THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 



333 



318. PARIS: HOTEL DE SOUBISE (NOW "ARCHIVES NATIONAI.ES"), BY 

 P. DE LA MAIRE (1706). ENTRANCE. 



trated on the plan. Each house is so arranged as to be divisible into 

 two separate dwellings. In the Hotel de Tunis the main block is on the 

 street front and of considerable depth. The carriage-way is in the axis 

 and bisects the house and the garden, at the back of which are the stables, 

 with one dwelling in each half. From the street it passes into an open 

 vestibule giving access to the two staircases ; right and left of the court 

 are identical wings ending in terraces over low buildings forming a hemi- 

 cycle. In the Hotel de Thiers the carriage entrance is through a circular 

 open vestibule into one side of the hemicycle ; a corresponding entrance 

 leads through the other side of it to a stable court. The two dwellings 

 are at the opposite ends of the court, but are connected by wings. 



At the other end of the town the architect Pierre de la Maire 

 (1676-1745) was building an hotel for the wealthy family of Rohan- 

 Soubise (1706). Erected on the foundations and retaining the walls 

 of the old Hotel de Guise, this mansion has a straggling and unsatis- 

 factory plan, but its very remarkable court is far richer in treatment 

 than most of its contemporaries, while equally dignified. It is enclosed 

 in balustraded screen walls (Fig. 318). divided externally into panels by 

 rusticated piers carrying trophies. Internally it is surrounded on three 

 sides by a cloister formed by coupled columns. The principal faade 

 facing the entrance is very effective (Fig. 319). The lower storey is 

 rusticated, and the Composite order of detached shafts is carried across 

 it. In the upper a Corinthian order is applied to the centre portion 

 only, which has three arched openings, and is crowned by a broad 



