6.19.07: Parisian Impressions | New York Social Diary

Parisian Impressions

The Chagall mural on the ceiling of the auditorium of l’Opera Garnier. Installed in 1964, it provoked much heated controversy because it was not in keeping with the "Napoleon III" style of the original. Furthermore the new mural was attached in such a way that the old mural (underneath the new) was permanently damaged. Nevertheless time has softened the controversy and to the first time visitor, the Chagall has a lightness and beauty that complements the 19th century decor in a charming (and lasting) way. Photo: JH.

L’Opera Garnier.
Hotel Talleyrand.
The American Ambassador's Residence.

One day with the American Friends of Versailles. Tours were arranged for the Paris Opera House also known as l’Opera Garnier after the man who designed the opera house.

If you’ve been to Paris you’ve seen the l’Opera (lope-pair-rrrah). The neo-Baroque confection is a tribute to the man, to the city of Paris and to the artists who perform there. I frankly had no particular interest but to learn something about what I was looking at. As it is with so many things in life, learning created the interest: it was a fascinating tour.

We had a young woman guide who looked no more than 19 but who lectured with the inflection of a witty schoolmarm keeping her children attentive with her little touches of drama about the architect Charles Garnier.

l’Opera Garnier

Mr. Garnier set out to do things differently. The opera is about illusion and so the l’Opera would be about illusion. Grandeur provided much illusion. The guide made it clear that the opera-goers of that time fell into two distinct categories: those who went to see and be seen and those who went for the opera. From the sound of it, the former was in the majority.

A man who had made a great success in business went to the l’Opera to be recognized. In fact, we were told, very often the last thing they were interested in was the opera. The real drama went on in the boxes with everyone looking at everyone else. Cruising with binoculars is what we’d call it in 2007. There was a special entrance for the gratin, and for the Emperor or King or whatever the title was for the time. Garnier calculated it so that everyone was clearly seen.

The idea came from Napoleon III who order Baron Haussmann to clear the land for the new opera house. M. Garnier won the competition. The foundation was laid in 1861. Empress Eugenie asked the architect if the a building would be in the Roman style or the Greek. “It is in the Napoleon III style, Madame,” he replied demonstrating imperial gratitude.

Charles Garnier's grand staircase for the beau monde to make its very grand entrances, provided with four levels of balconies for the rest of the opera-goers to watch the entrances and take note.

Construction ran very slowly. The land was swampy because of a river which ran underneathe the site. It took almost a year to pump the water out. That subterranean lake is part of the backdrop for The Phantom of the Opera, as was the Opera Garnier. The guide pointed out the places where the drama (fictional) unfolded. She pointed out the massive chandelier (weighing 6 tons) which has never fallen (on anyone or anything).

Continued construction was further impeded by the fall of the Second French Empire and Napoleon III. Rumors flowed that the opera house would never be built. The building was finished in 1873, twelve years after it had begun abuilding. It was inaugurated two years later.

Monumental, opulent, bronze, marble, lavish. The tour ended in the auditorium. In 1964, Marc Chagall delivered a new painting surrounding the chandelier. His work was very controversial and offended the sensibility of those who’d got into the Garnier habit. Forty years later it adds a modern luster to the interior design and manages to look both classic and hip.

On the day of our tour (last Friday) workers were preparing the stage for the next production – an opera by Puccini. The auditorium is red and gilt and comparatively small to these American eyes. You just wanted to sit down and let the curtain go up for a performance. Even if you weren’t interested in opera before, M. Garnier’s creative brilliance compels you to partake, to be a part of, to experience the grandeur.

The Promenade of the l"Opera and the balcony (above, right) overlooking the Place de l'Opera where guests of the American Friends of Versailles congregated before the private tour of the opera house.

Gillian and Alex Steele, Byrdie Bell, Asia Baker, Whitney Dickerson, Stephanie Lawrence, and Evelyn Bell

Carl Adams and Paul Austin

The s grand staircase.

Maurice Tobin considers the statues outside the entrance to the auditorium. Eschewing the conventional marble or bronze, Garnier brought color by using different colored marbles to make up the figure's dress and bronze to form the figure's body.

The entrance off the porte-cochere where the guests arrived, protected from the weather. Charles Garnier's name and the date of the building completion are woven into the disk of the ceiling -- the first time an architect signed his work like an artist.

Another view of the grand entrance gallery.

View of the balconies where the beau monde could be viewed unobtrusively.

The stage and the auditorium which has a capacity of 2200.

Another view of the Chagall ceiling.

