Very rarely do any of
Paris' remaining private palaces come on the market; when they do the properties invariably rank among the world's most expensive, such as the 1912
mansion built for the Duchesse de Montmorency recently
listed at $140 million that we told you about back in November. The reason there is so little movement among these magnificent monuments to
wealth lining the famed city's storied avenues is that most are occupied as embassies and ambassadorial residences. An equally magnificent new book,
Historic Houses of Paris: Residences of the Ambassadors from Flammarion by Alain Stella with
photography by Francis Hammond offers a guided tour of 22 of these amazing edifices, some seen for the first time, most originally built for members of the aristocracy and now the setting for lavish diplomatic entertainments and intrigues.
Gilded halls, formal sitting rooms, stately
dining rooms, paneled libraries, perfectly landscaped
gardens, chambers filled with rare
antiques, luxurious wallcoverings and private living quarters are all examined in delectable detail, in mansions ranging from a 17th-century
hôtel particulier to a
Belle Epoque palace and even a couple more contemporary examples, now occupied by the ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom,
Russia, Germany,
China, India and more. The cover (above) depicts the Sicilian theater of the incredible Italian Ambassador 's residence, aka the Hotel de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, built in 1732. Some, like the Indian Ambassador's residence, aka the Hotel de Marlborough built in 1910 by
architect René Sergent, who also designed
Claridge's in London and Rome's Grand Hotel, are named for famous former owners; in this case the Duchess of Marlborough, aka Consuelo
Vanderbilt, one of the world's richest and most beautiful women at the time.