Under the banner of heritage preservation activities, Historic New England invites Appleton Circle members to participate in special international and domestic travel programs. The purpose of these journeys is to increase understanding of preservation programs, collections, museums and heritage experiences similar to those developed by Historic New England, and to strengthen our ties with those who support our organization.

Historic New England’s extraordinary 2006 visit to Paris, L’ Art de Vivre à Paris, began on Thursday October 12. Our traveler group made a brief trip out of the city to the chateau which inspired Louis XIV to create Versailles and influenced much for French architecture and decorative arts. Led by our trip escort, antiquarian Comtesse Marie-France de Peyronnet, we were greeted at Château Vaux le Vicomte by the Comtesse Patrice de Vogue, who with her husband is owner of the chateau. Following a tour, Appleton Circle members were privileged to take a delightful French lunch in the original bedroom of the builder of the chateau, an experience that even Comtesse Marie-France had not previously enjoyed. The room was beautifully lighted with four rock crystal chandeliers, and our festive lunch began, as did most meals of the trip, with French champagne.

Our welcome dinner was celebrated in the Salon de Egiles at the Hôtel de Crillon, the headquarters of our trip, spectacularly located in listed historic buildings on the Place de la Concorde at the heart of Paris. Our dining room was the central room on the principal façade, overlooking the Place de la Concorde. From the open balcony, Appleton Circle members watched dusk come to Paris and the lights of the monuments come to life all around us for our first evening together. The Eiffel Tower featured its spectacular, if somewhat controversial, hourly display of contemporary lighting up and down the entire structure. The highlight of our welcome dinner, however, was a talk by Didier Repellin, the Chief Architect and Inspector General of Historic Monuments of France. Didier, who studied for a year in the United States, spoke with great passion about the benefits of partnerships in preservation, and highlighted several projects where American-French cooperation made special contributions not only to preservation, but also to the lives of people in both countries.

On Friday, we continued our experience of French decorative arts with a specialist visit to the Musée du Louvre. Led by Dr. Eric Smee, we visited period rooms and studied the very best examples of each major period of French furniture and paintings, all in a whirl of lively and witty commentary. Two hours passed as if in an instant, and our travelers were off to the private Club de la Chasse for lunch. The Club’s 600 members focus on the preservation of French hunting traditions, and the collections include historical paintings of animals and the hunt, and implements such as Napoleon’s double barrel shot gun. We were welcomed in the garden by the director of the club. A short walk took us to the extraordinary Hôtel de Soubise, or house of the Soubise family, which had been a subject of a pre-tour lecture presented for our group by Tracey Albainy, French decorative arts specialist at the Museum of Fine Arts. We actually explored two associated town mansions, each with courtyard and out buildings, an amazing use of a large amount of land in the tightly-built Maris district of Paris. The Hôtel de Rohan, not open to the public, was of special interest for its unrestored period paneling and wall paintings, and for a series of tapestries still hanging in the original location. The Rococo decoration of the Hôtel de Soubise was more elaborate and perhaps more beautiful, but the opportunity to see a building in such a state of preservation added much to the Rohan visit.

Our dinner on Friday was an opportunity to experience the personal life of our hosts, the Count and Countess Xavier de Peyronnet. The family cares for an historic castle in the countryside, the Château d’Ainay-Le-Vieil, but has maintained a Paris “flat” on the Left Bank for more than thirty years. Our entire group was welcomed to their home with extraordinary warmth, and several friends with American connections joined us all for a marvelous traditional French dinner.

Saturday was a whirl of museum visits, beginning with the little-known Musée Nissim de Camondo, an extraordinary collection of French decorative arts—said by some French to be better than that of the Louvre—housed in an early 20th century town mansion. The visit included full access to the house, so we had the opportunity to see the well-preserved bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as the kitchen and other service areas. Sadly, the family that created the museum was all lost, a son in the First World War and a daughter and grandchildren in the Holocaust of the Second World War.

After lunch on the Place des Voges, which is called the most beautiful residential square in Paris, and exploration of the town house garden of Sully, we continued to the Musée Carnavalet to view period rooms and historical collections of the City of Paris, and then to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which had been opened for only a few days after being closed for 10 years of restoration and reinstallation of the collections.

