Inside the home of the French Prime Minister

On rue de Varenne on Paris’s Left Bank, is one of France’s most important political centres. Since May last year Hôtel de Matignon has been the domain of the French Prime Minister, François Fillon. Matignon is not only his workplace, it is also his home and he and his British wife Penelope, along with three of their five children, live here in the private apartment of this grand and historic mansion.

Tours of the mansion, known simply as ‘Matignon’, are rare and the public are granted access only once a year as part of the journées du patrimoine when hundreds of private buildings throughout France open their doors to the public for just one weekend on 20-21 September.

FRANCE Magazine were let through its doors for an exclusive look around, guided by Mme Fillon herself and the knowledgeable curator, M. Richard Flahaut.

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Entering Matignon

The navy-uniformed guards are polite and surprisingly friendly as we enter, asking for our passports they scan our belongings. We exit security and come out into the enormous courtyard to see Matignon in all its grandeur. The mansion is elegantly understated. Friendly faces are carved into the arched window lintels and the Declaration of Human Rights is painted on the wall of the left wing.

Hanging on the walls are huge works of modern art which seem a little incongruous alongside the glittering chandelier and ornate gilt paintwork. As we wait, various guards appear and disappear through the two doors hidden in the walls and then Mme Fillon joins us with art historian and curator of Matignon, Richard Flahaut.

We start our tour in the Council Chamber, a long gallery room at the side of the building that boasts three chandeliers, beautiful gilt and painted wood panelling and the biggest table I’ve ever seen, covered in a rich red table cloth. The sound of creaking floorboards from above us echoes around the room prompting M. Flahaut to comment: “Up there are the Prime Minister’s living quarters – that’s probably him walking above us. It’s funny how it makes everything shake.”

Next door to the Council Chamber is the Yellow Room, which was used as a salon by the princesses of Monaco when they were residents in the mid-1700s. Later, however, it was used as the office of all the Présidents du Conseil between 1935 and 1958. Among them were Robert Schuman and Guy Mollet. It was here that Léon Blum, who, along with the leaders of the 1936 strikes, signed the seminal ‘Matignon Accords’ agreeing to the 40-hour work week and paid holidays.

The Red Room

Through another door, we find ourselves in the Red Room. In the days when the princesses of Monaco were resident, the Red Room was the throne room. During the 19th century, in the Galliera period from 1852 to 1855, the Galliera family asked for more Italian décor. “That’s why they inserted these médaillons into the original 18th-century wood panels,” says M. Flahaut. In these panels, there are hundreds of semi-precious stones that twinkle in the light from the huge chandelier that hangs low in the middle of the room. As I stand underneath, my eye is drawn to the two mirrors on opposing sides of the room which give the illusion of an endless corridor of sumptuous red and gold. On the other side of the Red Room, the windows look out into the vast garden. Mme Fillon enthuses that she loves Matignon’s garden. It is the largest private garden in Paris and, with an area of 2.5 hectares, it feels more like a park. It was designed by the great French garden designer Achille Duchêne (1866-1947).

The largest garden in Paris

As we wander down through an elegant avenue of trees, Mme Fillon explains that a relatively new tradition dictates that every Prime Minister must plant a tree in the garden on St Catherine’s day. “It had to be approved of course, but we’ve chosen a ‘wedding cake tree’ [variegated giant dogwood]. As we stroll through the garden on our way back to the house, Mme Fillon explains that past employees of Matignon retain the privilege of having access to the garden, even after they have left their jobs there: “A lap of the garden is 600 metres, so many people still come here and do their daily jogging.” M. Flauhaut adds: “It reflects the family atmosphere here.”

Queen Elizabeth visited Matignon in 2004 as part of her visit to France to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale. She entered the property through the garden entrance with great pomp. Matignon has, obviously, welcomed hundreds of heads of state through the years and the last US president to visit was Bill Clinton in 1994.

Monsieur Fillon’s office

Back inside, we return to the Fumoir and find that the door to M. Fillon’s office is open. Unfortunately, the elusive M. Fillon is elsewhere but it does mean that we can look around and I suddenly feel as though I’m in an episode of Through the Keyhole. With several wall-to-ceiling windows, a chandelier, and white and gilt detail on the walls, there is no doubt this is a room that has witnessed some truly historic moments.

On M. Fillon’s desk there is a biography by French-Guadeloupe journalist and news presenter Christine Kelly (François Fillon: Le secret et l’ambition), published the previous week and gaining a lot of press attention. On the desk there is also his own book, titled La France peut supporter la vérité, which he wrote when he was “between jobs” and which analyses the French attitude towards politics. In stark contrast to these two philosophical and political tomes, there are colourful drawings by six-year-old Arnaud scattered over the desk showing that, above all, M. Fillon is a family man.

A Brief History

Previous residents include the Duke of Valentinois, and daughter-in-law Louise Hyppolite Grimaldi the Princess of Monaco. Then Anne-Eléonore Franchi, a professional dancer, who became the mistress of Austria’s Emperor Joseph II. Next to move in was one of the 19th century’s most prominent figures, Foreign Affairs Minister Monsieur de Talleyrand, Prince of Benevent and Vice Great Elector, who sold up at the command of Napoléon. Louis XVIII followed, but he traded it for the Elysée Palace with Louise Bathilde of Orléans, who installed a community of nuns. The property was then inherited by a niece who rented it out to Colonel Thorne, a rich American. In 1852, Matignon was acquired by the Duke and Duchess of Galliera.

After World War I, Matignon was given to the French government to pay for war damage. In 1924, the Président du Conseil Gaston Doumergue decided to make Matignon the headquarters of his office, and from 1935, Pierre-Étienne Flandin moved in. For a brief time, in 1958, Charles de Gaulle took residence, but with the advent of the Fifth Republic in 1959, Hôtel de Matignon became the official residence of the French Prime Minister.

By CAROLYN BOYD and photographer ROBERT BRADY

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