Hôtel Matignon

Hôtel Matignon

Hôtel Matignon is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France, located at 57 Rue de Varenne in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. In France, many government institutions, including the Élysée Palace, are housed in historic private mansions that are over a hundred years old, and the Prime Minister's residence, Hôtel Matignon, is no exception. Until 1922, it was the private home of French nobility. After World War II, in 1944, Charles de Gaulle used Hôtel Matignon as the seat of the Provisional Government of France. Two years later, it officially became the official residence of the French Prime Minister.

Covering an area of 3 hectares, the garden of Hôtel Matignon was originally designed and built in 1725 by two landscape architects. One of them, Claude Desgots, was the nephew and heir of André Le Nôtre, the architect who designed the gardens of Versailles. In 1902, it was renovated by Achille Duchêne, the most renowned landscape architect in Paris at the time. Today, the Hôtel Matignon garden is a perfect blend of classic French-style gardens and traditional English gardens. The layout is symmetrical, with two rows of lime trees planted along the central axis, reflecting the formal standards of a traditional French garden. Scattered throughout the garden are informal clusters of shrubs, hinting at the more relaxed style of English gardens. The Matignon Garden can be considered the largest private garden in Paris and is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful gardens in the city.

Since Hôtel Matignon is a government office, visitors can only enter for tours during designated times. The opening hours are: from November to March, 1 PM to 5 PM; from April to October, 1 PM to 6:30 PM. Visitors need to enter the Prime Minister’s garden from the back of Hôtel Matignon.

Hôtel Matignon

Must-visit reason: Explore Paris’s largest private garden

Continent where the attraction is located: Europe【Europe】

Country/region where the attraction is located: France[France]

Province/state where the attraction is located: Île-de-France Region [Ile-de-France Region]

City where the attraction is located: Paris [Paris]