Paris 8th district - Elysée – Saint-Honoré

The Elysée-Saint Honoré district is the decision-making lung of the capital. It is also an "arty" address prized by the Art Galleries. A real place of relaxation for both residents and tourists, this address hosts many events: famous Christmas market. The greediest will be able to amaze their taste buds in the various gastronomic tables of the district.

Since the Middle Ages this street had led to Roule village, and during the seventeenth century was known as Chaussée du Roule. It subsequently became known as Faubourg du Roule, and finally rue du Faubourg St Honoré around the year 1720.  Private mansions appeared gradually from the end of the reign of Louis XIV; although as prestigious as those to be found in Faubourg St Germain, many were nonetheless demolished to create the avenues described above.
 
N° 2: General Changarnier who had notably opposed a coup d’état on December 2nd, 1851 lived here.
N° 7 to 11: The location of "Aux Montagnes Russes”, an iconic boutique renowned from the 1830's.
N° 14: between 1811 and 1835 the 1st arrondissement's Town Hall was installed here in a late 18th century private mansion. When the 1st arrondissement became the capital's 8th arrondissement in 1860, the Town Hall was transferred to 11 rue d'Anjou where it remained until 1926.  N° 14 and N° 16 formed a single unit, and the former Town Hall's function room still exists on the ground floor. N° 15: Royalist Claude Joseph Rouget de l'Isle lived here from 1800. His “chant de guerre de l’armée du Rhin” was adapted (to his regret) to become La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. Abandoned, he died in misery in 1836.
N° 22: the hotel de Molleville was bought during the Monarchy of July by the Lebaudy family whose fortune had been made in sugar refining. In 1890, Jeanne Lanvin founded her fashion house here.
N° 24: saddler Thierry Hermès, who had founded his business in 1837 in rue Basse des Remparts, replaced a watchmaker at this address in 1880.
N° 31: the location of a private mansion sold to Suchet, Duke of Albufera in 1818. Although the Duke died here just 8 years later, his widow survived him by some 58 years, passing on in 1884. The Count Pillet-Will acquired the property in 1887, and had it demolished to rebuild a Louis XV style private mansion with architectural elements from a number of chateaux and mansions.
N° 35: a private mansion built here in 1714 was occupied from 1806 to 1808 by Maréchal Louis Alexandre Berthier. It was sold to the Pereire brothers in 1855 who added a wing to the building. With N° 37 it is today annexed to the British Embassy.
N° 39: dating from 1723, the Hotel de Charost was sold in 1803 to Pauline Bonaparte, widow of the recently deceased General Leclerc and who soon afterwards married Prince Borghese. The latter sold it to King George III in 1815 who installed the British Embassy ten years later.
N° 43 to 49: four private mansions (there were six originally, but two disappeared with the creation of rue de l'Elysée in 1860) were built between 1765 and 1768 for Etienne-Michel Bouret, the wealthy “fermier général”. N° 43 where the owner died in 1777 was rebuilt in 1860. N° 45 was demolished in 1930. N° 47 was rebuilt after 1863, and N° 49 demolished by Pereire.
N° 52: historian and statesman Francois Guizot lived here from 1806.
N° 53: a private mansion here was owned from 1839 by Cordelia Greffulhe, countess of Castellane, one of Chateaubriand's numerous mistresses. She died here in 1847. The private mansion was annexed to the Elysee Palace in 1852, and demolished some eight years later with the construction of rue de l'Elysée.
N° 55: The Elysée Palace was built in 1718 by architect Mollet for the Count of Evreux, and three years later 740 “toises” of land (an ancient measurement the equivalent of about six foot) were acquired to enlarge the gardens. The Marquise de Pompadour subsequently purchased the property and enlarged the site (notably creating the projection onto Avenue Gabriel). At her death she bequeathed the property to the Comte de Provence, the King's grandson and future Louis XVIII. However a wealthy financier Nicolas Beaujon acquired the property in 1773, adding a pavilion on the rue de l'Elysée and transforming the ensemble into a sumptuous palace. Prior to his death, he sold it to the King who subsequently in 1787 sold it to the Duchesse de Bourbon-Condé, mother of the Duc d'Enghien (hence the name of Elysée-Bourbon). Used to store furnishings during the Revolution, it was subsequently returned to its owners. However in 1798 a group of wealthy associates acquired the Palace and, partitioned into rented apartments, it became known as Hameau Chantilly. It was then purchased in 1805 by Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, who when he left for Naples in 1808 bequeathed it to the Emperor. The Palace then became known as Elysée-Napoleon. Josephine lived here for a while following her divorce, Tsar Alexander also stayed in the Palace, and it was here that Napoleon signed his second abdication on June 22, 1815, four days after Waterloo.
During the period of the Restoration the Palace was returned to its legitimate owner, the Duchesse de Bourbon, who exchanged it for nearby Hotel Matignon. Louis XVIII subsequently gave the Elysée-Bourbon to his nephew the Duke of Berry who set up residence on June 17, 1816. Following his assassination on February 13, 1820 his body was brought here.
