The Palais de l'Elysée was first, for a few years, a private mansion before becoming a palace where history and stories followed one another until its current destination as residence of the Presidents of the French Republic. It is located in the lower part of the Champs Elysées, near the Jardins des Champs Elysées.
The Elysée Palace and the Count of Evreux - a special history
Louis-Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, a penniless 32-year-old Count of Evreux, married the 12-year-old daughter of Antoine Crozat, France's leading financier. An exchange of goodwill: a title for a substantial dowry (2,000,000 livres). The ambitious Count then asked the Regent of the Kingdom (who replaced the King until he came of age) for the captaincy of the hunting grounds of Monceaux. This honorary position was accepted "on the condition that he would build a hotel in Paris worthy of the name": it was the Hôtel d'Evreux, the future Palais de l'Elysées, at 55 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in Paris (main entrance). Built with the money of the father-in-law by the architects : Armand Claude Mollet then Jules Michel Alexandre Hardouin. This address is located in the middle of a working class neighborhood, then simple roadway lined with thatched hovels and modest shops. To end this dark story, the Count of Evreux chased away his young wife on December 14, 1720, the day of the ball for the inauguration of the hotel, attended by his mistress, the Duchess of Lesdiguières.
The Elysée Palace after the Count of Evreux and until the Revolution
This Palace has always been closely linked to the historical and political events of France. Built for Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, it was then bought and offered as a gift in 1753 by King Louis XV to his favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour. The Marquise de Pompadour made it her Parisian home after extensive and costly modifications, at the expense of the kingdom of France. After the death of the Marquise, on April 15, 1764, the Palais de l'Elysées was used as a furniture depository (for the sale of her furniture), and was bought in 1773 by the banker Nicolas Beaujon who redecorated it. He is also known to maintain in the Palace itself five to six mistresses, nicknamed the "Berceuses". In 1786, he sold the Palace as a life annuity to King Louis XVI, who wanted to house the extraordinary ambassadors and foreign sovereigns visiting Paris. This project never came to fruition and Louis XVI sold the Palace to his cousin Bathilde d'Orleans.
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The fashion of the "return to nature" of the time of Madame de Pompadour, transforms the park to graze a flock of sheep with golden horns and ribboned neck. One day when Madame de Pompadour decides to let them enter her boudoir to present them to her guests, the ram, believing to have to deal with a rival, rushes towards his reflection seen in a large mirror, the flock follows him, ransacking the room.
The Palace property of Bathilde d'Orléans, duchess of Bourbon
Bathilde d'Orléans, very whimsical, passionate about palmistry, astrology and occult sciences, was dismissed from the court for her frivolity. She was later nicknamed "Citizen Truth", because of her new republican spirit at the beginning of the revolution. Moreover, her brother, nicknamed "Philippe-Égalité", voted the death of King Louis XVI (his cousin). He will be himself guillotined. His son will become king of the French in 1830 under the name of Louis Philippe 1st and will be overthrown during the Revolution of 1848.
Despite her closeness to the revolutionaries, the Duchess Bathilde d'Orléans was imprisoned in the Fort Saint-Jean prison in Marseille for a year and a half and only miraculously escaped the Terror. The palace of Elysee suffers nevertheless much during these troubles years.
In January 1797, the Directory officially gives back the possession of the hotel to the duchess of Bourbon. However, she could no longer maintain this great residence and was obliged to rent the first floor to Benoît Hovyn and his wife Joanne La Violette, who turned it into a "pleasure" establishment and organized popular balls, games, conferences and concerts (the Parisians were looking for amusement, the memory of the Terror still being palpable).
The coup d'état of 18 fructidor year V (4 September 1797) was a political operation carried out under the Directory by three of the five directors (including Paul Barras) supported by the army, against the royalists, who had become the majority in the Council of Five Hundred and in the Council of Ancients. Bathilde d'Orléans was arrested and moved with her sister-in-law and her cousin, the Prince of Conti, to the Spanish border (Bathilde d'Orléans would not see France again until seventeen years later, at the fall of the First Empire). The Directory then sold the hotel as national property, the lease to the Hovyns (which was originally for nine years) was cancelled and a new establishment opened its doors on 21 June 1797. It took the name of Palais de l'Elysées, referring to the nearby promenade of the same name. The inauguration was sumptuous: a hot-air balloon set in the gardens took a sheep into the air and released it with a parachute. The success is there, the Creoles Fortunée Hamelin and Joséphine de Beauharnais (future 2nd wife of Napoleon 1st) being regulars, like the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses; young girls dressed as savages or in Greek style dance for the public.
