sympathy for the guards stationed at Europe’s public buildings. Under the constant gaze of passers-by and often antagonized by tourists who should know better they unblinkingly carry out their duties and provide a continuing link to tradition. As I did here, I have as unobtrusively as possible also captured their presence from Buckingham Palace, and the Tower of London to the Royal Palace in Athens – watch out Swiss Guards, I aim to get to the Vatican yet!!!

Built for the court of the Comte d’Evreux as an hôtel particulier in 1718 by Armand-Claude Mollet in the classic Régence style, the residence was acquired by Louis XV for his mistress the Marquise de Pompadour. Signs erected by the citizens of the city were said to proclaim it as the ‘Home of the King’s Whore’. (O.K. - so she could always escape to the peace of her Petit Trianon at Versailles - which we will get to visit later). Sold again to private ownership in 1773 for use as a country residence (still lying well beyond the limits of the city) it was repurchased for the crown by Louis XVI. It was also once home to the Empress Joséphine, and it was here that the defeated Napoleon signed his abdication. Seized during the revolution it has since then remained ‘public property’ being used variously as a furniture warehouse and dance hall, even being occupied by camping Cossack soldiers during the Russian occupation of Paris in 1814. Known until the advent of the second republic as the Hôtel d’Evreux the government renamed it the Elysée National and assigned it as the official residence of the President of the French Republic – a role it fulfils to this day, although some recent incumbents have chosen not to use the private apartments. The president has his office inside the Palace, and it is the meeting place of his Council of Ministers.