Hôtel particulier

In French contexts an "hôtel particulier" is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary "maison" was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an "hôtel particulier" was often free-standing, and by the eighteenth century it would always be located "entre cour et jardin", between the entrance court, the "cour d'honneur", and the garden behind. [Michel Gallet, "Les architectes parisiens du XVIIIe siècle", Paris;] Paris is not the only city with "hôtels particuliers": see Hôtels of Montpellier, for instance.

The word "hôtel" represents the Old French "hostel", which has developed a more specific modern English meaning. Cognates can be confusing: the modern usage in English of "hotel" denotes a commercial hotel accommodating travellers, a "hostelry" that is more ambitious than an inn. Modern French also applies "hôtel" to commercial hotels: confusingly the Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde was built as an "hôtel particulier" and is today a hotel. The Hôtel des Invalides retains its early sense of a hospice for war wounded.

In French, a "hôtel de ville" or "mairie" is a town hall (and not a hotel), such as the Hôtel de Ville, Paris or the Hôtel de Ville de Montréal. Other official bodies might give their name to the structure in which they maintained a seat: aside from Paris. several other French cities have an Hôtel de Cluny, maintained by the abbey of Cluny. The Hôtel de Sens was built as the Paris residence of the archbishop of Sens.

Hôtel-Dieu ("hostel of God") is the old name given to the principal hospital in French towns, such as the Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune.

Notes

Some Parisian "hôtels particuliers" with individual entries:
*Hôtel de Soubise
*Hôtel de Crillon
*Hôtel Lambert
*Hôtel Matignon
*Hôtel de Sens
*Hôtel de Rambouillet
*Hôtel Biron
*Hôtel d'Evreux
*Hôtel de Cluny
*Hôtel Carnavalet
*Hôtel de Salm
*Hôtel Grimod de La Reynière
*Hôtel Jacquemart-André
*Hôtel de Marigny
*Hôtel de Lauzun

Further reading

*Monographs have been published on some outstanding Parisian "hôtels particuliers".
*The classic photographic survey, now a rare book found only in large art libraries, is the series "Les Vieux Hotels de Paris" by J. Vacquer, published in the teens and twenties of the twentieth century, which takes Paris quarter by quarter and which illustrates many "hôtels particuliers" that have been demolished during the twentieth century.
*Blanc, Olivier, "Hôtels particuliers de Paris" (1998)
*Caylux, Odile et al. "Les Hôtels particuliers d'Arles" (2000)
*Cros, Philippe,"Hôtels particuliers de France" (2001)
*Naudin, Jean-Baptiste et al, "Hôtels particuliers de Paris: Visite privée" (1999).
*Papillault, Remi "Les hôtels particuliers du XVIe siècle à Toulouse (Serie Memoires des pays d'Oc)

ee also

*Château