In a second story drawing room high above the illustrious plaza of the Place Vendome, a museum of remarkable human experience unfolds amist decor reflecting all the opulence of a past French tradition. For over two hundred years, the House of Chaumet has borne witness to some of the most colourful events in France's history. It was here in the oldest salon in the Place Vendome, under the fanciful canopy of a ceiling fresco, that Napoleon III proposed to Eugenie de Montijo.

In less fortuitous circumstances the young Polish countess, Delphine Potoka watched as her dear friend Frederic Chopin took his dying breath to the strains of Mozart's Requiem playing solemnly at the foot of his bed. But the former Hotel Baudert de Saint James also houses a museum more priceless than any historical anecode - the Musee de Maison.

Chaumet accommodates two hundred years of history in Haute-Joaillerie.