Parc de Monceau

This park, a few blocks NE of the Arc de Triomphe, was established by Phillippe d'Orléans, the richest man in France and a cousin of King Louis XVI. He adored everything English and thus established an English-style garden in Paris; by the mid 1770s his garden had grown to 30 acres. Leading features of the park are a curved row of faux-ruin Corinthian columns and an artificial waterfall. Phillippe d'Orléans was a leading freemason, and some of the elements found in the park (a pyramid, etc.) are masonic references. In 1797 the first silk parachute jump was made from a Montgolfier hot air balloon 3,000 feet down into the park, to the delight of a large assembly of spectators. There are statues of Frederic Chopin, wealthy writer Guy de Maupassant (he died of syphilis, insane at 42, having written his own epitaph: "I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing") and composer Charles Gounod (famous for "Funeral March for a Marionette," used as the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the religious aria "Repentir" (O, Divine Redeemer), not to mention the operas Faust and Romeo and Juliette. At the entrance is one of the few remaining Rotundas, a remnant from the old toll walls that completely encircled central Paris in the 1780s. Taxes on salt and wine were collected at these toll gates as goods entered the city. However here, in lieu of the usual 10-ft. high toll wall, there was an enormous moat, so as not to spoil the view for Phillippe d'Orléans (the wealthy enjoyed privilege then, as now). Parisians hated these toll walls, as they felt like prisoners in their own city, completely encircled by 16 miles of masonry and 60 toll gates. Two days before we mark the beginning of the revolution, on July 12, 1789, the citizens of Paris vented their anger by attacking these toll booths, damaging some and setting fire to others. Within 48 hours the Bastille had been breached, and the population had its hands on a large supply of firearms. They rest, as they say, is history. Note: public toilets inside the rotunda.

Phillippe d'Orléans did not survive this turmoil, and after his death by guillotine during the revolution, the city of Paris obtained the garden and opened it as a public park. 

The Parc de Monceau was dramatically reduced in size during the late 1800s, when half its acreage was sold as lots for building elegant homes, most of which survive to the present time. These magnificent residences were built by wealthy Jewish bankers, who claimed this neighborhood as their own enclave. In fact, it was Jewish banker Émile Péreire (1800-1875) who bought substantial acreage from the Orléans family in 1861, which he then divided into lots for building opulent mansions that ring the park. Today "Monceau" is Parisian French for "nouveau riche".

One such mansion survives today as a museum, the Musée Nissim de Camondo at 63 rue de Monceau (SE of the park). 

 Count Moïse de Camondo was a Sephardic nobleman of a banking family known as the "Rothschilds of the East". In 1869 his family left Istanbul for Paris, where they reached the pinnacle of social standing. Moïse's son Nissim perished at age 25 during WW I while flying a mission for the fledgling French Air Force. Although the Nazis condemned all members of the family to Auschwitz during WW II, their home and incomparable furnishings remained intact as the museum opened in 1946. Your guide will mention that Proust was a frequent visitor (he lived nearby on rue de Courcelles). Exit the Parc de Monceau at the south extremity along Avenue de Ferdousi; walk one block  to the Place de Rio de Janeiro; turn left onto rue de Monceau. The museum at #63 is on your left at the intersection of rue de Teheran. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open 10:00-5:30. Admission 12 euros; free with the Paris Museum Pass.

Entry gates to the Parc de Monceau, with the Arc de Triomphe in the distance:

Today this neighborhood is one of the most exclusive and desirable in all of Paris. Avenue Hoche leads from the elaborate park gates (above) directly to the nearby Arc de Triomphe, seen in the distance. There is a large ex-pat Russian presence in this neighborhood, as well; the Russian Orthodox Cathédrale St-Alexandre-Nevsky sits just southwest of the park. See separate post.

Métro: Monceau (line 2). No admission fee. Public restrooms inside the park. It is possible to sit or walk on the grass, because this is designated as a park. Gardens, on the other hand (such as the Luxemburg Gardens) enforce a "do not walk on the grass" policy. If in doubt, just try to place a chair on the grass at Luxemburg Gardens. 

Note: just one street north of here was the iron works where Bartholdi constructed the enormous Statue of Liberty that is perched at the water entry to NYC. See separate post.

