I have made several trips to this town mostly on business but eventually got around to be with the family, I found me again pictures in my cd rom vault that should be in my blog for you and me, This is nice chic Neuilly-sur-Seine in the Hauts de Seine dept 92 of the Île de France region of my belle France. Therefore, I like to tell you about the La Folie Saint James of Neuilly sur Seine !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
The one-story house is built of brick and stone. Its neoclassical facades were rendered pink in 1950. The two main faces are decorated with a four-column porch, raised on a base, as well as a central pediment. These facades, with five windows decorated with doorjambs, are also decorated with cross-sections and cornices that stand out in white against the former pink brick background. Sculpted medallions were found between the windows; however, these are now only present on the side of the main courtyard. The hipped roof is made of slate. The main courtyard by 34, avenue de Madrid, formerly route du Bois-de-Boulogne-à-Neuilly, has retained its original paving stones. To the left of the courtyard is the lower courtyard as opposed to the beautiful main courtyard, between the U-shaped wings of the outbuildings. The two courtyards are separate and communicate only through a gate. This gate is located on the passageway running through the center of the outbuildings, from the lower courtyard, and the main courtyard to the garden, thus forming an axis parallel to the main facade of the Folie Saint James.
While the park originally covered 12 hectares, its surface area is now only 1.8 hectares due to its gradual subdivision. You see here the Grand Rocher ,the centerpiece of the park and its most imposing. It is a stack of sandstone blocks from the Fontainebleau forest, 43 meters long, 18 meters wide, and 12 meters high housing baths. The Jardin clos Art déco or Art Deco Walled Garden and the temple de l’Amour or Temple of Love, dating from 1925, are located to the right of the Folie. The temple, at the end of the Art Deco garden, is slightly elevated. It is composed of five columns supporting a dome. This garden is planted with lawns, rose bushes, low shrubs, and bushes trimmed into balls or cones in geometrically shaped beds. Its gravel paths are decorated with exposed bricks tracing rectangles and their diagonals. The cut-stone bridge remains over a ditch, a remnant of the dried-up river, and, in 2014, was partially covered with vegetation pending restoration. The Colonne antique or Ancient Column was preserved, but moved to the northwest of the park on a lawn. The Bridge over a Waterfall now exists only as a pile of rocks between the Folly and the cut stone bridge. The Animal House, the farmyard, and the performance hall. Currently, the factories and the wooden steps are closed off by a fence for protection and security reasons, pending their restoration. At the northern end of the original park is the Cabinet d’histoire naturelle ou Pavillon de Musique or Natural History Room or Music Pavilion. It is a small square brick and stone building built around 1784 to display the Baron de Sainte-James’ collection of minerals and shells. The pavilion became a chapel when the Folie Saint-James became a rest home in 1851. The pavilion is now between two buildings, between the Villa de Madrid and Rue du Général-Henrion-Bertier by no. 3-5, the park around it having been divided into lots. It is inaccessible to the public. It belongs to the city of Neuilly sur Seine.
In the 18C, the Château de Madrid was in ruins. Another residence, a classically designed horseshoe-shaped mansion, had been built in 1638 along the wall of this castle: the Domaine de la Chambre. In 1772, Claude Baudard de Vaudésir, Baron of Sainte-James, General Treasurer of the Navy of Louis XV and a wealthy financier, bought this estate. Neuilly was then in the countryside. In 1777, he will be dismissed for embezzlement, the Count of Artois, the future Charles X, had a folly built for himself in the neighboring Bois de Boulogne by François-Joseph Bélanger, He had built and develop a domain planted with trees and shrubs sought after, la Folie Saint-James.designed on the model of the picturesque and Anglo-Chinese gardens of the 18C in France, typical of the fashionable factory parks of the time. Covering an area of 12 hectares, it then extended on both sides of the road from Bagatelle to Neuilly (the present-day rue de Longchamp); the parts communicating by two underground passages. A winding river, or canal, accompanied by multiple bridges, waterfalls, islands, lakes and grottoes, crossed the garden. The estate ran along part of the Seine, whose water fed the river thanks to a “fire pump”. The fabriques included bridges, kiosks, pavilions, grottoes and waterfalls.
During the French revolution, the residence was the victim of serious damage by the Black Band. ( an association of speculators who, during the French revolution, from the sequestration of the property of the clergy and emigrants and their sale, agree to buy at low prices the most precious castles, abbeys, monuments of art, with the aim of occupying them, reselling them at a profit or demolishing them and selling the materials) The Duke and Duchess of Choiseul-Praslin then bought the Folie and its park at auction at a very low price, They sold it in 1795 to the Bobierre family, who rented it. In 1811, the estate was divided into six lots and then sold again in 1812. It was gradually divided into lots and deteriorated. In July 6, 1815 Wellington comes to Neuilly where he establishes his headquarters at the Folie Saint-James and leaves on the 8th, to come to Paris, In 1844, Doctor Casimir Pinel, a specialist in nervous diseases set up a nursing home on the property. The painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec stayed there in 1899. New owners, the Lebels, renovated the property and transformed part of what remained of the park in the Art Deco style. They created a walled garden with a Temple of Love as well as a rectangular Moorish-inspired pond and a rose garden. But, to achieve these improvements, they demolished original structures such as the icehouse and the street kiosk. Between 1944 and 1947, the Folie was occupied by the nazis and then the Americans; the outbuildings were heavily damaged. The Lebel family then sold it to the State in 1952. A public high school was built between 1956 and 1959 on part of the park (the entrance to the school is located on rue de Longchamp), the Folie serving as administrative premises, while the outbuildings served as a canteen. The Folie park was then only open to the public during weekends and school holidays. The renovation of the high school in 2006 and 2007 freed the Folie Saint James from its administrative function and the garden became open to the public every day. Since 2009, the Folie Saint-James and its park have been the twentieth departmental park and the property of the Hauts-de-Seine departmental council. The above explanations are done with the help of the below sites and wikipedia,
The City of Neuilly sur Seine on the former Château de Madrid: https://www.neuillysurseine.fr/page/limmeuble-du-chateau-de-madrid
The City of Neuilly sur Seine on the former Folie Saint James : https://www.neuillysurseine.fr/page/folie-saint-james
The City of Neuillu sur Seine on the former Pavillon de la Musique : https://www.neuillysurseine.fr/page/pavillon-de-musique-ancien-cabinet-dhistoire-naturelle-de-la-folie-st-james
The Hauts de Seine dept 92 tourist office on the parc de La Folie Saint James: https://www.hauts-de-seine.fr/le-parc-de-la-folie-sainte-james
The Hauts de Seine dept 92 touris office on La Folie Saint James : https://www.hauts-de-seine.fr/la-folie-saint-james
There you go folks, an oasis of tranquility and class just bordering Paris, the off the beaten path, Neuilly sur Seine. Worth the detour me thinks , and wonderful stories coming here and into the bois de Boulogne, Again, hope you enjoy this post on the La Folie Saint James of Neuilly sur Seine !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 