A palace not very Cateau

Courtyard of the Hôtel de Beauvais, photo: Mbzt

Rue François Miron, a noble cut stone facade decorated with a rare rounded stone balcony opens its concave door with leaves decorated with medallion portraits, onto a very theatrical semi-oval courtyard. Shocking with its baroque architecture, the Hôtel de Beauvais is even more so with its history!

Facade of the Beauvais hotel, photo: Mbzt

The year is 1655. Anne of Austria, a young widow with teenagers to support, barely recovered from the upheavals of the Fronde and while France is still at war with her native Spain, is worried about the future of the kingdom. And his two boys.

Little flashback: Anne was married at 14 to the young Louis XIII. However, the latter took twenty-three years to make Anne pregnant with the future Sun King. Also, the latter wants to ensure that her offspring, future CEO of the small Bourbon start-up created in 1589 by Henri IV, will take over. She is all the more anxious because “plan B”, her youngest son, already seems to have the same sexual orientation as his late father.

In order to ensure that the eldest heir could reproduce galore with any woman, without risking sentiment, the queen contacted the ugliest of her attendants, her first maid, Catherine Bellier. . Known as “Cateau la Borgnesse”, it is she who is responsible for deflowering the young “Loulou” who will become the PCR (no, we are not talking about the test but about his regular sex plan) of the young man between the ages of 14 and 16 years old.

The sumptuous residence on Rue François Miron that has come down to us, built to the plans of Antoine Le Pautre – the King's first architect – with stones intended for the Louvre Palace, is in fact part of the remuneration paid to “Cateau la Borgnesse” in exchange for his devotion. A simple commoner, she will also see her husband promoted to baron with a castle in the provinces, a pension of 2000 pounds and the right to attend the royal levee.

Although no portrait of “Catherine the Naughty” has reached us, some claim that one of the mascarons in the palace courtyard represents her. Those depicting lions and rams would be a direct allusion to the services rendered by Madame Bellier to the future king of France.

Mascarons on the Hôtel de Beauvais, photo: GFreihalter

Amusing detail: it was from the balcony of this palace that Cateau witnessed in 1660, alongside Anne of Austria and Mazarin, the triumphal entry of Louis XIV on the arm of his new wife, Marie-Thérèse of Austria , soon to be the biggest cuckold in France, due, perhaps, to the “Cateau education” received over two years by young Louis.

Mascarons on the Hôtel de Beauvais, photo: GFreihalter

Today occupied by the Paris administrative court of appeal and wonderfully restored, the Beauvais hotel which has seen many personalities pass through (Mozart, Christine of Sweden) opens the doors of its courtyard to the public during office hours. The interior cannot be visited.

Beauvais Hotel
68 Rue François Miron, 75004 Paris
Tel: +01 58 28 90 00 XNUMX

Text: Arthur Goth-Moruzzi – Instagram

07.07.21