We filmed the US Ambassador's farewell to her Paris home: Here's what happened
An exclusive visit behind the scenes of a magnificent Paris hôtel particulier, steeped in history.
Hi everyone,
One of the (many) great pleasures of living in Paris is the eye-watering number of incredible buildings that are right on our doorstep. One particularly impressive example is the US Ambassador’s official residence, known as the Hôtel de Pontalba.
Built in the 18th century and purchased by the American government after the Second World War, there’s beauty and history behind every elegantly-carved door.
I’ve visited a few times in my role as Australian podcaster in Paris (I know, an unusual way in!). At every event, I find myself floored by that building. It is truly exceptional.
And would you believe it, last week I was granted a special visit of the residence with the outgoing ambassador, Denise Campbell Bauer, to mark the last days of her tenure in Paris. I brought Hary the Cameraman and we filmed a half-hour “Walk Show”.
The embassy called the finished product her “Farewell Tour” when they shared it on social media, and I quite liked that.
And what a treat it was. She took us around the splendid upstairs quarters, including the presidential suite and the Jefferson Library. We saw a painting of George Washington loaned from the Palace of Versailles, furniture designed by Thomas Jefferson and a few secret surprises.
So here’s the video, below, which now has about 35,000 hits, which was largely helped by the strong showing at the live premiere on Saturday.
A note: We purposely chose not to talk politics, and instead decided to have a light chat about the house and Denise’s time in Paris. If you’re here for highbrow political discourse, you’ve stumbled onto the wrong page.
America’s home in France
Now, as we share a bunch of pictures from the official residence, let’s have a bit of background on it all. Denise Campbell Bauer was appointed in December of 2021 and has overseen many state visits and events here, with the show-stopper being the annual 4th of July celebration.
As Denise said in the video: “We have really focused on welcoming people, ten thousand people a year… lots of different kinds of people for different events. It really is meant to be a welcoming place that celebrates France and the United States and our partnership.”
Every time I’ve visited here, it’s only been with access to the ground floor and so I asked the ambassador if it was as magnificent upstairs as it is downstairs. She invited me to accompany her up the imposing staircase and discover how far the splendour extends. Assuming you don’t have the 30 minutes to watch the video (though you really should!) here are some shots from inside.
Video aside, for today’s podcast episode, I shared a few behind the scenes extras from my ambassadorial visit. Have a listen below (it’s co-hosted by Lovely Lina) with an extra fun section from Bertrand at My Private Paris, talking about a wondrous church in central Paris.
The episode also includes a deeper dive into the mysterious and fantastic former ambassador, Pamela Harriman. Listen by pressing play below, or find it on Apple here, or on my website here.
Also mentioned in this episode is my chat with the new acid-tongued columnist for The Earful Tower.
You can find her latest column on Patreon here. Or, if you’re a Substack paying member, the column will unlock automatically below. (Just a quick reminder: Substack and Patreon memberships are the same, but Patrons get access to the full back catalogue, while Substack members only have access to the newer content.)
And that’s it! Thanks to Ambassador Denise Campbell Bauer for her generosity, Hary Ranerison for the video production, and Hannah Coyle for additional reporting.
Have a lovely week! Oliver
“Scoop du jour” members-only column: Coffee break in a Paris abbey
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