On Saturday evening we were welcomed at the home of the Princess Marie Sol de la tour d’ Auvergne, in her salon apartment on the Left Bank. The Princess is chairman of the French Heritage Society, an American organization that works in both countries for the preservation of architectural and cultural monuments. The Princess was just awarded the Legion of Honor for her dedication to the work of preserving French architectural heritage. The society sent a preservation intern to work at Historic New England during the summer of 2006. The Princess collects early Flemish and Dutch painting, and was well informed about museum and preservation activities in the U.S. She spoke of her work to welcome the Benjamin Franklin 300th exhibition—organized in Philadelphia and visited by several of our party—to Paris next year.

Sunday October 15 was an extraordinary day. Under the tutelage of the specialist of the Louvre and Versailles Dr. Smee, who holds personal keys to the rooms of Château Versailles, we explored areas that even Countess Marie-France de Peyronnet had not previously visited. The chambers of Madame du Pompadour, Madame DuBarry and the personal rooms of Louis XVI were all opened to us. While we visited the “Private Apartments,” which are regularly opened to special tour groups, we were privileged to also visit the personal reception rooms, libraries, bathrooms and dressing rooms. We stood in Louis XVI’s wig room while Dr. Smee, to the consternation of the security guards, unlocked the door to show us the passage used by the king to enter behind the curtains into the principal public reception chamber. We discussed the philosophy of restoration and the reclamation of furniture dispersed in sales after the revolution, as well as the contributions Americans have made to the restoration of the palace. Of special interest was the table in Louis XVI’s personal library, where Thomas Jefferson, Silas Dean and Benjamin Franklin met with the representatives of the King to secure support for the American Revolution and to negotiate the language of France’s diplomatic recognition of the new American state. As Dr. Smee pointed out, we were standing at one of the principal sites of the founding of the United States.

We then were received at the home of collectors Solange and Bertrand Wemaere, in the town of Versailles, where we were treated to a magnificent lunch personally prepared by our hostess. The Wemaeres, whose home dates to 1800-1810, spoke eloquently of American/French friendship and of their appreciation for the roles Americans have played in the preservation of Versailles. Our host took President Carl Nold aside to share with him three oversized prints that he pulled from his collection especially in honor of the visit of Historic New England, one 1852 French view of the City of Washington, D.C., another of One Broadway in New York and another of Old Philadelphia. The latter two architectural scenes were also French, and are not well known in the US. Several guests were treated to a quick and humorous view of another collection, part of a 400-item assemblage of historic chamber pots!

Our Sunday evening event took us again to the Left Bank for another opportunity to visit a private residence. We were greeted by the Russian Prince and Princess Mourousi, in their home constructed in the late 17th century as the residence of a bishop. Prince Mourousi described his family history, and showed photos of his grandfather with Tsar Nicholas and Kaiser Wilhelm. Today, the family is focused on raising funds for a children’s hospital in Russia, and soon will expand their charitable work to support for elder care.

With the dawn of another beautiful day, the Appleton Circle travelers set out on Monday for the former home of the Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte. Malmaison is located in a Paris suburb, amidst beautiful gardens. It was designed as a getaway for the Empress from the rigors of the Napoleonic court, and it introduced the Empire style in the decorative arts. We were greeted by the long-time curator, who spoke about the preservation of the property. The house felt very modern to our travelers, both for its personal scale and for its decoration. Walking in the gardens on a fall day only added to the experience. Our next stop was just a short distance away; at a place that was once part of the Malmaison estate. La Petit Malmaison was constructed as the greenhouse and garden house of Josephine, and as a “getaway from the getaway.” The house today is owned by the family of Comte Stefan Czarnecki, who works to preserve it in much the same way as Historic New England does with our properties. The count hosts concerts and other community events, has an exercise course on the grounds, and makes the home available for functions. The house is largely un-restored, so guests experience it much in the same way as did Josephine. The greenhouse, now gone, was shown in a model to be very similar in construction to the Lyman Estate greenhouses in Waltham, and was of the same period. It was only later that we discovered that La Petit Malmaison is featured in the November 2006 issue of World of Interiors magazine, the same publication that featured Historic New England’s Beauport in September.

