The Maison de la recherche
Please find the welcome booklet for the Maison de la Recherche website below.
Livret d'accueil Maison de la recherche (3.19 MB, .pdf)
Address
Inalco - 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
Reception: +33 (0)1 81 70 10 22
Opening hours
8:30am to 10:00pm Monday to Friday
Access
By metro:
- M1 - Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre station
- M4 - Saint-Germain-des-Prés station
- M7 - Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre station
- M12 - rue du Bac station
By bus:
Lignes 27, 39, 68, 69, 87, 95 - stop Pont du Carrousel - Quai Voltaire
By RER:
RER C - station Musée d'Orsay
The Maison de la recherche, the historic headquarters of the École des langues orientales
The École spéciale des langues orientales was established in 1874 in a mansion on the corner of Rue des Saints-Pères and Rue de Lille. Construction began in the mid-18th century and was completed in 1935.
The current building retains the entire north wing of the original 18th-century Hôtel de Bernage. The wings on rue des Saints Pères and rue de Lille are the result of the first phase of Faure-Dujarric's major project, completed between 1886 and 1889. The fourth and last wing, to the west, as well as the upper part of the library pavilion at 2 rue de Lille, belong to the last campaign of work initiated to complete this complex in 1935 by architect Paul Barrias.
The few alterations carried out since 1935 mainly concern interior fittings, or major building maintenance. However, a notable intervention took place in the 1970s, when a porte cochère was opened to allow firefighters to pass through in the middle of the rue des Saints Pères façade.
The building as a whole displays a high degree of architectural coherence, despite its staggered construction. In fact, the architectural treatment of the 19th and 20th-century wings was inspired by the model preserved in the north wing, a remnant of a 13th-century hotel. This late 19th-century neo-classical architecture gives limited expression to the building's function with a single zoomorphic weathervane, the Institute's emblem, and the integration of sculpted staples with the Institute's cipher ("LO"), written in French and with the first languages taught at the school, in the dormers on the rue des Saints Pères façade.