Avenue d'Iéna

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The Avenue d'Iéna is a tree-lined avenue in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris, running from the Trocadéro (Avenue Albert De Mun) to the Place de l'Étoile and passing through Place d'Iéna, Place de l'Amiral de Grasse, Place de l'Uruguay and Place Richard de Coudenhove Kalergi on the way. It is named from the neighbouring bridge across the Seine, the Pont d'Iéna (itself named after the Battle of Iena). It has a length of some 1150 m and an average width of some 35 m.

The avenue is intersected by:

1. At the Place d'Iéna: Avenue du Président Wilson, Rue de Longchamp, Rue Bossière, Avenue Pierre 1èr de Serbia;
2. At the Place de l'Amiral de Grasse: Rue de Lubeck, Place des Etats Unis/Square Thomas Jefferson, Rue de Bassano, Rue Georges Bizet, Rue Freycinet;
3. At the Place de l'Uruguay: Rue Galilée, Rue Jean Giraudoux;
4. At the Place Richard de Coudenhove Kalergi: Rue Auguste Vacquerie, Rue Jean Giraudoux;
5. Rue Newton;
6. Rue Dumont d'Urville;
7. Rue De la Perouse;
8. Rue De Presbourg.

The closest metro stations are:

• Iéna near the southern end in the Place d'Iéna.
• Charles de Gaulle at the northern end in the Place Charles de Gaulle Etoile.

Contents 1 History 2 Composition 3 Fiction 4 References 5 External link

[edit] History

On the March 2, 1864, the Avenue d'Iéna replaced the former rue des Batailles, which ran between the avenue Albert De Mun and the Place d'Iéna.

The rue des Batailles had been a street in the village of Chaillot, engulfed by the expanding Paris in 1786. For some years afterwards, two town boundaries of Chaillot could be seen at the wall of sieur Lélu and the house of sieur Jamard. The street housed several hospitals and a private lunatic asylum was set up in the house once occupied by the Chevalier Pierre Bayard du Terrail. The chemist Charles Derosne (1779 – 1846), worked in 7 rue des Batailles at the extraction of sugar from sugarbeet.

On December 20, 1961 the name Place de l'Uruguay was given to the intersection of the streets Rue Galilée and Jean Giraudoux with the avenue.

[edit] Composition

• n° 1 : Palais d'Iéna, a classified monument partly constructed by Auguste Perret including a rotunda.
• n° 2 (corner of the avenue d'Iéna and the avenue Albert-de-Mun): Site where the mansion of politician Daniel Wilson was erected. It then became then the private residence of the ambassador of the United States. This was subsequently demolished, giving place to a modern building, leaving only the enclosing wall surmounted by grilles. This building is currently the Cultural Centre of the Korean Embassy (in French and Korean).
• n° 4: Hôtel de Cambacérès I retain a very exact memory , wrote André Becq de Fouquières, of the balls held in this beautiful residence during the spring of 1913 and I still see the Count of Jarnac, the host's uncle, receiving the masked ladies, in their periwinkle-coloured dominos, handing their personal invitation cards to him and dissimulating anonymity under velvet and silk. On the terrace, the countess Stanislas de Montebello helped her brother do the honors for the evening. There was all the nobility of France, many diplomats; and I remember that this night I saw for the last time before the war, in which they were to play such a part, the princes Sixte and Xavier of Bourbon-Parma. (Mon Paris et ses Parisiens, 1953, p. 144). This building is currently the Iranian Embassy.
• n° 10: Mansion of Prince Roland Bonaparte. Sir Charles Mendl and Lady Mendl occupied an apartment there. The painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue had his studio here. This is probably the site No. 12, rue des Batailles in which Balzac had a flat in 1834. Today this building is the head office of Ubifrance, the French agency for the international development of companies.
• n° 11: A building on the site of the mansion of Charles Ephrussi.
• n° 17: Houses the German Goethe Institute (in French and German).
• n° 19: A private mansion built in 1913, in the neo-classic style, by Rene Sergeant for Alfred Heidelbach which currently houses the galleries of the Buddhist Pantheon of Japan and China of the Guimet Museum.
• n° 30: Houses the Union Equestre d'Ile de France, the equestrian union. Also in the building are Fédération Internationale de Tourisme Equestre, Fédération Française d'Equitation (FFE), Délégation Nationale au Tourisme Equestre (DNTE) and Ligue Française pour la Protection du Cheval et du Poney
• n° 38: An interesting mansion in the Renaissance style built for the politician George Cochery, erected by the architect Charles Letrosne and transformed into a residential building.
• n° 40: Is the Centre Felix-Grat one of the centres of the IRHT (L’Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes) the French research centre for texts, a branch of the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). It has been closed since October 2004 and is expected to reopen in early 2006.
• n° 49: A private mansion constructed in 1897 by Ernest Sanson for Maurice Kann on the site of a stone-built house which belonged to the Doctor Samuel Pozzi. The building remains to this day, though divided among several companies.
• n° 50: This building is currently the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman.
• n° 51: A private mansion constructed in 1897 by Ernest Sanson for Rodolphe Kann, transformed for the businessman Calouste Gulbenkian by the architect Emmanuel Pontremoli and the firm of Mewes and Davis. It houses the Portuguese Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian (in French).
• n° 56: Mansion of Rochefoucauld (corner of the avenue d'Iéna and the Rue Georges Bizet): This building is currently the Egyptian Embassy.

[edit] Fiction

• Christopher Newman in The American by Henry James dined with Mr. and Mrs. Tristram at their apartment on the avenue.
• In the James Bond book, Casino Royale, commenting on the wealth of the street Ian Fleming writes that too many of the landlords and tenants in the Avenue d'Iena have names ending in 'esou,' 'ovitch,' 'ski,' and 'stein'.

[edit] References

• Balzac by Frederick Lawton

[edit] External link

• Map of Paris (browser plugin required)