In French contexts an hôtel particulier (French pronunciation: [otɛl paʁtikylje]) is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it would always be located entre cour et jardin, between the entrance court, the cour d'honneur, and the garden behind.[1] There are hôtels particuliers in many large cities, such as Paris, Bordeaux, Albi, Aix en Provence, Avignon, Caen, Lyon, Montpellier, Nancy, Rouen, Rennes, Toulouse and Troyes.
The word hôtel represents the Old French hostel, which has developed a more specific modern English meaning. Cognates can be confusing: the modern usage in English of hotel denotes a commercial hotel accommodating travellers, a hostelry that is more ambitious than an inn. Modern French also applies hôtel to commercial hotels: confusingly the Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde was built as an hôtel particulier and is today a hotel. The Hôtel des Invalides retains its early sense of a hospice for war wounded.
In French, an hôtel de ville or mairie is a town hall (and not a hotel), such as the Hôtel de Ville, Paris or the Hôtel de Ville de Montréal. Other official bodies might give their name to the structure in which they maintained a seat: aside from Paris. several other French cities have an Hôtel de Cluny, maintained by the abbey of Cluny. The Hôtel de Sens was built as the Paris residence of the archbishop of Sens.
Hôtel-Dieu ("hostel of God") is the old name given to the principal hospital in French towns, such as the Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune.
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Some Parisian hôtels particuliers with individual entries:
In Toulouse: