HISTORIC MONUMENT: VILLA POIRET, MALLET-STEVENS ARCHITECT OFF-MARKET PROPERTY


THE LOCALITY

Located northwest of the Île-de-France region, the property is in a town of 2,000 residents along the Seine and on hillside slopes. It lies in the Yvelines department within the Vexin Français Regional Natural Park. The villa is accessible from Paris via the A13 and A14 motorways, and it’s 30 km from Versailles, 25 km from Pontoise, and under 25 km from Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Thanks to the A14, La Défense is reachable in 30 minutes, and Paris in about 40 minutes. The Bourget, Orly, and Roissy airports are 55, 60, and 70 km away, respectively. Four train stations on the Paris/Normandy route, less than 5 km away, are served by TER and Transilien trains that stop at Paris Saint-Lazare. Additionally, ten golf courses are within a 20 km radius. The nearby town below offers all the essential shops.


HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY


Weaving up the hill, a road leads to the property. To the left of the entrance gate stands the caretaker’s house, while a driveway, bordered by low white walls, leads directly to the villa above. The “Villa Poiret,” also known as the “Chateau de Mézy” or “Le Gibet,” was commissioned by the couturier Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a pioneering fashion designer of his day, from the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945) at the beginning of the 1920s, when the latter was still relatively unknown.

However, his research as a set designer for Marcel L’Herbier’s films would become the inspiration for the architecture for which he would one day be famous. Five years after the end of World War I, Mallet-Stevens, then 37 years old, had not yet completed a single one of his projects. Indeed, the villa Noailles in Hyères, on the Var coast, the preliminary study and completion of which were entrusted to him by Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, wealthy aristocrats and renowned patrons, would not be completed until 1925 and would continue to be expanded with different extensions until 1932. The villa Cavrois, located in Croix in the north, commissioned by Paul Cavrois, a wealthy Roubaix textile industrialist, would be inaugurated in 1932. The villa Poiret is one of three major villas completed in France by Mallet-Stevens, each classified today as having 20th-century historical significance, and the only one to have remained in the hands of a private owner.

For Paul Poiret, Robert Mallet-Stevens proposed a dazzling white house overlooking the Seine valley, nestled in a natural setting and slightly removed from the village, with an especially adept interplay of horizontal and vertical lines in which light and transparency reign supreme. Inspired by the Cubist era, Mallet-Stevens played with volumes, cubes, cylinders, large spaces, patios, immense picture windows, and materials, especially reinforced concrete, glass, and metal. Construction began in 1922 but was halted in June 1923 for lack of funds, although only the structural works had been completed. After Paul Poiret’s fashion house went bankrupt in 1926, the building stood abandoned for several years before being bought by the Romanian actress Elvire Popesco in 1934. Popesco again contacted Mallet-Stevens to complete the construction and adapt it for domestic use, but he could not do so, fleeing with his wife to southwestern France in 1939 after war was declared. Thus, another architect, Paul Boyer, was entrusted with completing the work once the war was over. Several modifications have given the building the look of a ship, evoking the style of transatlantic steamers of the time. However, the essential elements of Mallet-Stevens’ design were conserved. Today, the edifice is seen as a modern-day chateau. Left abandoned for approximately fifteen years, the property was bought in 1999 by an industrialist and collector of contemporary art, who sold it in 2006 to an occupant who completed its restoration using the blueprints created for Elvire Popesco, who lived here until 1985.

CHARACTER OF THE PROPERTY


Perched high at an altitude of approximately 120 meters, it offers a panoramic view of the surrounding wooded hills and the Seine valley. It was built with new materials for its era: reinforced concrete. Mallet Stevens organized the house horizontally around a patio, with the glass-and-metal double-door entrance at the back. Inspired by the Cubist gardens at the villa Noailles, the large patio is decorated with a double row of six olive trees planted in large square planter boxes. At the foot of the olive trees, two slightly sloping furrows lined with pebbles stretch.

Listed as a historical monument, the villa presents a living area of approximately 800 m², surrounded by 1,000 m² of tiled patios. The vast façades are endowed with wide picture windows and topped with roof terraces, both characteristic of the Art Deco style. The architect Paul Boyer added bull’s-eye windows to the southern base-level façade, as well as a ship railing to the southern and east patios, which gave the villa its “ocean liner” nickname—the ground floor. From the vast entrance hall, an opening on the left leads to the living room, with a floor-to-ceiling height of 7.10 meters, bathed in light from tall, wide black metal-framed picture windows oriented southeast and forming a right angle with each other. In the corner of the tall window on the eastern side, a glass double door provides access to large exterior patios that surround the villa's eastern side and a portion of its southern side, allowing full enjoyment of nature and the view. From there, a V-shaped staircase leads to the grounds. Back in the entrance hall, the stone double quarter-turn main staircase leads to an arched intermediate landing with large stone tiles. An opening leads to the east wing, where a long hallway provides access to an office and an adjacent living room bathed in light from large picture windows that face the eastern patio. At the end of the hallway is a bathroom, a lavatory, two bedrooms, and a wardrobe, which leads to a bathroom with a lavatory.

