French luxury and confidentiality
Magazine N°3
Place Vendôme : The universal symbol of Elegance
1699.
The outline of the Place Vendôme as we know it is traced, fruit of a town planning project carried by Louis XIV to the place of the former Hotel du Duc de Vendôme.
It is then a residential place where one gives sumptuous festivals.
Until the beginning of the reign of Louis XV, the Place Vendome offered no trade. It would be compared today to Avenue Foch. They are more financiers than former families of the aristocracy who reside there.
Then Napoleon traces the Rue de la Paix and opens the Place by the North. With in its center, the famous column which traces the glorious hours of Austerlitz, it fits in the urban scene of the district like a jewel to the precise size, comparable to the work of exceptions of the first jewelers who abandons the City and the Quai des Orfèvres to settle there.
César Ritz made no mistake and opened his hotel in 1898 at number 15 in the square. Boucheron his contemporary moved to 26, opposite. Lalique, a crystallist of art, occupies a few years later on the 24th, which he then sells to Van Cleef & Arpels’ house in the jovial hubbub of this space still invaded by cars of the time. In the twentieth century all the great names in jewelery and watchmaking now occupy the premises, as available.
In the center of this lively district by the lively rue Saint-Honoré invaded by ready-to-wear signs and close to the Tuileries Garden, Place Vendôme is in the world of jewelery what France is in the imagination of luxury: its universal heart.
Fueled in the collective consciousness by its photogenic aesthetic, magnified by a cinematographic imagery prized by perfumers, the exceptional hospitality industry and the big names in clothing and fashion accessories, it is now asserting itself as a world and essential address of good taste and refinement.
In the palpable air of French luxury, business trends are never far away. The secret courtyards that open behind the facades of the Place, welcome the great sovereign funds of the planet, owners of the most expensive and coveted walls of the capital.
And then there are its inhabitants. Rare, discreet. Spectators of time passing and invisible observers of a brilliant and cosmopolitan universe, they measure their unique chance: here, it is necessary to wait 12 years on average to hope to settle there.
Cibiscus, however, had the chance to discover a confidential and unique apartment, magnified by rare artistic pieces, Lalique Art, Italian Boetti or the first representative of Madagascar at the next Venice Biennale: Joel Andrianomearisoa
