New Paris museum to open in iconic setting
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 794 Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This summer, the city of Paris announced plans to open a museum to showcase the work of architect Hector Guimard. He is the man behind the iconic Paris Metro entrances, several Art Nouveau buildings in Paris, and some very beautiful furniture and decorations in museum displays around the world.
And better still: The museum will be housed in one of the very few buildings remaining in Paris that Guimard designed himself (The Hotel Mezzara in the 16th arrondissement).
I've been a fan of Guimard and Art Nouveau for years, so let's take a deeper dive into the topic in general, with the help of this 2023 episode.
What is Art Nouveau? Who was Guimard, really, and why was his work so important? Where can you find it in Paris? And what's his legacy?
All those questions are answered in this episode, with help from tour guide Boris Petrovic from Paris in Person (find his Art Nouveau tour here) and from Paris head auctioneer Christophe Lucien.
Do you like this podcast? Become a Patreon member of The Earful Tower here to support this show and get extras.
The music in this episode is from Pres Maxson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody out there in listener land. Oliver G. here from the Earful Tower, another episode |
| 0:07.0 | from Paris. I get straight into it. Did you know that this summer they announced some very |
| 0:13.4 | exciting news if you're a Paris fan, specifically if you're an architecture fan, Hector Guillaumeur, |
| 0:20.8 | or Hector Guillaire, the French architect who really was the darling of the Art Nouveau movement, his work is going to be on display in a museum in the 16th Arandt Dismont, but it gets better than that. |
| 0:34.7 | The museum itself is one of the very few buildings left in Paris |
| 0:39.1 | that were actually designed by Guimard himself. Now, if you listen to this show for a while, |
| 0:45.0 | you know that I'm a fan of both Art Nouveau and Guimar, even the 16th Iron Desmond's |
| 0:50.5 | sometimes. And this news that was sort of revealed during this summer is great. |
| 0:57.2 | It gives us a chance to take a deeper dive into Gimar, into the building itself and Art Nouveau. |
| 1:03.4 | So what you're going to hear now is an episode from two years ago when I did a very deep dive indeed into Hector Gimau. |
| 1:13.3 | Incidentally, giving us an insight into what we can expect from a museum like this, |
| 1:17.6 | in the episode I talk about the building where they're going to have the museum. |
| 1:21.6 | It's the Hotel Mezara, which is funny. |
| 1:26.2 | I talk about it and say how it was up for sale and how I was kind of curious what it was before and what it was going to be. |
| 1:33.5 | So now the answer is there. |
| 1:34.7 | The answer of what it was before was school accommodation, which explains the beds that I talk about later in the episode. |
| 1:41.9 | Anyhow, not much is known about this museum. |
| 1:44.6 | It's going to open at the end of 2027, maybe early 2028. |
| 1:49.3 | But if you listen to this episode, you'll have a very good idea of the man behind these iconic Paris buildings, metro entrances, and a lot more, actually. |
| 2:02.0 | So, sit tight. |
| 2:03.2 | You're listening to the Eiffel Tower. |
| 2:04.3 | My name's Oliver G. |
... |
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