Pyramid - a masonic emblem ordered by Phillippe d'OrléansGuy de Maupassant monument in Parc de Monceau; upon entering the park from the rotunda, take the second path to the left; the monument is placed just before the faux-ruin columns at the pond (photo below). The spectacularly kitschy statue of Chopin by Jacques Froment-Meurice (1864-1948). The bas-relief angel represents “music,” while “harmony” swoons at Chopin’s feet. At the western edge on the park; upon entering the park from the rotunda, take the first path to the right; at the next path to the right, the Chopin monument reveals itself (photo below).

Cathédrale St-Alexandre-Nevsky

Located between the Arc de Triomphe and Parc Monceau, the Russian Orthodox Cathédrale St-Alexandre-Nevsky was consecrated in 1861. The structure was financed by contributions from the ex-pat Russian community and a large personal donation from Tsar Alexander II. The church became a cathedral in 1922, and a major restoration was carried out in 1996. The Byzantine-inspired interior is richly ornamented with icons, mosaics and frescoes. Sunday services are still conducted in the Russian language. It should be noted that the Russian restaurant opposite the cathedral, À la Ville de Petrograd, used to host such Russian notables as Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nabokov. Around the corner from this cathedral is one of the most celebrated small concert halls of Paris, the Salle Pleyel (at 252, rue de Faubourg St-Honoré), recently reopened after extensive renovations. Cathédrale St-Alexandre-Nevsky 12, rue Daru Open to the public Tuesdays and Fridays, 1:00-5:00 p.m. 

Métro: Ternes or Courcelles

  Russian Orthodox Archbishop Gabriel in full regalia. The cathedral was the location of three notable weddings. 1. Pablo Picasso celebrated his first wedding ceremony here in 1921, when he was married by Orthodox rites to Olga Khoklova, a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (photo below). 2. Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton’s first wedding took place in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris on June 22, 1933 (see photos below). The bride, age 20, had just come into her extraordinary inheritance. She became a “princess” when she married Russian “Prince” Alexis Mdivani of Georgia, a member of a faux-noble family that fled from Russia to Paris after the 1917 revolution. The two were introduced by socialite Elsa Maxwell. Unfortunately, their marriage lasted only a few days shy of two years. As a wedding gift for her Russian husband, Ms. Hutton commissioned a one-off 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II. Mdivani was killed in France (near the Spanish border) while driving it just three months after their divorce. The car, subsequently restored by the original designer, was recently auctioned on E-Bay (starting bid at $1.1 million). 3. In December of 1979 Russian-born cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and wife Galina Vishnevskaya (a celebrated singer) posed with their daughter Elena and her husband Peter Daniel at their daughter's wedding ceremony in the St. Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox cathedral in Paris, as shown in the photo below.

Eglise de la Madeleine

The la Madeleine church is on the right bank, situated between Place de la Concorde and the Palais Garnier (original opera house), and within walking distance of the grand department stores, le Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. The building resembles a Greek temple more than a church. There are no bell towers and it is not in the shape of a cross; construction started in 1764 and finished in 1842. Napoleon wanted it to be a pantheon in honor of his armies, which may account for its appearance. 

The magnificant church organ, one of the best in the city, was designed by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Throughout the year, both day and night, the church programs high-quality classical music concerts. The interior has three domes that cannot be seen from the street; even so, the interior is very dim.

Trivia: Chopin's funeral was held here on October 30, 1849. Entrance was restricted to ticket holders, as large crowds were anticipated. Over 3,000 people arrived without invitations -- from as far as London, Berlin and Vienna -- and were denied entry.

La Samaritaine Department Store

UPDATE: La Samaritaine finally reopened on June 23, 2021 (five years late) as a complex of several buildings comprising a 7-floor department store, a Cheval Blanc boutique hotel and numerous restaurants. Open daily 10:00a to 8:00p. 

9 Rue de la Monnaie, 75001; METRO: Pont-Neuf; photo above shows the statue of King Henri IV along the building's river front (see history of La Samaritaine below).

Department store web site in English: https://www.dfs.com/en/samaritaine

Cheval Blanc hotel web site: https://www.chevalblanc.com/en/maison/paris/

 

 

Photo: the spectacular Art Nouveau staircase, not seen since the store closing in 2005.

Original post published on October 22, 2014: Moët-Hennessy Louis-Vuitton has unveiled plans to convert the La Samaritaine department store in Paris into a luxury hotel, to open in 2016. The landmark Art Nouveau listed building complex overlooking the Seine at Pont Neuf has been lying dormant since it was closed for safety reasons in 2005.

