Honore de balzac biography yahoo finance

Everything about Honoré de Balzac was exuberant, uncouth and larger than life. One of the greatest European writers and the founder of the modern novel, he was also a flaneur, treasure hunter, gourmet, political campaigner, businessman, self-publicist, inventor, interior decorator and con man. He participated in his age like a whirling dervish. Coming of age in Paris in the 1820s, when class distinctions were becoming less rigid, he continued his father’s ascendency from peasant origins. His mother had come from a family of ambitious Parisian haberdashers, leading one of Balzac’s many mistresses to declare that he was ‘an eagle hatched by geese.’

The Marais

Balzac’s family arrived in Paris from the provinces in 1814 and took an apartment at 7 rue du Temple in the Marais, in the 3 arrondissement. Little had changed since the execution of Louis XIV fifteen years before. Paris was still very much a medieval city, a collection of little villages linked by narrow streets with poor drainage. As Balzac later described it in his novella,The Girl with the Golden Eyes, ‘Half of Paris sleeps amidst the putrid exhalations of courts and streets and sewers.’ The villages of Montmartre, Auteuil and Passy were outside the city and the avenue leading to the Champs-Élysées was just a country road amongst grazing cattle.

Owing to the encroaching noise and smells of commerce, the nobility had fled the Marais in the seventeenth century, leaving their mansions to the artisans and middle classes. It was a diverse neighbourhood. Ruined grand families mingled with lawyers, wealthy traders, labourers, shopkeepers and criminals. In the mix were also the actors playing at the local theatres, the Ambigu-Comique, and the Gaieté. The apartments were arranged according to class: the wealthiest people were on the lowest floors, the poorest in the attics. Streets overflowed with filth and planks were laid down to allow pedestrians to cross

A Parisian “mini-palace” facing the Eiffel Tower and containing works from the artisans of the Château de Versailles has sold for €35 million (£30.5m), making it the most expensive apartment sold in the city this year, according to the agent who brokered the deal.

The ornately decorated 669 square metre space was bought by an Asian client “illustrating the return of high-profile clientele to Paris and their growing demand for one-of-a-kind real estate,” according to agent John Taylor Paris.

Priced at €52,000 (£45,300) per square metre, the property is valued almost five times higher than the Parisian average of €10,936 (£8,700) per square metre, amid a downturn in the market.

The four-bedroom flat is located on the Champ de Mars in the seventh arrondissement with the living room directly overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

It is decorated in a lavish style by architect and interior designer of what they describe as "haute couture living", Cogemad, who was also the seller of the property.

Entered via a grand entrance hall with sweeping staircase, marble floors, and a custom Bösendorfer Grand piano, the property is replete with crystal chandeliers hanging from its 5.5-metre, hand-painted ceilings.

The study features murals of historical scenes, while the dining room currently holds a table that can seat 14.

There is a La Cornue kitchen, wine cellar stocked with vintage wines, a cinema, gym, spa with massage room, sauna and steam room and smart home tech throughout.

International eyes are on Paris at the moment as the city prepares to host the 2024 Olympic Games next summer, with a flurry of building work and infrastructure projects sweeping the French capital.

While the Champs-de-Mars apartment is certainly at the top of the market for an flat, rare full houses in Paris make the €35 million price tag look modest by comparison.

In 2022, Hôtel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis sold for a reported €200 million with the alleged buy