This is a true gem of French architecture.  Delicately “placed” on the hill of Louveciennes, it overlooks the Seine valley from the terrace.  There are a few opportunities during the year for visitors to appreciate it, when it becomes the venue for concerts of classical and Baroque music.

When in 1770 Madame wished to receive her guests in complete privacy and away from her château, she entrusted the construction of a reception pavilion to Claude Nicolas Ledoux.

Overlooking the Seine valley, built in the neoclassical style, it consists of a number of reception rooms decorated by the greatest masters of their art, such as Boucher, Fragonard, Gouthière and even Lemoine.

The King himself visited her in the building, but this pleasure was short-lived as he died in 1774.  The following year, Madame was forced to flee Versailles.  She only returned to Louveciennes in 1776, and was sent to the guillotine in 1793.

The building subsequently underwent many modifications at the hands of its different owners:

Pierre Laffite (banker) had it raised in 1818.

In 1852 the Pavillon was sold to Monsieur Diéricks, head of the Paris Mint, who added the “Pavillon de Gardien” (keeper’s pavilion) at the entrance.

In 1929, the Pavillon was bought by François Coty (journalist and famous perfumer) who had the building moved so as to construct perfume laboratories in the basement (the monument was therefore preserved when the cliff collapsed some years later).

In 1945, the Pavillon was entered on the Historical Monuments register.

In 1989, it was bought by the Julienne Dumeste foundation, which fully restored the building, and first opened it to the public in September 2005.