The Elysée under the Consulate and until the departure of Napoleon I
The Consulate, in 1799, put an end to these years of fantasy. After eight years of use as a public place, the hotel was in a state that left much to be desired. The brother-in-law of the Emperor Napoleon I, Marshal of the Empire Joachim Murat, bought the property from the ruined daughter of Hovyn on August 6, 1805 for 570,000 francs and undertook extensive work. He settled there with his wife Caroline Bonaparte and made it one of his many luxurious residences. The hotel then took on the status of a palace. It was also the scene of sumptuous parties and tumultuous scenes between the Murat couple and also of Napoleon I with General Jean-Andoche Junot. The latter was for a time the lover of his sister Caroline Bonaparte. Then, Murat became king of Naples in 1808, Napoleon made it his residence for a few months and after his marital breakup with Josephine, the Emperor offered him the palace. The period of the Hundred Days allowed the Emperor to live there from June 21 to 25, 1815 in the morning, after his abdication of June 22 dictated to his brother in the silver room.
The Elysee Palace until Napoleon III
After the abdication of Napoleon I, the Elysian Palace was occupied by Lord Wellington, commander of the allied troops in France, who left the Palace in a pitiful state.
Louis XVIII returned to France and donated the Elysium Palace to his heir and nephew, the second son of King Charles X: the Duke of Berry in December 1815. On February 13, 1819, he will be assassinated by the worker Louvet. His wife, pregnant, will give birth to the Count of Chambord, who in 1871 will refuse the tricolor flag and will let escape the possibility of climbing on the throne of France.
Later, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon I, who would become Napoleon III) had it converted into a "London" style residence when he became President of the Second Republic (1848-1852). Since that date, it is the official residence of the President of the Republic - when France is under a Republic, of course!
However, when he became Emperor Napoleon III, he moved to the Tuileries Palace. But in 1853, Napoleon III, although installed at the Tuileries Palace, decided to completely renovate the palace by a new architect, Joseph-Eugene Lacroix. The Palais de L'Elysées became the "official hotel for sovereigns visiting Paris" and Napoleon III organized grandiose parties, notably in the ballroom built to the west of the palace. The current structures of the palace come essentially from this period, and all of this work, which was completed in 1867, constitute the last major developments. Since Louis XV and through its many occupants, the hotel then the palace has been modified both outside and inside countless times.
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Following the renovations completed in 1867, of the 7 tapestries planned, 5 will be destroyed by the Commune insurrection of Paris in 1871. The Palais de l'Elysées escaped the total destruction of the Communards (insurgents) thanks to false seals decorated with the seal of the federated government posed by Louis Basset de la Belavalle.
The Presidents of the Republics since 1871 until today
France has had a total of 5 Republics. The 1st one is the set of republican regimes in France from September 1792 to May 1804 (Napoleon becomes Napoleon 1st). The 2nd Republic runs from 1848 to 1851 (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is President). The 3rd one goes from September 1870 to July 1940, the 4th one from September 1870 to July 1940 and the 5th one since this date.
Twenty-five Presidents have succeeded each other at the Elysée since Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Click here to learn more about names and years in charge.
Some stories related to the Elysee Palace
4 Presidents have died in office. President Sadi Carnot was assassinated in Lyon and brought back to the palace in June 1894. President Paul Doumer was assassinated in Paris in May 1932 by a Russian émigré. President Pompidou died in his Parisian apartments in 1974, following a long illness.
Félix Faure was the fourth to die during his term of office and the only one to die within the walls of the Elysée Palace, on February 16, 1899, four years after his election. This is a "historical" fact, in circumstances that have passed into history. Indeed, he is supposed to have died in the arms of his mistress Marguerite Steinheil. This fed jokes, rumors and mockery.
- President Jules Gévy resigned on December 2, 1887 following the scandal caused by the discovery of a traffic of decorations in which his son-in-law Daniel Wilson was involved.
- President Paul Deschanel, victim of an anxious and depressive state and of the Elpenor syndrome, fell from the presidential night train in May 1920 - without being injured, and without his bodyguards noticing. Seven months after his inauguration, he was the subject of rumors of insanity and resigned from the Élysée.
- Much more recently, President François Hollande was photographed getting off a scooter driven by one of his bodyguards, under the windows of his actress mistress Julie Gayet's apartment and in the middle of the night. Here again, the satirical press had a field day.
