The Hôtel Matignon (otɛl matiɲɔ̃) is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France

Prime Minister of France

The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...

. It is located in the VIIe arrondissement

VIIe arrondissement

The 7th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. It includes some of Paris's major tourist attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Hôtel des Invalides , and a concentration of such world famous museums as the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée du quai...

 of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

The address of Hotel Matignon is 57 rue de Varenne, Paris, France.

History

In 1649, as part of his plan for the construction of the Hôtel des Invalides

Les Invalides

Les Invalides , officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides , is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's...

, Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 decided to restore the old "Chemin du Bois de la Garenne," which had become the "Rue de Varenne," that linked Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés....

, at the western end of Paris, with the marshy terrain chosen as the new building site. Henceforth the "Noble Faubourg" gained a new lease on life, the proximity of Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

 being irresistible for an aristocracy who lived exclusively by and for the Court.

On September 30, 1717, Christian-Louis de Montmorency Luxembourg, Prince of Tigny

Christian Louis de Montmorency-Luxembourg

Christian Louis de Montmorency-Luxembourg, comte de Beaumont , prince de Tingry , comte de Luxe, was a Marshal of France ....

 and Marshal of France

Marshal of France

The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...

, purchased, for the sum of 91 Livres, 2869 toise

Toise

A toise is a unit of measure for length, area and volume originating in pre-revolutionary France. In North America, it was used in colonial French establishments in early New France, French Louisiana , and Quebec...

s (30,000 m²) of land along the Rue de Varenne. He was a lover of gardens and intended to create a country park. In 1722, he commissioned a little-known architect, Jean Courtonne, to conceive and construct a mansion. His success in this endeavor won him entry to the Academy of

Académie d'architecture

The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...

, where he wrote a much-remarked Treatise on Perspectives (1725). But the expense of the enterprise forced the Prince of Tigny to sell, and it was the Count of Matignon who bought the Hôtel, completed in 1725, as a present for his son, the Duke of Valentinois

Duke of Valentinois

Duke of Valentinois , formerly Count of Valentinois, is a title of nobility, originally in the French peerage. It is currently one of the many hereditary titles claimed by the Prince of Monaco despite its extinction in French law in 1949...

.

Courtonne's design was highly original. Rising from a broad terrace, the main residence, a single-storey building crowned by a balustrade, comprises two suites of rooms. Access from the street is gained by a portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

 ornamented by columns. This archway reveals the main courtyard, bracketed by two low wings of offices and outbuildings, to the right of which are situated another courtyard, the stables and the kitchens. The façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 is broken by three advances. Those to the right and left house the staircases, while the central pavilion displays a magnificent balcony sculpted with lion motifs. Visitors' admiration is drawn by two singular architectural features: the segmented cupola

Cupola

In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....

 of the entrance hall and, to its right, the first room to have been originally designed for dining. The façade seen from the garden runs the entire length of the buildings, concealing the main courtyard and the servants' yard. Although the design results in a slight imbalance in the natural disposition of the mansion, it respects the placement of a central pavilion with three panels surmounted by a broken pediment bearing the arms of the owners.

Its rich interiors made the Hôtel Matignon one of the most elegant and most frequented mansions of Paris. The wood panelling is the work of Michel Lange, who had already decorated the Grand Salon of the Hôtel d'Évreux (today the Ambassadors' Salon of the Élysée Palace

Élysée Palace

The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

. The cornices and the stucco

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

 work are by Jean-Martin Pelletier and Jean Herpin. At the time, any "well-dressed" person was authorized by the owners to visit these splendors in their absence.

In 1731, the wife of Jacques de Matignon, daughter of Anthony I Grimaldi, succeeded her father as head of the principality of Monaco

Monaco

Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

. In 1734, their son, Honoré III, mounted the throne. Although he was open to the revolutionary ideas of the time, he was imprisoned on September 20, 1793. At his liberation a year later, he was ruined, and his property under seal. His sons obtained restitution, but were obliged to put the mansion up for sale in 1802.

It was bought by Anne Éléonore Franchi. A professional dancer, she caught the eye, at the Carnival of Venice

Carnival of Venice

The Carnival of Venice is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival starts 40 days before easter and ends on Shrove Tuesday , the day before Ash Wednesday.-History:...

, of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg

Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg

Charles Eugene , Duke of Württemberg was the eldest son of Duke Karl I Alexander and Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis .-Life:...

, who had three children by her. The Duke died in 1793, and finding herself in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and once more a dancer, she became the mistress of Joseph II

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

. The Empress, Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

, who had no love for her, had her expelled from Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. Exiled to the East Indies

East Indies

East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...

, she returned to France in the company of the Scottish banker Quentin Crawford. The two of them refurnished the Hôtel, which once again became a festive gathering place for the Ancien Régime society and a hotbed of opposition. Close friends of Joséphine de Beauharnais

Joséphine de Beauharnais

Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...

, the couple grew increasingly open in their criticism of Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 after the divorce.

