Comme dans un rêve

Footsteps echo in the rooms of this splendid building at 72 Rue de l’Université in Paris. In the stillness of a sunny day, every space, silent for many years, recalls when the doors were opened in 1720 and for the very first time the carriages entered the courtyard and the candles in the drawing room were lit. A celebration, and then the joy of living in this hôtel particulier every day, named Hôtel du président Chauvelin in 1738.

Germain Louis Chauvelin was the Keeper of the Seals of Louis XV, an extremely learned man, a library housing three thousand books, an art collection that boasted a painting by Raphael and Jean-Antoine Watteau’s most beautiful prints. A realm of grace, music and delicacy. And everything has remained as it was, the warmth of the wooden floors, the discrete style of the small cabinet, the freshness of the flowery upholstery in Madame’s bedroom and the blue striped one in that of Monsieur.

A secret is hidden between the two bedrooms, a wall on which, since the early twentieth century, every generation has marked the birth dates of their children, then followed their growth, one centimetre at a time. Lalo, Charles, Anne, Pierre, Jacques, Jeanne-Francoise, and Christine were all born here. Here, a diary-home was born.

Photography Tommaso Sartori