Still on page two - it is just a century since the so-called “François I” house was rebuilt.
François Ier houseThe François I house is a former private mansion located in Paris, at the corner of Cours la Reine and Rue Bayard, which gave its name to the district. In neo-Renaissance style, it presented, on the river side, a real 16th century facade, coming from Moret-sur-Loing, where it had been purchased and dismantled before being reassembled in Paris.
Colonel Brack, lover of the actress Miss Mars (1779-1847), had bought for 2,000 francs the facade of a Renaissance house that he had found in the courtyard of a cooper in Moret-sur-Loing. Salamanders decorating the doors led to it being mistaken for the house built by François I for the Duchess of Étampes, while the beauty of the sculptures led to them being attributed to Jean Goujon.
The colonel had it transported stone by stone and adapted to a neo-Renaissance style house that the architect Jean Marie Dieudonné Biet built in 1823-1825 at the corner of Cours la Reine and rue Bayard. The sponsor was interested in a company called Société des Champs-Élysées which proposed to subdivide, build and promote the land located between Cours la Reine, Allée d'Antin (Avenue Franklin-D.-Roosevelt) and the Allée des Veuves (Avenue Montaigne), for which the spectacular François 1er house was intended to serve as an advertisement.
But the land was slow to be built. The François 1er house remained uninhabited and Colonel Brack and Miss Mars had to put it up for sale in 1829. It was only acquired in 1840 by a notary, Me Février. The house had various occupants and was, on November 7, listed as a historic monument.
Despite this, it was destroyed in 1956 to build an office building in its place. The Renaissance facade then returned to Moret-sur-Loing, where it was reassembled at the back of the town hall where it still stands. The premises then gave way to a modern building in the 1950s. This building housed the headquarters of the M6 group from 1987 to 1997, today located in the suburb near Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Today, IP France, RTL's advertising agency, occupies the premises.
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