The 8th district of Paris
Hotel in the heart of Paris 8
The Relais Monceau Hotel is located near the Parc Monceau that was designed in 1852 by Carmontelle for Philippe d’Orléans, the Duke of Chartres, and cousin to the King Louis the 16th.Under the theme “Land of Illusions”, the park is perfect for a morning jog or an afternoon stroll where can be admired the Roman colonnades, the enchanted grotto, the Naumachia water feature and the miniature Egyptian pyramid. Claude Monet, the Impressionist artist, appreciated it so much that he painted five pictures of this park.
The wealthy manufacturers of the 19th century developed this district and were great collectors of antiquities and fine art. They built beautiful mansions to host their collections. A few of these houses have been turned into museums and no visitor in Paris should miss them:
The Jacquemart-André Museum The Camondo Museum, bequeathed to the Decorative Arts Museum, is maintained as if it still were a private home The Cernuschi Museum, has a marvelous collection of Asian Art.
All three museums are next to the Parc Monceau and near our hotel.
The 8th district of Paris is also the district that inspired the impressionist painters such as Monet, Manet, Gustave Caillebotte among others! With its steam engines, the train station Gare Saint-Lazare provided subjects for their paintings while taking them to Normandy following the Seine.… The nearby Batignolles area served as a base for the painter Manet who painted scenes of lively café lifestyle. It is now a trendy place to live, with many artists and art galleries!
The ‘Maison Loo’ is a red Chinese pagoda in the heart of the 8th district of Paris and is now an art gallery specialized in Asian Art.
For music lovers, the area between the nearby rue de Constantinople and rue de Rome is the historical musical heart of Paris. Every other shop is selling musical instruments, sheet music partitions or stringed-instrument workshops for luthiers -repairing or making lutes, violins, guitars… Indeed, the Paris Conservatoire is a street away on rue de Madrid!