FRENCH PRESIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1939, Page 11

FRENCH PRESIDENT

♦ PALACE OF THE ELYSEE. The residence of the President of the French Republic, the Palace of the Elysee. in the rue du Faubourg St. Honore, Paris, is a little over two centuries old. It is a low building, with a walled courtyard in front and a long garden behind. Ths Palace of the Elysee was built in 1718 by the Count of Evreux. It was little more than a cottage, two stories and an attic. The Evreux mansion first began to take on an official character when Louis XV. bought it for his favourite. Mme. de Pompadour, who entertained there lavishly. On her death the king bought it from her heirs and undertook considerable additions and embellishments. Louiv XVI. installed in it his devoted and ill-star-red sister, Madame Elizabeth. The Revolution found it turned into an amusement park. In 1808 it was bought by Napoleon, who resided there with Josephine until their divorce. Napoleon 111. lived in it when he brought off the coup d’etat which made him Emperor, and when later the Third Republic was founded, the palace of the Elysee, became the residence of the first president, Marshal MacMahon, in 1873. since when it has been inhabited by each succeeding President of France. When Madam Lebrun went to be fitted for the last time for her London dresses before leaving Paris, she asked the young seamstresses ' what they would like. They said they would be pleased if they could see the Palace of the Elysee, so they were driven there one afternoon and spent a pleasant hour with the President’s wife visiting the historic building.