Lassay Hotel

Léon de Madaillan de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay, son of Armand de Madaillan, Marquis de Lassay, is often confused with his father. A close friend, advisor, and lover of the Duchess of Bourbon, he initiated the construction of a townhouse in 1722, initially commissioning an Italian named Giardini, who passed away the same year. Pierre Cailleteau, known as "Lassurance," took over but died in 1724, leading to the involvement of Jean Aubert and Jacques V Gabriel.

It's believed today that Aubert was the main architect, as with the adjacent Palais Bourbon and the Hôtel Biron (now the Rodin Museum), originally built for Abraham Peyrenc de Moras.

The construction of the townhouse, located between Rue de l'Université and the Seine, spanned from 1726 to 1730. Built in the Italian style, it featured a single story topped with a flat roof.

Upon Lassay's death in 1750, the property passed to the children of his deceased niece, Adélaïde Geneviève d'O, wife of Louis de Brancas, 5th Duke of Villars and 2nd Duke of Lauraguais. Her son, Louis Léon de Brancas, 6th Duke of Villars and 3rd Duke of Lauraguais (1733-1824), sold it in 1768 to Louis-Joseph de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the grandson of the Duchess of Bourbon.

The Prince of Condé planned to move in after allocating the main apartments of the Palais Bourbon to his son, the Duke of Bourbon, and his daughter-in-law, Bathilde d'Orléans. The Palais Bourbon had been renovated since 1764 by the architect Barreau de Chefdeville, succeeded by Le Carpentier after Chefdeville's death in 1765. At the Lassay Hotel, Le Carpentier, assisted by Claude Billard de Bélisard, worked on renovations. After Le Carpentier's death in 1773, Bélisard took over until being dismissed due to a dispute and replaced around 1780 by Jean-François Leroy.

Le Carpentier skillfully modernized the Regency-era decor in the vestibule. A new U-shaped building was constructed to house smaller apartments, adorned with refined luxury.

The most admired room is the circular salon, whose volume and decor were transformable: the ceiling was made of a removable disk, which a mechanism could raise to the top of the dome; this movement freed the oculus while mirrors emerged from the floor to obscure the cross-windows; at the top of the drum, a circular balustrade concealed an orchestra that could be heard without being seen. The dome, divided into sectors like melon ribs, was painted by Callet, who depicted the story of Venus there.

In the gallery, books are placed in the lower part of cabinets that present busts, vases, and antique bronzes at elbow height, and on the upper part of the walls, the prince hangs the most beautiful paintings from his collections. The winter dining room is heated from the floor "in the Russian manner" thanks to pipes placed under the pavement. Charles De Wailly, who imported antique marbles from Italy, sells a modest Venus to the prince to complement the Venus Callipyge he already owns. Trees painted on mirrors – chestnut trees in the dining room, lilacs in the billiard room – form a new and cheerful decor, a technique that would later be often imitated.

The Lassay Hotel from the garden side. In the garden, a small trellis temple is built to house a sculpted group created twenty years earlier by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle for Madame de Pompadour's gardens at the Château de Bellevue, depicting Cupid embracing Friendship.

In 1792, the hotel is confiscated as a national property. It houses the new École Polytechnique from 1794 to 1804. In 1815, it is returned to the House of Condé, but after the extinction of the Bourbon-Condés in 1830, the Duke of Aumale, their heir, rents and then sells the hotel to the State in 1843 to serve as the residence for the President of the Chamber of Deputies.

It is at this time that it is raised by one floor and connected by a gallery to the Palais Bourbon.

In 1854, the Duke of Morny, appointed President of the Legislative Body, occupies the Lassay Hotel, which experiences a particularly brilliant period. The party on March 20, 1855, honored by the visit of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, remains famous for its splendor.

From 1870 to 1879, the Lassay Hotel is unoccupied, the government having its seat in Versailles. In 1873, it hosts the Shah of Persia, Nasser El-Din. In 1879, it becomes the residence of the President of the Chamber of Deputies.

The state rooms are now used to receive official personalities and delegations invited by the National Assembly.

The most important room is the office of the President of the National Assembly, also called the "departure lounge or office" (lounge designed by the architect Jules de Joly from 1845 to 1848) because the President leaves from there, according to a very precise ceremonial dating from the Revolution (review of the main points on the agenda, announcement of the opening of the session by the ringing placed on his desk, exit of the president into the large "Festivities Gallery", preceded by two ushers, followed by the Secretary-General of the Assembly, reception of the President at the "Alechinsky rotunda" by the commander of the detachment of the republican guard who pays him honors), to go to the hemicycle. This room also houses the desk on which Napoleon I signed his act of abdication in 1814. This desk is reputed to be cursed and it is customary among the presidents of the assembly not to use it.