Also known as the hotel de Saint-Florentin or hotel de La Vrillière, the hotel de Talleyrand-Périgord isn’t a hotel at all, but rather a vast 18th century townhouse near the place de la Concorde that now belongs to the American Embassy.

It’s another of these places that are generally closed to the public, but we were able to take a tour during the special one-day opening during Open House weekend.

And what an amazing place it is! Here are our photos.

Restored with funds donated by the World Monuments Fund and a listed monument since the 1920s, the hôtel de Talleyrand is richly decorated, with huge rooms and a stunning view across place de la Concorde, with the Eiffel Tower looming behind.

For Open House weekend, you could walk through the building, learn about its history and witness the rather surreal spectacle of embassy employees dressed in period clothing. Impressive from start to finish nonetheless!

Here are our photos.

To check out all our photos of the hôtel de Talleyrand, click here or on the four little arrows on the slideshow below to go into fullscreen mode.

Created with flickr embed.