Journées du Patrimoine 2024: the Romanian Embassy opens its doors for a guided tour

The Journées du Patrimoine 2024 (Heritage Days 2024) are coming to the capital on the weekend of September 21 and 22! Launched in France in 1984, they now exist in some fifty European countries and are known as the European Heritage Days. Initiated by the French Ministry of Culture, the aim of these days is to enable the general public to discover or rediscover the country's cultural, architectural and historical heritage. This year, theRomanian Embassy is opening its doors for a guided tour of the premises.

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The Journées du Patrimoine 2024 (Heritage Days 2024) are an opportunity to discover Paris in a whole new way, and to explore every nook and cranny on a range of cultural, unusual and romantic outings! Here's our best-of list of things to do in Paris over the weekend of September 21 and 22, 2024. [Read more]

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For the Journées du Patrimoine 2024, theRomanian Embassy, housed in the Palais de Béhague, is organizing a guided tour. Located in the 7th arrondissement, at 123 rue Saint-Dominique, the embassy occupies a neoclassical-style mansion. This historic 19th-century building reflects the architectural elegance of the period. The Embassy plays a crucial role in Franco-Romanian relations, handling diplomatic affairs, providing consular services, and promoting cultural and economic exchanges between the two countries. The Embassy often opens its doors, and is also a venue for various cultural events designed to strengthen ties between Romania and France.

• To be read
• Tips for the week of September 16 - 22, 2024 in Paris: free or cheap outings
• What to do in Paris and the Paris Region in September 2024? Back-to-school ideas
• Heritage Days 2024 in Paris and the Île-de-France region: programme, date and theme of this year's event

• Visit to the Palais de Béhague / Romanian Embassy in France
  Saturday, September 21, 10:00 a.m.
  

  Palais de Béhague / Romanian Embassy in France
  
  The writer Henri de Régnier described this hotel as "one of the most beautiful palaces" in Paris. The property was sold on March 27, 1939 to the Romanian state, which transferred its embassy there from the Hôtel de Pomar on avenue de Wagram.
  
  Victoire-Félicité, Countess de Béhague, bought the land on which the embassy now stands in 1863. She commissioned Gabriel Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur (1822-1893), restorer of Courances and Vaux-le-Vicomte, to build a Louis XV-style mansion to match the 18th-century collections it was to house. The building, known as the Grand Hôtel, was intended for the use of Victoire - Félicité de Béhague and her son. Completed in 1866-1867, it was remarkable for its use of antique panelling. A Petit Hôtel, dedicated to Octave de Béhague, was quickly built. Several panellings from his collection were reassembled here in 1868.
  In 1893, the young Countess Martine de Béhague commissioned Walter-André Destailleur (1867-1940), son of the previous architect, to carry out some alterations. The Grand Hôtel was demolished, as were the outbuildings of the Petit Hôtel, which occupied part of the site of the current building. For thirty years, the Comtesse de Béhague entertained a select group of guests. Among them were Marcel Proust, Auguste Rodin, Isadora Duncan and Gabriel Fauré. Martine de Béhague's contemporaries were not mistaken, and recognized the exceptional splendor of the Hôtel de Béhague, which she had imprinted with her ideas in her youth. In 1901, Rodin thanked her for welcoming him into her "living museum, where everything was animated and in the order and grace of the things that can surround you".