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Origin and history

Hotel Baudard de Saint-James is a private hotel built in 1702 on Place Vendôme in Paris, in the 1st arrondissement. Sponsored by Louis Dublineau, Doctor in Sorbonne and Prior of Longchamp, its construction is entrusted to architect Jacques V Gabriel. The building owes its name to Claude Baudard de Saint-James, treasurer general of the Marine, who became its second owner in 1777 and commissioned interior decorations by François-Joseph Bélanger and painter Jean-Jacques Lagrenée.

Originally acquired in 1699 by the financier Mathurin Besnier, the land was sold to Dublineau, who quickly gave it to the Marquis Louis-Urbain Aubert de Tourny. In the 19th century, the hotel changed hands several times: bought in 1814 by banker Isaac Thuret, it was home to Thuret & Co Bank, the Consulate General of Holland, and even hosted the Russian embassy in 1848. Frédéric Chopin rented an apartment there from 1849 to 1855, for an annual rent of 3,500 francs.

In 1855, the hotel was sold to Basile Parent, and in 1920 it was transferred to the Rothschild family through the Pennarioya Mining Corporation. Ranked in historical monuments for its facades and roofs in 1930, and registered for its first floor living room in 1927, it is now owned by Chaumet House. After a renovation carried out in 2020 by the architect Patricia Grosdemange, it now houses its salons, its jewellery workshop and a shop.

Among the notable anecdotes, the records of 1849 reveal that Chopin occupied a spacious dwelling, far from the "grabat of stables" often mentioned. The hotel would also have welcomed the Countess of Montijo and her daughters, including Eugénie, future empress, although the archives refer instead to Princess Alina Stirbey in 1851. These details illustrate its central role in Parisian world life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Architecturally, the hotel is distinguished by its adjoining location between the Hotel de La Fare (No. 14) and the Hotel de La Tour-Maubourg (No. 10), east of Place Vendôme. Its 18th-century decorations, preserved despite the changes in owners, bear witness to its lasting prestige, now highlighted by Chaumet.

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