A mecca for food, art and culture, Paris is a metropolis like no other and has the marvellous architecture to boot.
The French capital has an outstandingly rich and diverse architectural heritage, spanning two millennia, filled with works by famous creatives.
Here we give you a tour of seven par excellence Paris properties, residing in both glamorous and shabbier corners of the city, including a loft with a glass ceiling, a historic apartment drenched in gilding, and an architect-revamped atelier in a presbyterian church.
A 1930s Dôme des Invalides apartment with Maison Jansen interiors
2 bedrooms; €3.75m via Savills
Famed Paris-based global design company Maison Jansen (who counted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis among its clients and closed in the 1980s) put an art deco style spin on this 1930s flat, with high-quality materials. Panelled walls in light brown and red tones, with geometric motifs, make it feel glam, not fusty. Its living room proportions are measured to the golden ratio and step out onto views of the golden Dôme des Invalides.
Loft-style Alésia home in a former photography studio
2 bedrooms; €2.65m via Espaces Atypiques
A 22ft, part glazed ceiling stretches over this neutral loft-style live/work home, harking back to its former life as a photography studio. It centres around a monumental main space, from which other rooms radiate, with a dramatic metal staircase twisting up its three stories. There’s a roof terrace, too, and an upper gallery walkway overlooking the void.
An industrial loft to reinvent in Butte aux Cailles
3 bedrooms; €1.55m via Espaces Atypiques
Not many homes can boast an all-glass, zenithal roof and 36ft-high ceilings which can be found in this three-bedroom artist’s studio in Butte aux Cailles. Yes, it’s cluttered, has a tiny upper floor and some low concrete walls, but the volumes are grand, and they are overhung by a large abstract impressionist fresco by living artist David Oppenheim. The space is certainly ripe for reinvention.
Curved modernist 1920s house near Bois de Boulogne
4 bedrooms; €6.2m via Savills
An arcing, stucco façade forms the street front of this modern 1928 house on Boulogne Nord, by local architect Louis Raymond Fischer. The listed Hotel Gôdfray has a unique, fan-shaped interior but with rectangular glazing, and is topped with a wide roof terrace. Its vast living room has a double-height void wall of windows, while exterior curves are echoed in the fireplace, kitchen wall and wooden staircase.
A stylish atelier in a former church in Anvers
1 bedroom; €1.295m via Propriétés Parisiennes Sotheby’s International Realty
This ecclesiastical, architect-renovated atelier is part of a former presbyterian church and has elegant, muted tones showcasing natural materials, with a sunny feel and lofty volumes. Five, deep trefoil mullions feature windows edged in wrought iron that reflect light onto a mirrored wall and peer out onto postcard views of the Sacré-Cœur basilica.
Historic apartment on the Île Saint-Louis
1 bedroom; €4.825m via Propriétés Parisiennes Sotheby’s International Realty
A slice of old Paris, this 17th-century apartment has an idyllic island location on the River Seine, with period stone interiors, accessed via a magnificent arched glazed entrance. The well-preserved home is packed with historic, cross timber beamed ceilings and Versailles parquet from the Louis XVI era. And, tucked away in the beautiful rustic country cuisine is a Le Cornue cooking ‘piano’.
An art collector’s 1600s home in La Muette
2 bedrooms; €3.9m via Propriétés Parisiennes Sotheby’s International Realty
Opulent looks with large proportions, this regal apartment in La Muette once belonged to a collector in the 17th and 18th centuries and has dazzling gilded mouldings featuring musical instruments and crown-topped pilasters with matching chandeliers. There are glass doors in the reception room opening onto a balcony with a garden view, a large-scale mural of Venice, and colourful marble flooring.
