A Parisian Apartment Frozen in Time for 70 Years

A Parisian apartment left untouched for  70 years was discovered in the quartier of Pigalle, near the Opéra Garnier.

This  romantic and beautiful story first broke in 2010.

Madame de Florian, who lived in this apartment reportedly fled for the south of France as the Nazi’s invaded Paris during the Fall of France in the Second World War. She left all her possessions and those that were passed down to her when she acquired the flat from her grandmother.

Madame de Florian never returned to her apartment.

She didn’t even return to Paris, yet she kept the apartment, and continued to pay the monthly “rental” fee until she passed away at age 91 in 2010.

The team that had the honor of opening what must have been a very stiff old lock for the first time in 68 years, likened the experience to ‘stumbling into the castle of sleeping beauty’.Although it seems strange, having tax idermy pieces in one’s home was once a sign of affluence.Mickey Mouse…Wow!All of the furniture from the time period remained just how she left it.

It looks as if she was just there yesterday.

A veritable time capsule, the flat yielded many treasures but the most valuable of them was a previously undiscovered painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

The portrait displayed the wispy image of a delicate woman in a pink satiny dress.Painting by Giovanni Boldini circa 1898

The beautiful Frenchwoman of the portrait is Madame de Florian’s grandmother Marthe de Florian.

It was painted by Giovanni Boldini in 1898, when Marthe was 24 years-old.  The painting recently sold for €2.1 million.  Grandmother Marthe was an actress who had a long list of male admirers.  Marthe kept the love letters from her admirers, which were found in the apartment.  Her admirers included the married Giovanni Boldini and the 72nd Prime Minister of France, George Clemenceau.

Mrs de Florian fled Paris before the outbreak of war in 1939, which saw the Nazis invade France and reach Paris on June 14. Pictured here, German officers and Parisians mingle near a sidewalk cafe on the Champs Elysees on Bastille Day in 1940. via: dailymail

The rest was left un-dusted and un-disturbed to this day.

Unfortunately, this home is not open to the public and it is owned entirely by her estate.

I wonder why she never returned though…