Hôtel Pimodan) belonged to the bibliophile and collector, baron Jérôme Pichon, auditor for the Conseil d'État, the upstairs apartments were rented to Charles Baudelaire (in 1843, for 350 francs) and Théophile Gautier. These two residents formed their Club des Hashischins, where they experimented with hashish. While residing there, Baudelaire wrote the first poems of Les Fleurs du Mal. The Hôtel de Lauzun, protected as a heritage site in 1906 and owned by the City of Paris since 1928, since 2013 houses the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, a research institute in social science, which hosts symposiums or conferences in the building. The hôtel was featured in Bruno Dumont's 2009 film Hadewijch, and in Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate, as the apartment of Baroness Kessler. Description The building overlooks the Seine to the north of the island and does not fit the most traditional layout of an hôtel particulier, which usually features a main building entre cour et jardin, separated from the street on the front by a courtyard, and facing a private garden on the back. Fitting the exceptional location of the lot, facing the river, Charles Chamois chose to place the main building on the front, and to raise the ground floor to protect it and ensure an enjoyable view of the river. The high foundations serve as a service space. A richly ornamented balcony extends the main room on the street facade. The courtyard forms the back of the hôtel, which does not feature a garden. The hôtel is renowned for its richly decorated interiors, which are among the only ones preserved from the 17th century in Paris. Typical of interiors from the early reign of Louis XIV, it features heavily gilded wall sculptures, and paintings by Michel Dorigny. The main room, or grande chambre, was converted in 1907 into a music salon, topped by a rostrum. Notes Bibliography Boulhares, Raymond and Soleranski, Marc (2015). L'hôtel de Lauzun : trésor de l'île Saint-Louis. Paris: Artélia. . Gady, Alexandre (2008). Les hôtels particuliers de Paris, du Moyen-Âge à la Belle époque. Paris: Parigramme. . External links Hôtel de Lauzun Édouard Fournier, Chroniques et légendes des rues de Paris, 1864 Lauzun, Hotel de Buildings and structures completed in 1657 1657 establishments in France