The 8th arrondissement of Paris is known to all of us thanks to the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe, which stands at the far end of the world-famous avenue. Today I want to take you on a walk that combines some of the neighborhood’s best-known spots with a few secret ones that only seasoned Francophiles know about.
This is the Paris of the French Revolution but also of the Belle Époque, a Paris of endless wealth, part of which has vanished and become office buildings where not a living soul remains in the evening. Paris of joy and of sorrow, of light and of darkness. In short, a walk through Paris in all its shades. So take line 1, 8 or 12 and head to the Concorde metro station, because that’s where our journey begins.
Instead of a map: under each stop’s heading you’ll find its address, and every address is a link. Click it, and the place will open right away in Google Maps.
Place de la Concorde
After you come out of the metro station, give yourself a little time to take in this monumental square. If you ask me, the best way to enjoy all the beauty this square has to offer is from the balcony of the Hôtel de la Marine or from the western edge of the Tuileries Garden.
The square has a long and fascinating history, and since we still have quite a few interesting spots ahead of us, I won’t write it all out here. If you’d like to dig deeper into all the drama that unfolded here, I recommend reading the article Place de la Concorde: Fire, Blood and Beauty in One Central Paris Square.
Rue Royale and the Madeleine Church
rue Royale, and place de la Madeleine
Once you’ve finished taking in Place de la Concorde, with all its fountains and the obelisk standing there, it’s time to turn north onto Rue Royale, which was created specifically to let people reach the square from the north.
This is a very special street in my view, because almost every building on it was once home to someone famous or housed a famous establishment (a restaurant that became a symbol of the Belle Époque, a pâtisserie that launched the macaron revolution, and more). That’s why I wrote a whole article for you called Rue Royale: How Much History Can Fit on One Paris Street? I recommend reading it and walking up the street with it, until you reach the Madeleine Church (Église de la Madeleine), at the far end of the street.
Like Rue Royale and Place de la Concorde, this church also has a fascinating history, and I’ve devoted a whole article to it called The Madeleine Church: From an Ancient Synagogue to Napoleon’s Temple of Glory. Once you’ve finished reading that, feel free to walk around the church and discover all the culinary attractions located right next to it. You’ll find them in the article The Madeleine Church: A Culinary Walking Route for Food Lovers.
Boulevard Malesherbes
Once you’ve finished exploring around the Madeleine Church, maybe after eating some of Patrick Roger’s divine chocolate, it’s time to continue our walk. From the western side of Place de la Madeleine runs Boulevard Malesherbes, at the end of which stands the Saint-Augustin church, which we’ll reach later on.
This impressive boulevard was built during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (r. 1852–1870) and was part of the transformation of Paris led by Baron Haussmann (Georges-Eugène Haussmann, 1809–1891), during which Paris became a modern city of wide boulevards and public gardens (those interested can read more in the article about Paris in the Belle Époque).
The boulevard is named after Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721–1794), one of the most fascinating and tragic figures of the 18th century. Malesherbes came from a family of the nobility of the robe, which produced several famous jurists, among them judge Guillaume I de Lamoignon, a book lover whose house, in the Marais, became the National Library of France.
Malesherbes was a very liberal and educated man, and when he was appointed chief censor under Louis XV, he decided to protect the Encyclopedists, whose writings were a thorn in the side of the Church, and to support their important life’s work. The Encyclopédie became the intellectual force that drove the wheels of the French Revolution, which did indeed break out in 1789.
However, contrary to the hopes of quite a few intellectuals, the Revolution led to a wave of terror, which reached its peak when the head of King Louis XVI was cut off in January 1793, and that of his wife Marie Antoinette, in October of that same year. Malesherbes, despite the enormous danger, volunteered to defend Louis XVI during his trial, and about a year later paid for it with his own life, ending it on the guillotine.
Chapelle Expiatoire and Rue d’Anjou
29 rue Pasquier, and rue d’Anjou
We continue our walk toward another place that became part of the mythology of the French Revolution. From Boulevard Malesherbes, turn right onto Rue Pasquier and continue north.
Eventually you’ll see a large garden on your left, with a somewhat dark and, to my eye, melancholy building at its center. This place used to be called the Madeleine Cemetery (Cimetière de la Madeleine), and it was here that the bodies of Louis XVI, and later also of his wife Marie Antoinette, were brought.
