The Embassy of the United States in Paris is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes ...

of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the

French Republic France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The embassy is the oldest diplomatic mission of the United States.

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

and some of the other

Founding Fathers The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence ...

were the earliest U.S. ambassadors to France. The chancery building is located at 2 , on the northwest corner of the

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. It was the s ...

, in the 8th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Buildings

The

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

owns three buildings in Paris to support its diplomatic, consular, trade and cultural activities, which are: the chancery building, the Hôtel de Talleyrand and the

Hôtel de Pontalba The Hôtel de Pontalba () is an ''hôtel particulier'', a type of large townhouse in France, at 41 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It has been the official residence of the United States ambassador to France ...

(ambassador's residence). More details about the latter two buildings can be found in the Secretary of State's

Register of Culturally Significant Property The Secretary of State's Register of Culturally Significant Property (Secretary's Register) is an honorific listing of diplomatic properties that figure prominently in the international or architectural heritage of the United States. It was found ...

Chancery

The four-story

chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

building, housing the ambassador's office, faces Avenue Gabriel and the gardens of the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an Avenue (landscape), avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc ...

; it is beside the

Hôtel de Crillon Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel () is a historic luxury hotel in Paris which opened in 1909 in a building dating to 1758. Located at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, the Crillon, along with the Hôtel de la Marine, is one of two identical s ...

. It was built in 1931, following the demolition of an existing building, the Hôtel Grimod de La Reynière. Designed by

Delano & Aldrich Delano & Aldrich was an American Beaux-Arts architectural firm based in New York City. Many of its clients were among the wealthiest and most powerful families in the state. Founded in 1903, the firm operated as a partnership until 1935, when Al ...

– an American architectural firm based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

– along with French architect Victor Laloux, the building has a

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

that conforms with other buildings on the Place de la Concorde, as required by French law.

Hôtel de Talleyrand

The , also called the Talleyrand building, at 2

rue Saint-Florentin The Rue Saint-Florentin is a thoroughfare in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st and 8th arrondissement of Paris. The street took its name from the Duc de la Vrillière, Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Saint-Florentin, minister and secretary of stat ...

formerly housed the American Embassy Consular Services, Public and Cultural Affairs offices, several other government agencies, and the

George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (31 December 1880 – 16 October 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army under presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. ...

Center. Most of these offices were subsequently moved to the chancery building. Constructed in 1769 as a private residence, the property was acquired in 1812 by

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

, who owned it until his death in 1838. It was then purchased by the banker

James Mayer de Rothschild Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (born Jakob Mayer Rothschild; 15 May 1792 – 15 November 1868) was a French banker and the founder of the French branch of the prominent Rothschild family. He was born in the Holy Roman Empire. Early life He ...

, whose family owned it for over a century, until 1950, when it was acquired by the U.S. government.

Ambassador's residence

The nearby property at 41

rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré () is a street located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Relatively narrow and nondescript, especially in comparison to the nearby Champs-Élysées, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it is cited as being on ...

, known as the

, was built by

Louis Visconti Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti (Rome February 11, 1791 – December 29, 1853) was an Italian-born French architect and designer. Life Son of the Italian archaeologist and art historian Ennio Quirino Visconti, Visconti designed many Paris ...

for the

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

–born Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba between 1842 and 1855.

Edmond James de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine, his large donations lent significant support to ...

acquired the building in 1876. His estate sold it in 1948 to the U.S. government, and today it is the residence of the

U.S. Ambassador to France The United States ambassador to France is the official representative of the president of the United States to the president of France. The United States has maintained diplomatic relations with France since the American Revolution. Relations w ...

U.S. representatives in France

As of December 18, 2017, sixty-six people had represented, in France, the interests of the United States (or individual states prior to the 1789 ratification of the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constituti ...

) as

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of Diplomatic rank#Special envoy, diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an au ...

minister plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

, minister,

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

or ''

chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

''.

References

External links

* Buildings and structures in the 8th arrondissement of Paris

France–United States relations {{France-struct-stub