While we have gone to Paris many times during our 50 years of travel, we only learned of this very special place from an article in NYTimes last year on art taken by the Germans in WW2. The mansion was built in 1910's as a home and repository for his collection of 18th century furniture and objects d'art. It was bequeathed to the French government on his death in 1935. Since it was owned by the French government it was protected from the German army and collectors. Unfortunately, since the family was Jewish, they were not protected and consequently died in concentration camps.
The scale of the house is amazing and not all of it is open to the public. I am not knowledgeable about the antiques of the collection, but could admire how they were arranged and how the rooms looked and how they were also functional. It makes the mansions shown in British productions about the great English country homes look small and quaint. Of course the family had a country home for riding, homes in vacation areas, and other residences in Paris. The staff dining room which has the table set for 15 looks just out of a movie. Of course, the most touching parts of the house are the pictures of the family including the two young children, their mother and grandmother who were murdered.
In addition, the section of the city was one I did not know. The address is 63, rue de Monceau--75008. email www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
Finally the park that the house abuts is well worth a walk through. We visited booths put up at the other end for an antiques sale/fair. We did buy wine and pate for lunch from one of the booths that was showing wine, not antiques. A very good afternoon.

It is a very interesting house. I visited a few years ago and it's my second favorite period house after the Jacquemart-Andre. One of the things I enjoyed is that the kitchen is accessible, something rare as kitchens are seldom open to tour.

And the best thing is that the two houses - Jacquemart-Andre and Nissim de Camondo are so close. They can be seen on the same day, and we loved them both. In addition to the kitchen we were really interested in the bathroom at Nissim de Camondo.

You might also be interested in the book 'The Hare with Amber Eyes' by Edmund de Waal. http://www.edmunddewaal.com/news.html.

It's the story of a collection of netsuke left to him by his uncle - which was put together by an ancestor, part of the Ephrussi family, who lived on Rue Monceau at the same time as the Camondos. The first part of the book is about that era, and then he moves on to his grandmother's time in Vienna.

I will read the book, thanks. Looks as if Rue Monceau was the place to be if you were really, really wealthy. Interesting where the money came from. These houses make the Frick, Morgan, etc. seem modest.

It is odd how you run across connections while travelling. I visited the Nissim de Camondo museum in Paris a few years ago and read something about their migration from Turkey. In early April of this year, I was in Istanbul. As we drove through Galata, our guide mentioned the Camondo family and their influence on 19th century Istanbul. The penny dropped: surely this was the same family that had settled in Paris? Indeed it was:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Camondo

Most interesting post.boyh museums are in our to do list for our next visit to Paris; please,add more data or references.

I too enjoyed this museum very much and find the 16th arr. to be quite beautiful. In September, I'll be back in Paris for three weeks and am taking with me "Parisian Architecture of the Belle Epoque," by Roy Johnston. I plan to try and see as many of these buildings as possible.

More connections...Last week in Siracusa, Sicily I see a postcard on wall showing pre-16th century mikvah a few blocks from our hotel, found in 1991 after it had been sealed over when Jews expelled from city in 1492. First, I never realized Jews had been expelled from Sicily in 1492 and then this found when building renovated. Went there, very interesting, deep underground (floor level raised over centuries). Oldest mikvah in Europe still existing. Never know what you will find when you travel.
The photo of the senior Camondo in robes and turban is most interesting. The banking family of the Otoman empire..who knew??

For those interested in furnishings and interior decoration, the Nissim de Camondo is a must.

Elainee, thank you for sharing your experience at the Musee de Camondo. It will definitely be my first stop when I return to Paris. The family’s story is resonant of the experience of so many non-German Jews during WWII who assumed that their wealth and connections would spare them from the horrors of deportation and extermination.

Carlux, I was also going to recommend THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES by Edmund de Waal to Elainee which depicts a similar world and circumstance. This book touches on the similar fate of Viennese Jews taken from their elegant Ringstrasse mansions directly to the gas ovens.

If I may add – two more suggestions on the same subject:

THE LIFE OF IRENE NEMIROSKY, Author of Suite Francaise by Olivier Phillipponnat & Patrick Lienhardt
(Irene and her husband were sent to the camps in 1942, never returned, despite her prominence as a writer in France at the time)

Lastly BAD FAITH, A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland, and Vichy France by Carmen Cahill – about the evil machinations of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix who implemented Vichy policies.

These tragic stories continue to intrigue….