When Napoleon fell and the Bourbons returned to power in France, Louis XVI’s brother, Louis XVIII (r. 1814–1824), decided to build a chapel here in their memory. If this interests you, feel free to read the article Chapelle Expiatoire: The Mysterious Chapel in the Heart of Paris and visit the site (opening hours are in the article).
Before we continue north on our route, let me recommend a walk down Rue d’Anjou, which is behind the chapel. The street is named after King Henri III (r. 1574–1589), who before taking the throne was known as the Duke of Anjou, which is where the street’s name comes from.
The reason this particular street bears his name is the rumor that right here he had a “cruising spot,” where he would bring his male companions known as “the darlings” (Les Mignons), and they engaged in activities best left unspoken…
Several hundred years later, as Paris transformed its face under the reign of Napoleon III, some beautiful buildings were built here, including the one at number 51, home to the famous photographer Félix Tournachon (1820–1910), known by his nickname Nadar.
Nadar is perhaps considered the most famous photographer of the 19th century, and he entered history not only for his groundbreaking photographs (he was the first to photograph Paris from the sky using a hot air balloon, and some even claim he invented the selfie). The other reason Nadar became famous was his friendship with the Impressionists, and the fact that he let them hold their first exhibition, in 1874, in his studio on Boulevard des Capucines.
Proust’s House on Boulevard Haussmann
Feel free to take a peek at a few more of the beautiful buildings on Rue d’Anjou, and when you’re done, head north until you reach Boulevard Haussmann. This is a busy main street named after Baron Haussmann, whom I mentioned earlier, without whom today’s Paris simply wouldn’t exist.
Go to number 102 and there you’ll find the building where the famous writer Marcel Proust (1871–1922) lived between 1907 and 1919. Proust, who spent much of his life studying and writing about the high society of his time, shut himself away in this apartment, and it was here that he wrote most of the volumes of his monumental work “In Search of Lost Time.”
Since the apartment didn’t belong to him but to his aunt, he was forced to leave it in 1919 and move to an apartment on Rue Hamelin, where he died three years later of asthma. The walk we’re starting from this point will pass through quite a few places Proust himself visited, so if you’d like to get to know Proust’s Paris better, I highly recommend reading the article Proust’s Paris: In Search of Belle Époque Beauty.
Saint-Augustin Church (Église Saint-Augustin)
From Boulevard Haussmann, turn west and you’ll reach the Saint-Augustin church, which we saw on the horizon when we started walking down Boulevard Malesherbes.
This church was built by none other than Victor Baltard (1805–1874), known to history buffs as the man responsible for the buildings of the Les Halles wholesale market (sadly, those buildings were demolished in the 1970s).
This is a very beautiful church in my eyes, and a special one, because it was the first church built using steel instead of stone. Since this was too revolutionary for the neighborhood’s residents, most of whom belonged to Paris’s upper bourgeoisie, it was decided to cover it in stone cladding, so the steel can’t be seen from outside. Still, if you go inside, you can see the steel arches.
Now that you’re inside, you’ll be happy to hear that the organ here is considered one of the best in Paris, and if you’re a little lucky, someone will be practicing on it. The pleasure is guaranteed! And if luck isn’t on your side, you’re welcome to at least listen to the video below and enjoy the sound of the organ through your headphones.
When you step outside, you might notice a statue in the garden east of the church. This is the statue of Paul Déroulède (1846–1914), a writer, playwright, and one of the greatest antisemites France has ever known, and naturally, also one of Dreyfus’s greatest enemies. Despite all this, when he died in 1914, his funeral was one of the largest France had ever seen, since the death of Victor Hugo in 1885.
The Mairie of the 8th Arrondissement
Once you’re done visiting the Saint-Augustin church, feel free to continue on to Boulevard Malesherbes, whose southern stretch we already walked, as you’ll remember.
There, at number 56, you’ll find the town hall building, built in 1865. Unlike quite a few town halls in Paris’s various arrondissements, this building wasn’t built to house the neighborhood’s administration.
The man behind the building’s construction was Jean-François Cail (1804–1871), a man who built his fortune with his own two hands. He was born to a poor farming family, and by age 40, after plenty of hard work and smart business decisions, he became one of the wealthiest men in France, thanks to the steel business he founded and ran with an iron fist.