In 1808, the Hôtel Matignon passed into the hands of one of the best-known figures of the first half of the 19th century: Monsieur de Talleyrand, Prince of Bénévent

Benevento

Benevento is a town and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 50 km northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 m above sea-level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and Sabato...

 and Vice Great Elector. Four times a week he gave dinners for 36 guests, prepared in his kitchens by the renowned Boucher. As the shrewd diplomat that he was, he held a great number of balls in honor of the imperial family. In 1811, Napoleon called on Talleyrand to reimburse the city of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 the four millions it had paid him in order to avoid incorporation into the new French département of the Bouches-de-l'Elbe

Bouches-de-l'Elbe

Bouches-de-l'Elbe is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany that survived three years. It is named after the mouth of the river Elbe...

. As the endeavor had failed, Talleyrand did not consider it necessary to return the sum. He was obliged to put the Hôtel for sale; the Emperor had it purchased for 1,280 000,Francs ... but Talleyrand never reimbursed Hamburg.

In 1815, at the start of the Restauration, Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...

 traded the Hôtel de Matignon for the Élysée Palace

Élysée Palace

The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

, which belonged to Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d'Orléans

Bathilde d'Orléans

Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d'Orléans, Princess of Condé , was a French princess. She was sister of Philippe Égalité, the mother of the executed duc d'Enghien and aunt of Louis-Philippe King of the French...

, sister of Philippe Égalité, and the separated wife of the Duc de Bourbon

Louis Henry II, Prince of Condé

Louis Henri de Bourbon was the Prince of Condé from 1818 to his death.-Life:He was the only son of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé and his wife, Charlotte de Rohan....

. She promptly installed a community of nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

s on the premises, charged with praying for the souls of victims of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. Her niece inherited the property in 1822 and moved the community to the Rue de Picpus in order to rent out the Hôtel.

It was next occupied by a picturesque figure: Colonel Thorn. Originally from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and immensely wealthy, he spent a million francs redecorating the mansion, and gave reception after reception. His magnificent lifestyle enabled him to find husbands for his daughters among the finest names in Europe, and his son married the sister of Madame de Metternich. But the political events of 1848 forced him to return to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

It was planned to place the Hôtel Matignon at the disposal of the head of the executive branch of the new Republic

French Second Republic

The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...

. But if General Cavaignac

Louis Eugène Cavaignac

Louis-Eugène-John-Jacob-Cavaignac , French general, second son of Jean-Baptiste Cavaignac and brother of Éléonore Louis Godefroi Cavaignac, was born at Paris.- Military career :...

 chose to reside there until December 1848, the Prince President, Napoleon III

Napoleon III of France

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...

, preferred the Élysée Palace.

A short time later the Hôtel was sold to the Duke of Galliera

Duke of Galliera

The Duke of Galliera was an Italian noble title created in 1812 by Emperor Napoleon I of France for Josephine of Leuchtenberg, daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais, on the occasion of her marriage with Oscar, Crown Prince of Sweden...

, Raffaele de Ferrari

Raffaele de Ferrari

Marquis Raffaele Luigi de Ferrari, Prince of Lucedio, Duke of Galliera, was an Italian philanthropist and politician....

, member of the Genoese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 nobility and husband of Marie de Brignole Sale, great niece to the Princess of Monaco. Together they possessed one of the great fortunes of the time; it is claimed that they owned half of Genoa. Founder of the Crédit Immobilier de France, Raffaele financed many of the major construction projects of the second half of the 19th century: railroads in Austria, Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and France (the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line), the digging of the Fréjus tunnel

Fréjus Rail Tunnel

The Fréjus Rail Tunnel is a rail tunnel of length in the European Alps, carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mount Cenis to an end on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Modane, France and Bardonecchia, Italy...

 and the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

, the Paris buildings designed by Baron Haussmann

Baron Haussmann

Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann , was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris...

... Three years after the fall of Napoleon III (1870), the Duchess proposed that the Count of Paris

Philippe, Comte de Paris

Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.-Early life:...

 take up residence at the Rue de Varenne. He came to occupy the ground floor of the Hôtel Matignon. On May 14, 1886, this was the setting of one of the century's most sumptuous receptions: three thousand guests, the entire aristocracy of France, the diplomatic corps and numerous political figures thronged to celebrate the marriage of Princess Amélie, the Count's daughter, with Carlos

Carlos I of Portugal

-Assassination:On 1 February 1908 the royal family returned from the palace of Vila Viçosa to Lisbon. They travelled by train to Barreiro and, from there, they took a steamer to cross the Tagus River and disembarked at Cais do Sodré in central Lisbon. On their way to the royal palace, the open...

, heir to the Portuguese throne. The story goes that, on the day of the reception, the President had a sudden desire to visit the Bois de Boulogne

Bois de Boulogne

The Bois de Boulogne is a park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine...

