Hôtel Matignon


The Hôtel de Matignon is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France. It is located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. The address of Hôtel de Matignon is 57 rue de Varenne, Paris.
"Matignon" is used as a metonym for the governmental action of the Prime Minister of France.

History

In 1649, as part of his plan for the construction of the Hôtel des Invalides, Louis XIV decided to restore the old "Chemin du Bois de la Garenne," which had become the "Rue de Varenne," that linked 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 being irresistible for an aristocracy who lived exclusively by and for the Court.
On 30 September 1717, Christian-Louis de Montmorency Luxembourg, Prince of Tigny and Marshal of France, purchased, for the sum of 91 Livres, 2869 toises 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 endeavour won him entry to the Academy of Architecture, where he wrote a much-remarked Treatise on Perspectives. But the expense of the enterprise forced the Prince of Tigny to sell, and it was Jacques Goyon, Count of Matignon who bought the Hôtel, completed in 1725, as a present for his son, the Duke of Valentinois.
Courtonne's design was highly original. Rising from a broad terrace, the main residence, a two-storey building crowned by a balustrade, comprises two suites of rooms. Access from the street is gained by a portico 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 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 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, the digging of the Fréjus tunnel and the Suez Canal, the Paris buildings designed by Baron Haussmann... Three years after the fall of Napoleon III, the Duchess proposed that the Count of Paris take up residence at the Rue de Varenne. He came to occupy the ground floor of the Hôtel Matignon. On 14 May 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, 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, 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, Charles de Freycinet, 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 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 21 November 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 was deposited when its owner, the son of the Duke of Galliera 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.

Home of the head of government

There were plans to turn the mansion into a museum; the property was to be subdivided and individual dwellings built, including the adjacent mansion built by the architect Jean Walter in 1924. However, Gaston Doumergue learned of the plans and decided to make it the headquarters of the President of the Council of Ministers, as the position of head of government was known under the Third Republic. The architect Paul Bigot took the necessary steps and, in 1935, Pierre Étienne Flandin became the first new occupant.
In 1936 the "Matignon Accords" were signed between Léon Blum and the leaders of the spring 1936 strikes, introducing the 40-hour work week and paid vacations.
Edouard Daladier, prime minister at the start of the Second World War, did not leave his apartment near the Arc de Triomphe and worked at the War Ministry. During the war the government moved to the city of Vichy, but on 21 August 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, with the Hôtel Matignon, situated on the Left Bank.
It was there that, on 25 August, General de Gaulle 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