La Muette - Cortambert

The parties and the stars have always sparkled in La Muette! Queen Margot had a chateau there; Marie Antoinette danced there; and the 18th century pastiche, built by the Rothschilds in the early 20th century, now houses the OECD. La Muette is a provincial enclave in the heart of Paris, a foretaste of the countryside.

The original village of Passy is still there with its pretty shopping streets and rich selection of shops. Rue de l'Annonciation leads to the steep Chaillot hill – as if overlooking the sea. Boulainvilliers station seems like something from a setting in Mon Oncle or Amélie Poulain. The house Balzac occupied is a vision of an eternal Paris, as is the magnificent Turkish embassy below, which in the 19th century was home to the famous Doctor Blanche’s clinic. And then there is the strange Russian log cabin at the end of Villa Beauséjour...

La Muette is a hill that rolls down into the Seine, with different heights and points of view. The aerial metro, dear to moviegoers, plunges into the city at the Passy metro station. Less well known are the charming steps on avenue de Camoens, which descend to the delightful Boulevard Delessert. And then there are quarries, under the Chaillot hillock, now occupied by the fascinating wine museum (which is somewhat paradoxically located on the rue des eaux – water street!).

The ultimate nod to nature, the Marmottan Museum houses the famous Claude Monet painting Impression, soleil levant, which gave its name to the Impressionist movement...

In short La Muette with its green hills is a balcony overlooking Paris...

  

Local life:

 

Everything here runs at the gentle pace of family life. The good smells of fresh fruit in place de Passy; lovers going to see a romantic comedy at the Majestic Passy; food lovers dining at the Rotonde de la Muette or La Gare, a former stop on the railway circling Paris. This neighbourhood where Benjamin Franklin, Clemenceau, Chagall and Fauré lived, is delightfully Parisian and provincial.

 

Don’t miss:

 

Everyone that loves Paris must venture into the miraculous rue Berton, between Balzac’s house and the Turkish embassy, as the daylight fades. An alley, cobblestones, crooked walls: everything is incredibly poetic. And when the first street light comes on, you would think you were in one of Magritte’s surrealist paintings.

 

 

 

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