Where extravaganza meets tradition
Between Arc de Triomphe and Musée Guimet is a square called Place des Etats Unis.A quiet and residential district of embassies and discreet private residences for wealthy families. But if you carefully listen, you might hear, in the silence, the remains of the parties hosted by Marie Laure de Noailles.
Born Bichoffsheim, she was raised in a very wealthy jewish banking family on her father side and a direct descendant of Marquis de Sade on her mother side. Very young she inheritates a huge fortune. Attracted by the parisian artistic life she will use her immense fortune to support the arts. In the 1920s, she marries Vicount Charles de Noailles and both together they will be the last big scale French sponsors. They will finance Bunuel’s first film, have a cubist villa built on the riviera by Robert Mallet Stevens, collect a fabulous collection of art from Rubens, Watteau or Goya to Picasso, Juan Gris or Balthus.
Their Mansion,place des Etats Unis has been for over 50 years the theater of extravagant parties where the high society of the time would meet the artists of the moment, Man Ray, Giacometti and more. She loved avant garde and creation, she will support the Spanish republicans in 1936 and will march in her Rolls Royce during the students rebellions of May 1968.
Her death in 1970 will call off the party, she was the last of this financial mogols and Paris will never be the same any more. The cubist villa will become a museum after years uninhabitated and the Paris mansion will reopen as the Baccarat flagship store, entirely renovated by Philippe Stark. Baccarat is one of the oldest cristal manufacture of Lorraine , in the east of France and opened in 1764. In the last years, the tradition of cristal evolved thanks to many contemporary designers such as Stark, Andrée Putman, Ettore Sottsass or Arik Levy.
Along with the Baccarat shop and museum in the fabulous lounges of the mansion is also a restaurant managed by stared chef Guy Martin and called teh Cristal Room. Guy Martin is the lucky owner of Grand Véfour in Palais Royal and known for his creative cuisine. To him, what is the plate as well as the place you enjoy it have to be a feast for the eyes. Cristal Room is an experience on its own an the chance to attend this very last invitation by Marie Laure de Noailles certainely haunting the place!
Cristal Room Baccarat
11 place des Etats Unis 75016 Paris
www.cristalroom.com
www.baccarat.fr
Price range: €€€€
