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Origin and history

The Hotel de Coulanges, located at 35-37 rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, is a private hotel built between 1627 and 1634 for Jean-Baptiste Scarron, Sieur de Saint-Try. This house body, flanked by a perpendicular wing, was acquired in 1640 by Philip II of Coulanges, king's adviser, after the seizure of the property for debts. The Coulanges family lived there until 1662, welcoming Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, future Madame de Sévigné, between 1637 and her marriage in 1644. The hotel was then profoundly redesigned by Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges, who enlarged the court of honour and added arcades decorated with mascarons.

In 1662, the hotel was sold to Michel Le Tellier, Chancellor of Louis XIV, and became the "small hotel Le Tellier". According to Memoirs du Marquis de Sourches, six illegitimate children of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan were secretly raised there by Jean Darbon, a trusted man of Le Tellier. After the latter's death in 1685, the small hotel was rented and sold in 1703 to Edme Beaugier, a general farmer, who undertook important work: demolition of the building on street, construction of a new rock gate (1707), and addition of an attic in the 18th century.

During the 18th century, the hotel changed hands several times. André Charles Louis Chabenat, President of Parliament, added in 1769-1770 a rotunda pavilion overlooking a garden enlarged by the acquisition of the hotel of 14-16 rue des Rosiers. In 1775, Puy de Verine, the last owner before the Revolution, erected a separation wall with the neighbouring garden. The hotel, degraded in the 19th century, was saved in 1961 by a citizen mobilization leading to its ranking at the Historical Monuments. Restored between 1975 and 1978, it successively houses the Maison de l'Europe in Paris (until 2017) and, since 2024, a Dover Street Market concept store.

The hotel's architecture combines elements from the 17th century (service staircase, Louis XIV ironworks) and the 18th century (attic, rotunda, mascarons). Its 1707 gate, adorned with a mascaron representing a bearded man on the street and a woman on the court side, is emblematic of the rock style. The facades, roofs, stairwell and floor of the court of honour have been protected since 1961. The garden of the Rosiers-Joseph-Migneret, adjacent, brings together the old gardens of three private hotels, including Coulanges.

The hotel is inseparable from the history of the Marais, aristocratic district under the Old Regime. It illustrates the architectural transformations of Parisian private hotels, from family residences (Colanges) to administrative or cultural functions (House of Europe). His rescue in 1961 marked a turning point in the preservation of the Marais heritage, then threatened by real estate projects. Today, it embodies the contemporary rehabilitation of historical monuments, combining conservation and modern uses.

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