The sun was shining when we left theParis Opera (as opposed to the rain that was threatening when we arrived). It was a beautiful day, there was a strong cool breeze gusting its way along the Boulevard des Capucines, so a group of us walked over to the rue Saint Florentin to our appointed luncheon at the Hotel Talleyrand which sits on the corner of Saint Florentin and the Place de la Concorde.

The Hotel Talleyrand gets it name from the French diplomat who was agile enough to serve in the governments of Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII and Louis-Philippe. For that he was considered one of the most influential diplomats in all of Europe. Others saw him as a politician with an aristocrat’s air of superiority masking as self-confidence.

His house, or what the French call a hotel particulier (private house), was designed by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel who also designed the Petit Trianon, the Place de la Concorde and several buildings on it. It was built for the Comte Saint-Florentin, hence the name of the street.

General George Marshall

Victor Hugo later wrote about it, after the death of Talleyrand in the house at age 84: “Into this palace, as a spider into its web, he enticed and captured, one by one, heroes, thinkers, conquerors, princes, emperors, Bonaparte, Sieyès, Mme de Staël, Chateaubriand, Benjamin Constant, Alexandre de Russie, Guillaume de Prusse, François d’Autriche, Louis XVIII, Louis-Philippe, all the gilded glittering flies which buzz through the history of these past forty years.”

After Talleyrand’s death, James de Rothschild, son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the distinguished family, bought it. It remained in the family until 1950 (Baron Guy de Rothschild, who died a last week, grew up in the house).

In 1947 General George Marshall directed his Marshall Plan for restoring war-ravaged European economies from the house. In 1950, the house was purchased by the United States and today it houses the American Embassy Consular Services, Public and Cultural Affairs offices, several other government agencies and the George C. Marshall Center. Its restoration has been supported by a number of wealthy Americans, foundations and corporations. Mrs. Betty Knight Scripps has been its major philanthropist.

You enter through a courtyard. Passports are required. There is a grand staircase to what the Europeans call the First Floor. We walked through a small oval-shaped foyer, its boiserie from the house of Madame Du Barry in Louveciennes, into a series of large rooms, white with gilded paneling overlooking the Place de la Concorde. The last and largest room had about fifteen tables of ten, set with placement and floral centerpieces for luncheon.

All of the events for the American Friends of Versailles had some kind of historical theme that emphasized the history of the American relationship with France. There were people under 35 in the room who really knew nothing, had never heard about General Marshall and the Marshall Plan. Another point well taken by the activity of the American Friends.

After everyone was at table Olivier de Rohan introduced Ambassador Stapleton who spoke briefly about Franco-American relations and introduced a man who told us about the history of the relationship between the French people and the Marshall Plan.

The Marshall Plan was one of the most successful economic and diplomatic gestures in American history. Aside from the gesture, re-building Europe was good for the Americans. Americans who did not serve in that war had no way of knowing the immense suffering from the profound damage experienced by the European from the highest to the lowest.

Lunch at the Hotel Talleyrand. This room was added to the original house by James de Rothschild in the mid-1800s.

So there we were, sitting there, sixty years later, in Paris which has become very expensive to the American traveler since the value of the euro has exceeded parity with the dollar. Although it can be easily assumed that this group of Americans were not being affected by the change in rates, the irony remains.

The afternoon had turned hot and muggy and felt in the old house without air-conditioning. The French doors were opened and provided a cool breeze that would turn the curtains billowing and waving. Then the breeze would draw enough air from the room so that the doors would slam shut. A staff member would then close the windows.

As it was at every reception, White jacketed waiters passed the silver trays of orange juice, or water, or champagne before taking our seats. Red and white wines were served and then champagne with dessert. Luncheon menu: melon soup, followed by a vitello tonnato (veal covered with a tuna sauce) and asparagus, followed by a cheese plate.

One of the guests from across the table kept pointing to the cheese on my plate and gesturing as if to say: don’t eat. I thought he was making an obscure joke about my greedy appetite. I did eat anyway, whereupon my friend from across the table laughed and shook his head.

I later was told that the waiter serving us was sweating so profusely that his perspiration was falling from his forehead to the cheese plate. Eventually he’d wipe his brow and start all over again. The cheese was very good nevertheless. This was followed by an ice cream and strawberry dessert. Every meal we attended on this trip in both Italy and France, that was an event, served ice cream for dessert. Not the worse thing that could happen to a finicky eater, or even an open-minded one.

