On a completely different note, here are some more pictures taken around Paris. The first set of pics is from the Nissim de Camondo musée in the 8th. The Camondo's were a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family who moved to France from Turkey in the 19th century. It was an amazing home in spectactular condition on the inside.
Brief history of the Camondo family:
The Jewish family originally came from Spain, where they fled from the Inquisition. They moved to Italy and then Turkey (Constantinople) where they became successful bankers. There were two brothers, Nissim and Abraham de Camondo, and they moved to Paris in the 1870s. They built houses, rather mansions, next to each other. The houses eventually fell into the hands of their sons. Isaac, Abraham's son, collected art from the Far East. He died childless and most of his collection was donated to the Louvre.
Nissim's son, Moise de Camondo, had an impressive and vast collection of French decorative arts of the second half of the eighteenth century. Nissim de Camondo (1892 - 1917) was a French banker. Named for his grandfather, he was born into the Camondo family of Paris, the son of the prominent and wealthy Jewish banker, Moïse de Camondo. As the only son of two children, Nissim de Camondo was expected to take over the family business. However, immediately upon the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Aéronautique Militaire, serving as a pilot.
Lieutenant Nissim de Camondo died in 1917 in aerial combat in Lorraine and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris.
On his death in 1935, Moïse de Camondo bequeathed his Paris mansion at 63, rue de Monceau in Paris including its contents and a major collection of art to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs to be used to create the Musée Nissim de Camondo in his son's honor.
There are three floors to this large museum: the lower ground floor (the kitchens), upper ground floor (reception room -- all the formal rooms), and the first floor (the private apartments). The servants' dining room on the lower group floor indicates that the house had 12 people on staff, from gardeners to butlers.
The upper ground floor, where guests would visit, is filled with treasures. So many of the pieces have history.. silverware commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia.... vases that once adorned the private chambers of Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
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maison de Camondo
Nissim de Camondo
Camondo Office
2nd floor hallway
Japanese piece near the staircase
Interesting carving
another angle
Salon
cool table
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Bois de Boulogne (16th arrondissement)
Decorative Balcony
Funky Statue that caught my eye
Church in the 8th
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