Paiva Hotel

The Saint Georges neighbourhood was improved 1821-1824 with various financial company buildings around the square. The central fountain, from 1824, was to water horses but it dried up in 1906 when they built the subway next door. The Hotel de Paiva was built in Gothic and Renaissance style by the architect Renaud. Thérèse Lachman, a local celebrity who had been the wife of the Marquis de Paiva, occupied it from 1851. It was a famous courtesan of the Second Empire known as "la Paiva". Saint George square is harmonious because in front the Palace of Thiers is also retained (Thiers was a French president),