Hôtel de Matignon

The Hôtel de Matignon features a deep, slate-covered mansard roof that looms over the Rue de Varenne. Since nineteen thirty-five, this eighteenth-century mansion has served as the official residence of the French Prime Minister. Prince Christian-Louis de Montmorency-Luxembourg commissioned the house, but its most famous resident was the diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand. He purchased it in eighteen oh eight and once famously staged an elaborate dinner party here where the guests sat in the dark for three hours waiting for their host.