The tour will explore the Parc Monceau area and show the beautiful mansions built by the Jewish elite in the nineteenth century.
Following the first waves of emigration towards France, the Jewish bourgeoisie quickly left the Marais district where people flocked mainly from Eastern Europe. They established in a brand new part of town around Parc Monceau, recently acquired by the State.
Wealthy financiers, newsmen, entrepreneurs, bankers or authors among others, the whole Parisian upper class society shifted west with the expansion of Paris.
Soon, all the edges of the park saw the rising of stately private mansions in the eclectic style architecture, back then very much in fashion.
If some of them have now disappeared, many are still around. Some of them house a foundation or a Museum, like the beautiful mansion owned by the Count de Camondo. It now contains a school and the founders’s private art collection and furniture.
Another building houses the luxury art gallery of another emblematic family since the 1870’s. With their busy schedule, they find it hard to spare a moment for groups but we” give it a try!
These fascinating Jewish families had varied destinies, but most of them, with time, moved away from the Parc Monceau neighborhood. If the area is still considered as upper class, it now welcomes people from all over.
2 hours walk in English starting at métro Courcelles (line 2)