- On June 10, 1940, the palace hosted the last Parisian Council of Ministers in the history of the Third Republic, the Palace was abandoned between 1940 and 1946. It was not requisitioned by the Germans during the Second World War and General de Gaulle, as head of the provisional government, moved to the Hôtel de Brienne. It was only in 1947 that President Auriol moved to the Élysée, followed by President Coty elected in 1953 until the end of the Fourth Republic on December 31, 1958. Then came, with the Fifth Republic, General de Gaulle, Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and Manuel Macron.
The visit of the residence of the French Presidents
The Palais de l'Élisée can be visited only one day in the year: during the European Heritage Days, the 3rd weekend of September.
But by clicking on "Virtual visit of the Elysée Palace" you will get a virtual visit of the offices, rooms, corridors of the building. Available in French and English languages.
The Elysée Palace is divided into
- The central building (main building) still called "Hôtel d'Evreux". The first floor of the main building has a purely official function, hosting ceremonial rooms used for receptions and meetings with foreign guests or for the Council of Ministers meeting. (1)
First floor: Access to the second floor is via several staircases, essentially the grand Murat staircase from the vestibule of honor to the two anterooms that serve the offices of the President of the Republic and his principal collaborators
- East Wing The east wing of the palace, in an L-shape and framing the small French garden or the President's private garden, is traditionally devoted to the private apartments of the presidential couple, with the first floor being used primarily for receptions or for semi-official functions, and the first floor being used as the residence of the presidential couple itself.
- West wing In the extension of the Murat salon, the west wing is essentially used for large state receptions.
(1) Note:
The Palace and the French political life: the Council of Ministers
The Palace hosts the Council of Ministers every Wednesday morning. It is customary for the Prime Minister to sit opposite the President of the Republic around a long table with rounded ends. Traditionally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs gives a brief overview of international news. Then, the President of the Republic gives the floor to the various ministers whose action is on the agenda or who have to defend a bill, and then concludes the Council by possibly adding a remark on a specific subject, if he wishes to give it a particular echo.
The Council also takes measures of an individual nature (appointment or promotion of senior officials such as prefects, general officers, public prosecutors, academy rectors, members of the Commission des sondages, etc.). The President signs the acts deliberated by the Council. At the end of the Council, an official communiqué is published and often commented on by the government spokesperson. In August, the Council usually takes a three-week vacation.
The park of the Elysée Palace
Under the Count of Evreux, the garden is in the French formal style (Jardin à la française), "very disciplined, very worked, very symmetrical".
Under the Third Republic, the Rooster Gate (26, avenue Gabriel 75008 PARIS) was created at the back of the park by Adrien Chancel (who also supervised the construction of the Salle des fêtes) at the request of President Emile Loubet. It is known as the entrance to the private guests of the presidential couple.
The two-hectare garden (20,000 square meters, with 7,000 square meters of lawn) now looks like a long curved lawn, lined with trees, flowers, groves, a labyrinth and a fountain. Since 1990, the gardener Yannick Cadet oversees the organization of the garden. Nine gardeners work there,
The park has a total of one hundred species of trees and shrubs. There are three bi-centennial plane trees dating back to Bathilde d'Orléans, Duchess of Bourbon, the largest of which measures 5.20 meters in circumference, boxwoods and hibiscus varieties. There are also one hundred varieties of rosebushes and thirty varieties of rhododendrons. The planting of spring flowers gives rise to the importation of 20,000 hyacinth and tulip bulbs and 17,000 for the summer flowers. A giant bonsai tree also adorns the park.
The Elysée Palace in figures
The exploited surface of the site is 11 179 m2 (a little more than one hectare only, that is to say a square of 100 mx100 m), including 300 m2 of private apartments, for 365 rooms (90 of which are in the basement), while the park has a surface of 1,5 hectare planted with a hundred different species, in particular plane trees dating from before 1789 and one of which reaches the record height of 40 meters).
A little less than 1,000 people work at the Élysée, including a hundred or so who are assigned to the correspondence (receiving between 1,500 and 2,000 letters daily) and 350 military personnel.
A master clockmaker in white gloves winds the 320 clocks every Tuesday morning, the day before the Council of Ministers.
Number of pieces of furniture: 2,000 precious pieces of furniture including 200 tapestries, 6,000 pieces of silverware and 3,000 pieces of Baccarat glassware.
Fleet of 75 cars, in addition to those of the President of the Republic (Raymond Poincaré was the first president to use an official car for the presidential motorcade in 1913, the Panhard & Levassor coupé de ville)
Number of entrances: 6. Mail should be addressed to the official address at 55 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, marked by the porch and the concierge's lodge.
Its budget officially amounted in 2014 to just under 100 million euros.
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