The de Camondo family, prominent 19th c. bankers, built this mansion and filled it with 18th c. French furniture and decorative art, then donated the whole shebang to the French state. It’s named after Nissim de Camondo, the donor’s son, who died fighting in WWI.
Almost all of the rooms are open, so if you want to see top-of-the-19th-c.-line kitchens and bathrooms, here’s your chance. And I guess you would be happy if you like 18th century decorative arts, by contrast to me, who starts to have fantasies of running amok with a crowbar when confronted with this much twee cabinetry. Also it’s 18th c. art screened through Victorian morals, so don’t expect much of the coy eroticism which makes the period bearable. (Ok, ok, there is one erotic engraving featuring an enema, but that’s obligatory for any 18th c. collection.)
The de Camodo family was Jewish, and about a decade after their donation to the French state, the state returned the favor by rounding up the remaining decedents of the donor and turning them over to the Germans. Their deaths are mentioned fairly casually in a small plaque, and made me so angry that I’ll go to Paris’ two Jewish history museums tomorrow.