Monday evening brought a highlight of the trip, our dinner at one of the world’s great restaurants. Le Grand Vefour holds three Michelin stars. It is located in the Jardin du Palais Royal, Paris, in a building begun in 1624 and completed by 1636 when it was inherited by Louis XIII. The restaurant now called Le Grand Vefour was established here in 1784. The listed (historic register) interior is considered by many to be the most attractive restaurant in Paris. While the building and decoration were extraordinary, the meal was their equal. Our seven courses were accompanied by carefully-selected French wines. The single dessert course was actually four different selections of delectable sweets, some topped with genuine gold leaf! The restaurant works to maintain its French traditions. Only a minority percentage of the places available each evening for dinner are open to travelers, so the character of the place remains distinctly French. There are 44 people on the kitchen and serving staff, for the 50 guests served in the single dinner seating.

A little-known museum, not far from our hotel on the Place de la Concorde, was our first stop on Tuesday, the final day of the trip. The Musée Jacquemart-Andre is in a Beaux Arts mansion, specially constructed by its owner for its destiny as a museum. It reminds many of the Frick Collection, in New York, both for the residential character of the building and for the extraordinary art collection. We were greeted by both the director and curator of the museum, and accompanied by Dr. Smee. The museum houses a good collection of 18th century French decorative arts, but the paintings are the stars of the collection. The very best of French work is well represented, and Dutch and Italian Renaissance are as well, with works by Rembrandt and VanDyck. The museum was closed for a number of years due to financial difficulties, but has revitalized its efforts to build visibility and support. On the day of our visit, a large group of paintings were crated and being shipped for a tour in the United States.

Following lunch in the former dining room of the mansion, the Appleton Circle travelers journeyed across Paris to La Manufacture des Gobelins. The Gobelin tapestry factory was purchased by Louis XIV in 1662 on the advice of his finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, an ancestor of our tour escort Countess Marie-France. The factory continues today under state ownership, and does no private production. All of the work is used for embassies, government buildings and museums. The listed 1930’s factory includes three different weaving processes, which we toured to see work in progress. We had the opportunity to speak with the weavers working at the looms for an interesting glimpse of an ancient traditional craft being carried on today through an apprenticeship program and state support.

Throughout our week of touring our hosts were welcoming and appreciative of our visit. Many commented on the appreciation they have for American support of French heritage, noting that it was American contributions that saved Versailles after World War I, and that American donors and museums continue to support French heritage institutions today. The French presence in North America in the 17th and 18th century provided a foundation for French architecture and decorative arts in the United States, and French support contributed greatly to the success of the American Revolution. The Appleton Circle travelers shared examples of our organizational connections to France, through the work of Odgen Codman and the Codman family collections, in the 1824 Babcock piano recently acquired with a history of having been in the Boston apartment occupied by Lafayette during his final visit, and through internships and other educational programs that Historic New England has participated in with French institutions over the years.

These themes of common heritage were very much evident in the final event of the trip. The group journeyed outside Paris by coach, stopping outside tall iron gates just as darkness fell. In the distance we saw the beautifully illuminated classical Cháteau du Marais, reflected in a long rectangular canal. The chateau was featured in the September edition of Architectural Digest. As we approached the ancient stone steps, lively French music spilled out the doors. The Appleton Circle group was welcomed with champagne in an 18th century drawing room completed with classical sculpture in tall niches, and formal French furniture. The owners are descendents of Anna, Duchess of Talleyrand-Perigord, and daughter of Jay Gould, builder of Lyndhurst, the American house now owned by the National Trust. Our hosts joined us for dinner to share their experiences caring for a great historic property. The trio performed lively tunes requested by our travelers, ranging from The Last Time I Saw Paris to La Vie en Rose. Dancing followed in the Grand Salon.

Over coffee, the group presented a gift to our esteemed escort, Countess Marie-France. Historic New England President Carl Nold expressed special thanks to Council member Lewis Allen for all of his work organizing the trip, done as a volunteer contribution to the organization. Mr. Nold then drew the journey to a close by thanking all of the travelers for their support and friendship for Historic New England.

View the L’Art de Vivre à Paris photo gallery.