Square d'Orléans

The Square d'Orléans is nearly invisible from the street. Behind a green metal gate at number 80 on the Rue Taitbout, three connected courtyards open up, with apartments, a fountain, old trees, and a stillness that feels centuries old. Most people walk straight past it.

From 1842 to 1847, Frédéric Chopin lived here in apartment number 9. His companion, the writer George Sand, lived in apartment number 5, just across the courtyard. They were lovers, but they lived separately by choice. Sand described it simply in her autobiography: they only needed to cross a large courtyard to be together, sometimes at her place, sometimes at his when he felt like playing music for them. Paris found the arrangement extraordinary. We might call it modern.

Stand here long enough, and you can almost hear a nocturne drifting across the courtyard. Or perhaps that is just someone's piano lesson. Either way, this place has always attracted people with good taste.