Impressions:

The American Ambassador, Mr. Stapleton is from Denver (their airport is called Stapleton). He is married to a cousin of President Bush, Dorothy Walker. His mother Katie Stapleton was among the guests on the American Friends of Versailles trip. The Ambassador grew up in Greenwich and went to Phillips Exeter then Harvard and then Harvard Business. Before his post in Paris, he served as George W. Bush’s ambassador to the Czech Republic. Before that for 20 years he was president of Marsh & McLennan Real Estate Advisors of New York. Between 1989 and 1998 he also was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He’s an all-business, no-nonsense personality. He read all of his speeches but they were thorough and one had the feeling he wrote them himself. If he didn’t, he has a very good speechwriter.

The man he introduced told us about the Marshall Plan and explained how before the war ended even the French suffered from the Allied bombing of the Germans who were all over Europe. He used his words carefully but he was clear about stating that the Allies killed a lot of its own. He also conceded that this was what happens in modern warfare. However, the Marshall Plan gave the French a chance to get his or her life back together and to improve the political as well as economic atmosphere of all the war-torn countries. And it did just that.

War. Death. Destruction. Man’s inhumanity to Man. Notes on these matters followed us through this trip, from the Venice Biennale to the George Marshall Center luncheon and onwards. All in the context of the most beautiful man-made environments.

Melinda Hassen, Catharine Hamilton, and Jacqueline Arnold

Catharine Hamilton and Matilda Stream

Patsy Callahan and Rose Hartman

Joan Tobin and Jonathan Marder

John Lee and Patsy Dickerson

DPC, Susan Gutfreund, Chris Walling, and Princess Nulifer

Henrik Schlubach smells the flowers

Charles Darling, Ian Tobin, Joan Tobin, Alexis Tobin, and Chris Darling

Patrick Coulson and Katie Stapleton

Jacqueline Arnold and Carl Bolch

Bob Arnold with Tanya and Charles Brandes

Charles Brandes, Susan Gutfreund, and luncheon guests toasting French-American relations

Two views of Hotel Talleyrand.

Boiserie made for Madame Du Barry for her house in Louveciennes.

A view of the Rue de Rivoli looking towards the Louvre.

Another view of the Du Barry boiserie.

As we were leaving the dining room after lunch, we could see, looking out on the Place de la Concorde, that there were black quickly flowing storm clouds heading toward us. By the time we were downstairs in the courtyard the rain had begun to fall lightly. By the time we were at the doorway to the street, it was coming down in torrents. Susan Gutfreund had already ordered a car to pick her up and offered us a ride.

The traffic was horrendous; nothing moving. It was raining so hard we were getting wet even under the embassy’s canopy. Three of us had taken the floral centerpieces which were a beautiful combination of orchids, roses and peonies. Too beautiful to leave behind to languish. It was good for the flowers, however. Finally the car came. We were all wet by then so it didn’t matter.

Back at the hotel, an American man about my age asked me if the flowers for my wife. I said no, they were for me. He asked me why. Why? Why not? Better than war?

Storm clouds moving in over the Place de la Concorde.

Standing in the entrance way of the Hotel Talleyrand to avoid the downpour, looking in the direction of the Place de la Concorde. Our rescued floral table settings getting a good spritz in the meantime.

That night Ambassador and Mrs. Stapleton held a dinertoire at the Ambassador’s residence on the rue Faubourg Saint Honore.

Inside the Ambassador's residence

The residence was built in the 1840s as a private house for an American woman named Micaela Almonester who married a French count Pontalba. It was acquired in 1876 by Edmond James de Rothschild, an uncle of the aforementioned Guy. The family sold it to the United States after the war in 1948.

A reception at the Ambassador’s residence is interesting in and of itself. The house’s public rooms are enormous and without much furniture to get in the way of the crowds that it can accommodate. Behind the house is a beautiful garden and lawn that is almost a block deep.

David Hamilton, the husband of Catharine Hamilton and co-founder with his wife of American Friends, was presented the French Legion d’Honneur, by Jean-David Levitte, who was the French Ambassador to the United States until a couple of weeks ago when Sarkozy won the French elections and appointed him as his diplomatic adviser.

David and Catharine Hamilton with Ambassador Jean-David Levitte

Katie Stapleton and her son the Ambassador

Mr. Hamilton’s work for Versailles has focused on raising funds for the restoration of different parts of the chateau’s extensive and complex garden with its multitude of fountains. On accepting his medal (his wife had already been awarded the medal in a previous year), he talked about his first awareness as a ten year-old boy of gardens from a book in his parents’ library of gardens in colonial Williamsburg. The form and style intrigued the child and the interest stayed with him into adulthood. The Legion d’Honneur serves as a personal milestone of this life-long interest.

The dinertoire features buffet-style tables of hors d’oeuvres and bowls of cherries which are now in season. After Mr. Hamilton’s speech, the crowd spread out across the public rooms and into the garden. At nine o’clock it was still very light out. People began disbursing to go to dinner.