Henceforth the "Noble Faubourg" gained a new lease on life, the proximity of Versailles being irresistible for an aristocracy who lived exclusively by and for the Court.

But the expense of the enterprise forced the Prince of Tigny to sell, and it was Jacques Goyon, Count of Matignon who bought the Hôtel, completed in 1725, as a present for his son, the Duke of Valentinois.

Visitors' admiration is drawn by two singular architectural features: the segmented cupola of the entrance hall and, to its right, the first room to have been originally designed for dining.

Although the design results in a slight imbalance in the natural disposition of the mansion, it respects the placement of a central pavilion with three panels surmounted by a broken pediment bearing the arms of the owners.

In 1808, the Hôtel Matignon passed into the hands of one of the best-known figures of the first half of the 19th century – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Prince of Bénévent and Deputy Great Elector.

In 1811, Napoleon called on Talleyrand to reimburse the city of Hamburg the four millions it had paid him to avoid incorporation into the new French département of the Bouches-de-l'Elbe.

In 1815, at the start of the Restoration, Louis XVIII traded the Hôtel Matignon for the Élysée Palace, which belonged to Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d'Orléans, sister of Philippe Égalité, and the separated wife of the Duc de Bourbon.

She rented it to a visiting wealthy American, Colonel Herman Thorn, who lived there with his large family for over a decade, and renovated it extensively.

Founder of the Crédit Mobilier, Raffaele financed many of the major construction projects of the second half of the 19th century – railroads in Austria, Latin America, Portugal and France (the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line), the digging of the Fréjus tunnel and the Suez Canal, and the Paris buildings designed by Baron Haussmann.

On 14 May 1886, this was the setting of one of the century's most sumptuous receptions – three thousand guests, the entire aristocracy of France, the diplomatic corps and numerous political figures thronged to celebrate the marriage of Princess Amélie, the Count's daughter, with Carlos, heir to the Portuguese throne.

The story goes that, on the day of the reception, the President had a sudden desire to visit the Bois de Boulogne but was unable to leave the Elysée because of the congested traffic.

The following day, no doubt alarmed by such a large gathering of monarchists in the capital, the president of the council, Charles de Freycinet, called for a law exiling pretenders to the French throne.

However, Gaston Doumergue learned of the plans and decided to make it the headquarters of the President of the Council of Ministers (Président du Conseil), as the position of head of government was known under the Third Republic.

In 1936, the "Matignon Accords" were signed between Léon Blum and the leaders of the spring 1936 strikes, introducing the 40-hour work week and paid vacations.