, but was unable to leave the Elysée because of the congested traffic. The following day, no doubt alarmed by such a large gathering of Monarchists in the Capital, the President of the Council

President of the Council of Ministers

The official title President of the Council of Ministers, or Chairman of the Council of Ministers is used to describe the head of government of the states of Italy and Poland, and formerly in the Soviet Union, Portugal, France , Spain , Brazil , and Luxembourg...

, Charles de Freycinet

Charles de Freycinet

Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet was a French statesman and Prime Minister during the Third Republic; he belonged to the Opportunist Republicans faction. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890, the fourteen member to occupy seat the Académie française.-Early years:He...

, called for a law exiling pretenders to the French throne. The next week the legislation was passed.

The Duchess of Galliera was disenchanted and quit Paris, leaving her mansion to the Austro-Hungarian

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 Emperor, who made it his embassy in France. But the First World War found the two countries on opposite sides and, confiscated in 1919, the Hôtel Matignon was declared "enemy property". On November 21, 1922, after prolonged negotiations, France once more assumed ownership. During World War I, the hôtel was also the place where the philatelic collection of Philipp von Ferrary

Philipp von Ferrary

Philip Ferrari de La Renotière, Duke of Gallièra was a legendary stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is likely to exist...

 (the most valuable stamp collection ever assembled) was deposited when its owner, the son of the Duke of Galliera

Duke of Galliera

The Duke of Galliera was an Italian noble title created in 1812 by Emperor Napoleon I of France for Josephine of Leuchtenberg, daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais, on the occasion of her marriage with Oscar, Crown Prince of Sweden...

 and an Austrian citizen, had to flee France in 1917. The collection was later broken up and sold by the French government after the war, as war reparations.

The mansion was to become a museum; the property was to be subdivided and individual dwellings built; Gaston Doumergue

Gaston Doumergue

Pierre-Paul-Henri-Gaston Doumergue was a French politician of the Third Republic.Doumergue came from a Protestant family. Beginning as a Radical, he turned more towards the political right in his old age. He served as Prime Minister from 9 December 1913 to 2 June 1914...

 got wind of the plans; he had the Hôtel classified and decided to make it the headquarters of the President of the Council (Président du Conseil), as the position of head of government

Head of government

Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...

 was known under the Third Republic

French Third Republic

The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...

. The architect Paul Bigot

Paul Bigot

Paul Bigot was a French architect.Bigot was born in Orbec in 1870. He studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the atelier of Louis-Jules André. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1900, which enabled him to study in Rome at the Villa Medici...

 took the necessary steps and, in 1935, Pierre Étienne Flandin

Pierre Étienne Flandin

Pierre Étienne Flandin was a French conservative politician of the Third Republic, leader of the Democratic Republican Alliance , and Prime Minister of France from 8 November 1934 to 31 May 1935....

 became the first new occupant. A year later the "Matignon Accords

Matignon Accords (1936)

The Matignon Agreements were signed on June 7, 1936, at one o'clock in the morning, between the CGPF employers trade union confederation, the CGT trade union and the French state...

" were signed between Léon Blum

Léon Blum

André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...

 and the leaders of the spring 1936 strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

s, introducing the 40 hour work week and paid vacations.

During the Second World War, the government moved to Vichy

Vichy

Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...

, but on August 21, 1944, it was in Paris that the resistance leader Yvon Morandat and his companion seized the "Government Mansion", the Hôtel Matignon. In their haste they even confused the Avenue Matignon, located on the Right Bank of the Seine

Seine

The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...

, with the Hôtel Matignon, situated on the Left Bank. It was there that, on August 25, General de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

 convened the "Provisory Council of the Republic". Subsequent Presidents of the Council followed his example and, his return in 1958, like the new Republic, changed nothing more at Matignon than the occupant's name, which, instead of President of the Council, became Prime Minister.

Miscellaneous

• Several important agreements were signed here:
  • 1936 Matignon Accords between the French employers' union and the Confédération Générale du Travail
    Confédération générale du travail
    The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
    
     workers' union, following from the accession of the Front Populaire
    Popular Front (France)
    The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
    
     to power. They guaranteed trade union membership and negotiating rights, a 40-hour working week and paid workers' holidays.
  • 1988 Matignon Agreements
    Matignon Agreements (1988)
    Matignon Agreements refers to agreements signed in the Hotel Matignon by Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Jacques Lafleur on June 26, 1988, between loyalists, who wanted to keep New Caledonia as a part of the French Fifth Republic, and separatists, who did not...
    
     with respect to New Caledonia
    New Caledonia
    New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
    
    . They called for increased New Caledonian territorial autonomy between the French government, Kanak
    Kanak people
    Kanak are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the southwest Pacific. They constitute 44.1% of the total population of New Caledonia. Though Melanesian settlement is recorded on Grande Terre's Presqu'île de Foué peninsula as far back as the...
    
    independence activists and French settlers.

• The park of the Hôtel is considered to be the largest non-public garden in Paris.