The Hôtel de Toulouse, former Hôtel de La Vrillière, situated 1 rue de La Vrillière, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, was built between 1635 and 1640 by François Mansart

François Mansart

François Mansart was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France...

, for Louis Phélypeaux, seigneur de La Vrillière.

Originally, the mansion had a large garden with a formal parterre

Parterre

A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...

 to the southwest.

In 1712, Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse

Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse

Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse , duc de Penthièvre , d'Arc, de Châteauvillain and de Rambouillet , , was the son of Louis XIV and of his mistress Madame de Montespan...

 (son of 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...

 and Madame de Montespan

Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan

Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, marquise of Montespan , better known as Madame de Montespan, was the most celebrated maîtresse en titre of King Louis XIV of France, by whom she had seven children....

) acquired the Hôtel de La Vrillière and commissioned Robert de Cotte

Robert de Cotte

Robert de Cotte was a French architect-administrator, under whose design control of the royal buildings of France from 1699, the earliest notes presaging the Rococo style were introduced. First a pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, he later became his brother-in-law and his collaborator...

, Premier Architecte du Roi, to redesign it and bring important transformations to its interior.

At the comte de Toulouse's death in 1737, the Hôtel became the Parisian residence of his son, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre

Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre

Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon was the son of Louis Alexandre de Bourbon and his wife Marie Victoire de Noailles. He was also a grandson of Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. From birth he was known as the Duke of Penthièvre...

, and the birthplace of the latter's daughter, Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre. The princesse de Lamballe

Princess Marie Louise of Savoy

Maria Luisa of Savoy was a member of the House of Savoy. She was married at the age of 16 to Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Prince de Lamballe, the heir to the greatest fortune in France. After her marriage, which lasted a year, she went to court and became the confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette...

, who was the duc de Penthièvre's widowed daughter-in-law, also resided there until 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...

.

Confiscated as a bien national

Biens nationaux

Biens nationaux, or "national property", was a concept in French history. During the French Revolution, the possessions of the Roman Catholic Church were declared national property by the decree of November 2, 1789. These were sold to resolve the financial crisis that caused the Revolution...

 ("national property") during the French Revolution, the Hôtel de Toulouse became the Imprimerie de la République

Imprimerie nationale

The Imprimerie nationale is the official printing works of the French government, in succession to the Manufacture royale d'imprimerie founded by Cardinal Richelieu...

 in 1795. An imperial decree signed by Napoleon I

Napoleon I

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...

 on 6 March 1808, authorised the sale of the Hôtel de Toulouse to the Banque de France

Banque de France

The Banque de France is the central bank of France; it is linked to the European Central Bank . Its main charge is to implement the interest rate policy of the European System of Central Banks...

, which made it its official seat in 1811.

Trivia

The Hôtel de Toulouse was the site of a scene from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette (2006 film)

Marie Antoinette is a 2006 biographical film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is very loosely based on the life of the Queen consort in the years leading up to the French Revolution. It won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design...

with its famous Galerie dorée (one of Robert de Cotte's masterpiecces) as a room in a palace of her youth. Other films, both French, shot at the site are Vatel

Vatel (film)

Vatel is a 2000 film based on the life of 17th century French chef François Vatel, directed by Roland Joffé and starring Gérard Depardieu, Uma Thurman, and Tim Roth. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration. The film opened the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.-...

and Tous les matins du monde

Tous les matins du monde (film)

Tous les matins du monde is a 1991 French film based on the book of the same name....

.

External links

• (fr) : Banque de France