VIARDOT VILLA
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A Palladian villa of Directoire style located in Bougival, with an antique style decoration, and currently closed to the public
The former de la Chaussée estate, which had belonged to the de Mesme family since the early 18th century, was bought by Empress Josephine in 1813, before being transferred to her daughter Hortense de Beauharnais. Managed by a dishonest steward and falling into ruin, the estate was subdivided in 1829. The following year, a Palladian villa in the Directoire style was built on one of the plots. In 1874, the estate and its 8 hectares of land were acquired by Russian writer Ivan Tourguéniev and singer Pauline Viardot, his former flame and sister of the famous diva Maria Malibran. Pauline's husband Louis was also the writer's translator. At the heart of this estate, renamed "Les Frênes", and its Palladian villa decorated in antique style, Pauline ran a salon with which Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, the Goncourts, Saint-Saëns and César Franck were all familiar. To live with the Viardot family, Tourguéniev later had his dacha built in the estate's park.
In the 1970s, the estate fell into disrepair, attracting the interest of developers. Selected as a beneficiary of the Loto du Patrimoine in 2018, the mansion (which is one of the oldest in the city) benefited from restoration in 2019, and the new Villa was inaugurated during the European Heritage Days in September 2023. As the parquet floors are always fragile, overshoes will be provided for visitors on occasional visits to prevent further damage.
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