Château de la Muette

Château de la Muette is a château in the 16th arrondissement near the Bois de Boulogne, built during the 1920s by architect Lucien Hesse for Henri de Rothschild. Today it serves as an office building in a quiet residential area, with formal grounds and period architecture reflecting its elegant past.

The site began as a Renaissance hunting lodge that was transformed for Princess Marguerite de Valois in the 16th century. Several buildings occupied this location over the centuries before the current structure was built in the 1920s.

The grounds hold a connection to early aviation history that shaped how people viewed human flight. Visitors walking here can sense the significance of this location in the story of exploration and scientific achievement.

The château sits on rue André-Pascal in a calm residential neighborhood, with the Bois de Boulogne nearby. Walking through the area gives you a sense of the peaceful surroundings and the building's setting among tree-lined streets.

The name derives from medieval hunting vocabulary, referring either to a pack of deerhounds or to the molting season of hunting hawks. This terminology reflects the property's deep connection to the hunting traditions of French nobility.