Hôtel d'Avaray

The Hôtel d'Avaray is a historic city palace on Rue de Grenelle in Paris's 7th arrondissement. It was built between 1718 and 1720 by the architect Jean-Baptiste Leroux for the Marquis d'Avaray and served as the residence of the Béziade d'Avaray family until the twentieth century. Since 1920, the property has belonged to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which first used it as an embassy and today uses it as the ambassador's residence. The architecture is distinguished by a large L-shaped floor plan, which is connected to the street by a monumental gateway. Two pavilions frame the complex and originally housed service buildings such as kitchens and stables. The garden-facing façade is set off by a courtyard wall with decorative blind arches, which create a visual symmetry with the opposite wing.

Inside, the original eighteenth-century furnishings have survived only in part, because the palace was divided into apartments in the nineteenth century. After the Netherlands acquired it, extensive renovations were carried out in the 1920s to restore its historic character. Today, you can tour five salons and a library on the ground floor. These rooms are decorated with valuable sixteenth-century Brussels tapestries and eighteenth-century Aubusson carpets. The building also houses paintings by Dutch masters of the seventeenth century, including works by Jacob van Ruisdael. Particularly worth noting is the woodwork in the Grand Salon, which comes from another mansion that was demolished during the construction of Boulevard Raspail and was thus saved from ruin.