To get a better view of his estate, you’re welcome to walk over to Rue de Lisbonne. There, by the way, at number 6, you’ll find a grand building that belonged to the Martell family, who made their fortune in the cognac business.
The House of Madame Straus, the Most Famous Jewish Society Woman of Her Time
Continue to number 104 Rue de Miromesnil and look at the building in front of you. This is where Geneviève Halévy (Marie-Geneviève Raphaëlle Halévy-Bizet-Straus, 1849–1926) lived, one of the women who inspired the character of the Duchesse de Guermantes in Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.”
Geneviève was the daughter of the famous composer Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (1799–1861), author of the opera “La Juive.” In 1869, Geneviève married Georges Bizet (1838–1875), composer of the famous opera “Carmen,” and in 1871 they had a son named Jacques, who would become a friend of Proust and help him gain entry into the salons of high society of his time.
Thanks to her lineage, Geneviève became a sought-after society woman, and her literary salon attracted some of the greatest artists of her era, including Guy de Maupassant, with whom she may later have had a romance (in more ways than one 🙂 ). In 1875, Geneviève was widowed when Georges Bizet died, but in 1886 she married Émile Straus, a Jewish lawyer who worked in the service of the Rothschild family.
Her literary salon, which had moved from the 9th arrondissement to where you’re standing now, continued to thrive and became a meeting place for all of Paris’s high society. During the Dreyfus affair, the salon went through a difficult upheaval, as quite a few antisemites and anti-Dreyfusards left it, following its transformation into a central meeting point for Dreyfus’s supporters.
After the Dreyfus affair ended, Madame Straus’s literary salon gradually declined, and she withdrew from society following a depression she suffered in 1910. The last years of her life were difficult and marked by quite a few tragedies. The greatest tragedy of her life was the suicide of her son, Jacques Bizet, who lived not far from her at 72 Boulevard Malesherbes and took his own life in 1921, after the automobile business he was involved in failed. Proust, her son’s close friend, died about a year later, and she died alone in 1926.
Musée Nissim de Camondo
Continue along Rue de Lisbonne to Rue de Vézelay, where at number 11bis you’ll find a grand private mansion, one of the many built here during the 19th century. Keep going until you reach Rue de Monceau. Turn left and walk to number 63.
The place you’ve reached is the Musée Nissim de Camondo, named after the son of a wealthy Jewish banker, who was killed in an air battle during World War I. The museum is housed in a mansion built in the early 20th century, modeled on the Petit Trianon at Versailles.
When the father, Moïse de Camondo (1860–1935), died, he willed the mansion to the French government, so it could be turned into a museum in his son’s memory. The museum was indeed created, but France betrayed the Camondo family: Nissim’s sister, who died for France, was deported to the Germans and sent to a death camp along with her children. That was the end of this family line, which had once rivaled the Rothschilds for the title of wealthiest family in France.
I highly recommend visiting this museum, which tells the family’s story and also displays an impressive collection of 18th-century art collected by Moïse de Camondo. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10:00–17:30 (closed Monday and Tuesday). Tickets can be purchased on-site at the ticket office.
Parc Monceau
After visiting the Musée Nissim de Camondo, continue walking down Rue de Monceau until you reach Avenue Ruysdael, which will lead you to this lovely park.
But before that, turn left onto Rue Murillo and walk to number 9. There, you’ll find fragments of the Tuileries Palace and the Hôtel de Ville that survived the fire of 1871, set by the Communards as revenge for the capture of Paris by the Third Republic’s army.
Head back to the main street that leads to the garden and go in through the magnificent gate. Welcome! You’ve arrived at my favorite garden in Paris. If you’re tired, this is the moment to sit on one of the benches by the carousel and watch it turn while eating a hot waffle. It’s also a great time to read the article Parc Monceau: A Walk Through My Favorite Garden in Paris, so you don’t miss a single lovely corner.
I’ll leave you here, because you really don’t need me to fall in love with this garden. I hope you had a great time!
More articles that might interest you
- If your legs still have a bit of strength left, feel free to continue out of Parc Monceau and explore the 17th arrondissement. All you need to do is check out the article The Secrets of the Courtesans’ Neighborhood.
- If you’re looking for a grand and spacious apartment in the 8th arrondissement, not far from where our tour began, feel free to read about Udi’s Apartment near Place de la Concorde.
- Want to discover more of the 8th arrondissement? Let me recommend the walking route along the Champs-Élysées.
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