The chocolate dynasty and Pharmacy museum

The walk will highlight the life and fate of the Menier family, who were at the head of the largest chocolate factory in the world in the end of the 19th century.
Around park Monceau, they left us three beautiful mansions in an area favored by the financial elite of these days. One of them will open to allow visitors to admire a unique staircase, two unexpected courtyard, and the little known pharmacy museum.

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Description

The chocolate dynasty and Pharmacy Museum

Practical informations

  • Location : outside restaurant le Courcelles. 94, Bd de Courcelles
  • One month ahead booking required
  • Duration : 2 hours
  • Walking tour
  • Price : includes right of speech and museum entrance ticket. Special booking required
  • Small group (2 to 8 people) 50-80€ pp
  • Private tour: 300€ (18 people max)

 

To follow in the footsteps of the Menier dynasty around Parc Monceau is to return to the time of the splendors of the Second Empire, to the time of the dazzling luxury of a triumphant bourgeoisie who wanted to live in the then most fashionable place in Paris, ostensibly displaying its success and wealth thanks to private mansions, each more imposing than the other.

The first Menier residence is always a delicious surprise. Built in a neo-Renaissance style, a little faded on the facade, it offers a fine example of the extravagance of the owner of the house thanks to an incredible Flemish touch in the courtyard and a second, now private, residential building which overlooks the park.

The second hotel belonged to the father and true patriarch of the Menier dynasty. Although the building is now divided into private apartments, the eclectic and busy style exudes a feeling of power which makes it probably the most luxurious residence overlooking the park.

Along Monceau Park, the third Menier home will allow you to enter and admire the interior treasures as well as the still visible vestiges of the time when Gaston Menier lived there. Here again, the interior courtyard offers an astonishing example of eclectic architecture with a Moorish and Norman combination for the outbuildings and the former theater. this will be the opportunity to visit the mysterious little museum dedicated to the pharmacy collections now housed in these buildings. Right next door, a superb staircase made of colorful and golden mosaics and almost unique in France will be the highlight of the visit!

Thanks to a passage through the paths of the park, we will be able to admire the back of Gaston Menier’s impressive second house; nowadays headquarters of a large investment bank, fourth former Menier mansion around Parc Monceau.

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