Between 1830 and 1848 the Palace served as a residence for visiting royalty, among them Queen Christina of Spain, before being attributed to the Presidency of the Republic. Louis-Napoleon settled here on December 20, 1848. After his coup d’état and his departure for the Tuileries, the Palace once again hosted passing guests, among them Queen Victoria, Tsar Alexander II and the Emperor of Austria...
Finally in 1871 the Palace was reassigned to the Presidency of the Republic, and occupied by Patrice de Mac-Mahon in 1873. On February 16, 1899 Felix Faure gained the doubtful distinction of being the only president to die in the Palace. It is rumoured that the circumstances leading to his untimely demise were however less distinguished...
N° 76: Chateaubriand's nephew was married in this private mansion dating from 1802, and poet and dramatist Alfred de Vigny lived here from 1824.
N° 82: poet Sully Prudhomme lived on the third floor; he died here in 1907.
N° 91: on a plot bought by the future Charles X, a single private mansion was preserved. Sold in 1814 and demolished, it was rebuilt in 1864.
N° 93: the former location of a carousel.
N° 96: Hotel Beauvau. Built in 1770, it was here that Maréchal Charles de Beauvau died in 1793. Purchased by the state in 1860, it was for a few months the Ministry of Algeria before becoming the Interior Ministry at the end of the year.
N° 107: here an antique/decoration shop founded in 1856 supplied Empress Eugenie.
N° 114: the “porte de Roule” dating from 1636 was located at this address.
N° 117: the residence of politician and writer Emmanuel-Joseph Sièyés (died June 20, 1836).
N° 120: l'hotel Chastenay, built in 1775 and where the poet Stanislas Jean de Boufflers died in 1815. Since 1848 it belongs to the Gosselin family and is home to the Worth fashion house, once Empress Eugenie's seamstress.
N° 135: the Canadian Embassy in the hôtel du comte de Fels.
N° 137: a private mansion once home to the wealthy Schneider family, owners of a historic iron and steel-mill and subsequently a major arms manufacturer. After World War II the business evolved into Schneider Electric.  
N° 139/141: stables belonging to the Comte d'Artois were built here around 1780; Jean-Paul Marat, at the time the Count's bodyguards' physician, lived here. Transformed into a military hospital in 1848, the stables were demolished 12 years later.
N° 148: until 1786 an open sewer crossed the street here.
N° 154: Bas-Roule village's St Philippe church was once here. An ancient village with a leper colony, Bas-Roule became a faubourg (or district) on February 12, 1722. A toll booth placed in front the church in 1728 was transferred to Place des Ternes 60 years later. The dilapidated church was demolished in 1739 and rebuilt from 1774 on. Provence, the future Louis XVIII, laid the first stone and the church was enlarged between 1845 and 1860. Just in front of the church the cemetery was where place Chassaigne-Goyon is today. N° 155 to 159: 18th century constructions.
N° 166: the probable location of a little property belonging to Madame de Maintenon, the secret spouse of the King of France and Navarre.
N° 168: a foundry located here created in 1758 the statue of Louis XV which was erected at the square bearing his name and which today is Place de la Concorde.
N° 170: the location of a private mansion in which writer Madame de Genlis died in 1830. Baron Haussmann's uncle also lived here. In 1930 the building was demolished during the construction of rue Cézanne.
N° 181 to 187 (except 185): 18th century buildings.
N° 191/193:  formerly the location of the Folie-Beaujon, named after its creator financier Nicolas Beaujon.
N° 195: the location of the Roule foundry until 1855. It was here that the statue of Henry IV (erected on the capital's Pont Neuf in 1817) was made.
N° 197/199: the location of renowned sculptor Houdon's workshops in the late 18th century.
N° 208: The Roule orphanage was built by Beaujon in 1785 for 24 orphans from Roule village. When he died the following year, he left a significant sum allowing the orphanage to be transformed into a hospital (known either as Beaujon or du Roule). The hospital developed significantly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mortally wounded by an assassin just opposite the hospital, President Paul Doumer died here on May 6, 1932. When the hospital closed on December 31, 1936, it had 700 beds. It was rebuilt in Clichy. Today the building is occupied by an annex of the préfecture de police.
N° 252: The recently restored Salle Pleyel concert hall, built in 1927.

This avenue is to the opposite side of the Champs Elysées roundabout and the aforementioned “widow's alley”, now Avenue Montaigne. First laid down in 1714 and landscaped in 1770, it was known as the Avenue des Tilleuls at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1787, it took the name of Louis XIV's Marshall who died in 1729.
 
N° 3: the location of the house where German-born writer Henri Heine lived and died.
N° 6: composer André Messager lived here.
N° 27: here an apartment was inhabited by Axel de Fersen from 1789; Fersen was one of the principal planners of the renowned Royal flight to Varennes.