Moët-Hennessy Louis-Vuitton is also planning to convert Samaritaine’s second building on the Rue de Rivoli into resident apartments and a shopping complex for luxury goods.
As the conversion plans await approval by Paris’ town hall, France’s CFE-CGC trade union, whose members had hopes of seeing La Samaritaine restored to its former glory as a department store, expressed despair that such a store is not included in the plans proposed by Moët-Hennessy Louis-Vuitton. After much political grappling, the mixed-use project now includes a department store, the first Cheval Blanc hotel in Paris (designed by architect Edouard François) as well as LVMH’s first DFS duty-free emporium in Europe, a full-sized Louis Vuitton retail store, office space, 96 residential apartments, a day care for children and a restaurant.

History of the complex of buildings:

1603 - To draw water from the Seine river to supply the nearby Louvre quarter, King Henri IV commissioned engineer Jean Lintlaër to construct a pump house at the second arch of the Pont-Neuf bridge. Completed in 1607, the structure was decorated with a statue of “La Samaritaine”, the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in the biblical gospel of St. John. Restored several times, and rebuilt in 1772, the pump house and its statue were dismantled in 1813, to be replaced by a floating public swimming pool complex. 

1870-1890 - Ernest Cognacq opened a shop at Rue du Pont-Neuf, and called it La Samaritaine. The shop’s revenues topped one million francs by 1875. Ernest Cognacq married Marie-Louise Jaÿ, previously the lead female sales assistant in the dressmaking section of the department store Le Bon Marché, where she was the first-ever female salesperson in the clothing department. 

1890-1910 - Ernest Cognacq gradually acquired property in the northern section of a block bordered by Rue de la Monnaie, Rue Baillet, Rue de l’Arbre-Sec and Rue des Prêtres-Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, and converted the existing buildings into retail space. On the southern side of the block, he commissioned architect Frantz Jourdain to design and construct a building with a riveted steel frame supporting a huge glass roof, decorated in the Art Nouveau style. The northern and southern sections were unified via steel and glass facades adorned with polychrome glazed lava stone panels. The department store's retail innovations included clearly marked fixed prices and allowing customers to select their own clothes and try them on before purchasing.

1917 - Frantz Jourdain was commissioned to build a luxury store for La Samaritaine on boulevard des Capucines. The building also housed Ernest Cognacq’s collections of eighteenth-century art, donated to the City of Paris on his death, and displayed at the Cognacq-Jaÿ Museum today. 

1926-1928 - Architect Henri Sauvage supervised the construction of the tiered Art Deco building on the banks of the Seine. Ernest Cognacq died in 1928, before the new project was completed. By 1925, the store’s sales had passed the one-billion-franc mark, employing a staff of 8,000. Those were La Samaritaine’s glory days: as well as offering the very latest trends in men and women’s fashions, drapery, interior decoration, travel goods, flowers and plants, books, musical instruments and more, the store then featured pastry and confectionery counters, a renowned wine cellar, and a “regions of France” department that allowed customers to taste the very best products from across the country. Parisians enjoyed the grand parades and festivals sponsored by the store throughout the year. 

2005 - La Samaritaine closed for "safety reasons", after the Paris Préfecture de Police found that the building did not meet required standards. This explanation was (and is to this day) disputed, because by the 1990s the stores were no longer profitable, resulting in major stock sales to LVMH.

2010 - LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) luxury brand conglomerate acquired 100% interest in La Samaritaine. They made plans to reopen as a luxury hotel by 2015.

2021 - After many delays and revisions in concept, the complex reopened on June 23, its 151st anniversary. The store now houses 6 restaurants, a spa, beauty shops, private shopping assistants and guided tours. A third building is entirely enclosed by a striking modern undulating glass facade designed by Japanese architects SANAA. For those guests with very deep pockets (the 45-sq-meter/485-sq-ft smallest rooms are priced from $2,000 per night inclusive of taxes, breakfast and soft drinks), the Cheval Blanc hotel even features a top floor 10,700-sq-ft 7-bedroom apartment (not a typo) with two reception rooms, dining room, a movie-projection room, multiple terraces, private parking and a swimming pool. Not to mention views of the Seine. the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame. Maximum 16 guests. The apartment is so expensive that the rates are unpublished. Prospects must contact the hotel directly. Your blogger is not bothering to list the phone number.

Photo: The department store complex lies on the right bank at the northern terminus of the Pont-Neuf bridge.