Take an exclusive tour of three presidential residences in France—their histories, art, gardens, and architecture—discussed and photographed for the first time. This volume offers a visit to the presidential residences of France: the Élysée Palace and its neighboring Hôtel de Marigny, the Lantern Pavilion hidden away in the park of Versailles, and the Brégançon Fort. These are the places where one can discover the excellence of French artisans, its art conservators and restaurateurs, and its famed gardeners. These sites of political theater and residences of the French president showcase France’s exceptional artistic heri­tage and present the great treasures of “French taste,” in perpetual reinvention from the eighteenth century through today, to diplomatic visitors from all over the world. The text presents a new way of understanding these buildings and their history, one which puts in perspective their evolution in decor, public or secret, and which decrypts their symbolic power thanks to the author’s unprecedented access to the buildings and to archival documents.

Take an exclusive tour of three presidential residences in France—their histories, art, gardens, and architecture—discussed and photographed for the first time. This volume offers a visit to the presidential residences of France: the Élysée Palace and its neighboring Hôtel de Marigny, the Lantern Pavilion hidden away in the park of Versailles, and the Brégançon Fort. These are the places where one can discover the excellence of French artisans, its art conservators and restaurateurs, and its famed gardeners. These sites of political theater and residences of the French president showcase France’s exceptional artistic heri­tage and present the great treasures of “French taste,” in perpetual reinvention from the eighteenth century through today, to diplomatic visitors from all over the world. The text presents a new way of understanding these buildings and their history, one which puts in perspective their evolution in decor, public or secret, and which decrypts their symbolic power thanks to the author’s unprecedented access to the buildings and to archival documents.

Consider this edition your personal Parisian address directory for the renowned that have historically shaped France and the world. This illustrated guide transports you geographically and photographically to famous residences formerly occupied by historical leaders, noteworthy figures, revolutionaries, famous writers, performers, composers and visual artists. It is your map of the stars within Paris with profiles framing the unique impact and background of the occupants. Known and unknown history, hidden delights and fascinating stories pervade the history of Paris. This kaleidoscope of discovery, personalities, egos, scandals, conflict framed by sheer beauty creates a vivid tapestry defining over two millenniums. You may imagine that you already know Paris, but that view is solely a prism of the whole. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. This Famous Historic Guide is your alternative to conventional travel. It accommodates the restless visitor, tourist and resident seeking a unique and different perspective to traditional tourism. Paris remains one of the most beguiling, seductive and enchanting cities of the world. Its famed personalities are as statuesque and substantial as its iconic monuments. HISTORICAL FIGURES: Joan of Ark, Nicholas Flamel, Diane de Poitiers, Queen Margot of Navarre, Cardinal Richelieu, Marquises of Montespan and Maintenon, Madame du Barry, Benjamin Franklin, Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson, Jacques Necker, Marie Le Normand, Eugene Vidocoq, Duke de Praslin, Napoleon III, La Paiva, Otto von Bismarck, Madame Claude, George Boulanger, Coco Chanel, Francois Mitterrand, Charles Parnell, Jacques Verges. John Adams, Karl Lagerfeld and Samuel de Champlain. BONAPARTE ERA: Napoleon Bonaparte, Desiree Clary, Empress Josephine, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, James Monroe, Pauline Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington. THINKERS/PHILOSOPHERS/WRITERS: Rene Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Marquis de Sade, Thomas Paine, Andre Chenier, Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Oscar Wilde, Colette, Sylvia Beach, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alexandre Dumas, Alexis de Tocqueville, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Andre Breton, Andre Malraux, Guillaume Apollinaire, Arthur Rambeau, Blaise Pascal, Charles Baudelaire, Theophile Gautier, Duke of Saint Simon, Ernest Hemingway, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Ezra Pound, Francoise Sagan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Sand, Gertrude Stein, Gustave Flaubert, Heinrich Heine, Ivan Turguenev, James Baldwin, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Leo Tolstoy, Jules Verne, Marcel Proust, Stendhal and PERFORMANCE ARTS: Moliere, Pierre Beaumarchais, Gioachino Rossini, Frederick Chopin, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Jacques Offenbach, Sarah Bernhardt, George Bizet, Jean Sibelius, Isadora Duncan, Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, Jacques Tati, Brigitte Bardot, Francois Truffaut, Jeanne Moreau, Serge Gainsbourg, George Moustaki, Dalida, Alain Delon and Jim Morrison, VISUAL ARTS: Jacques-Louis David, Auguste Rodin, Theo van Gough, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Alfonse Mucha, Amedeo Modigliani, Andre Masson, Constantin Brancusi, Camille Claudel, Edgar Degas, Eugene Delacroix, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Claude Monet, Francis Bacon, Gustave Dore, Gustave Moreau, Henri Matisse, Honore Daumier, Jean Renoir, Joan Miro, Kiki de Montparnasse, Man Ray, Yves Klein, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp and Paul Gauguin, REVOLUTIONARIES: Count Mirabeau, Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Maximilien Robespierre, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Ho Chi Minh and Jean-Paul Marat.