 Back in the entrance hall, facing the front door, an opening leads to two adjacent dining rooms. The first, which is larger, is flooded with light by large picture windows that open onto the southern patio. In the second, a separate staircase leads to the basement. A doorway provides access to a kitchen illuminated by tall windows that face the grounds to the west. This room then leads to an office with a glass door opening onto the western patio, as well as a laundry room and a storeroom. Extending from the office, a door leads to the western wing. In the hallway that follows, another staircase, adorned with a wrought-iron guardrail, leads to the first floor and is bathed in light by a large bull’s-eye window that reveals a view of the grounds. Below the staircase, a door leads to a lavatory. Further on is an office, and facing it, a second staircase provides access to the basement. A hallway leads to three bedrooms with views of the grounds. On this level, as in the rest of the villa, the floors are covered in large dark tiles with matching skirting boards. The first floor. Via the main staircase, a landing illuminated by a narrow vertical window facing southward leads, on the left, to a glass door opening onto the west wing’s roof terrace. A hallway leads to a bathroom, a lavatory, and two bedrooms. Back on the landing, a door leads to an interior walkway covered in large dark tiles that overlooks the main living room. A vast corridor then leads to the eastern wing, which comprises a bathroom, a lavatory, a living room, and two bedrooms with glass doors opening onto the patio. At the end of the west wing, the staircase, illuminated by the bull’s-eye window, provides access to the ground floor. The second floor. Accessible from the main staircase, a landing room provides access to the terrace on this level.

From the latter, a staircase leads to a lookout point with a 360° view, recalling a ship’s railing thanks to its stainless-steel guardrail. To the southeast, the view is unobstructed all the way to Paris, where the Eiffel Tower, the Basilica of Saint-Denis, and Sacré-Cœur can be seen on the horizon. The basement, with a surface area of approximately 800 m², is accessible via two interior staircases and consists mainly of cellars for conversion. In one of them is a vast swimming lane flooded with light by portholes, which will need to be completed. A glass door to the south leads directly to the grounds.

The Caretaker's Cottage:

Located near the front gate, it was built over two levels and topped with roof terraces. Its white plaster façades are punctuated with picture windows and horizontal openings that reveal views of the grounds and the villa above. The ground floor is accessible directly from the property’s entrance via four picture windows and a back door at the top of the exterior staircase. It comprises a foyer, a fitted kitchen opening onto a vast living room, a separate lavatory, and a utility room. The floors are all tiled, and a staircase leads upstairs.

 The upstairs:

 This is divided into a bedroom bathed in light by a wide picture window that opens onto a patio, a bathroom with a glass door that leads to a second patio, and a separate lavatory.

The grounds, with a surface area of 5 hectares and entirely enclosed, are revealed beyond the entrance gate, which faces tall cedars of Lebanon. Appearing like an extension of the building itself, the grounds form an inseparable whole with the villa. Beyond the building, expansive lawns spread out in all directions. The property’s topography is organized around the villa’s configuration, offering unfettered views from all the patios. Uphill from the villa, a swimming pool approximately 10 meters long and 4 meters wide was built, but needs renovation. Located below the villa and to the east, an orchard was planted. To the north and west, woodland surrounds the lawns.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION


Number of rooms:10 │Bedrooms: 10 │ Land: 10 10 5 ha 29 a9 ca│ Villa: 8,612 ft²

OUR POINT OF VIEW


Emblematic of Mallet-Stevens’ work, the villa Poiret has charted the high seas for more than a century, preserving the finery of its bold avant-garde architecture. On its roof terrace, it is easy to imagine commanding a ship, its prow turned entirely toward the horizon, revealing a breathtaking panorama of the Seine valley and its environs, all the way to Paris. A genuine 20th-century chateau, it recalls the grand aristocratic residences of the Age of the Enlightenment in its volumes and organization. The geometric architecture, characterized by the harmony of its right angles, clean curves, and perspectives, extends beyond the building to the grounds. The interior and exterior come together and reflect one another; from the grounds, the eye is always drawn to the building itself. Evoking the Art Deco décor of The Great Gatsby, the villa Poiret could once again serve its original function as a private residence, become the perfect spot for a hotel or cultural institution at the gates of Paris, or serve as an ideal site for an American University of Architecture as a pied-à-terre near Paris.

OUR PROPRIATARY RATING DETAILS