Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Tuesday’s edition of Le Parisien contained an intriguing story about a 73-year-old woman who used to grow vegetables in Burgundy. It isn’t her vegetables that are interesting; it is her possible real estate holdings. She was in town in Paris to express her anger that the HSBC Bank had sold their property to the Bank of Kuwait, land included. The farmer, named Lina Renault, says the land belongs to her and her two brothers. The article makes it clear that her claim is quite extensive, perhaps including half of the real estate on the Champs Elysées, where the bank building is located. This morning, I decided that there must be more to this story, so I found a news story from several months ago, about another property she and her family may own: the land on which the famous restaurant Fouquet’s resides. So, starting with the first article (from www.lyonne.fr, March 11, 2010), and proceeding to yesterday’s article in Le Parisien, here’s the story so far: Last March: The famous restaurant Le Fouquet’s, whose ownership is
claimed by three retired Burgundians, will remain in the hands of its present
owner, the Restaurants du Café de Paris (RCP). The court of appeals of Paris rendered its
decision on Thursday afternoon (March 11, 2010). For 50 years, Lina Renault, a former vegetable farmer of
73 living in Rouvray (Côte-d’Or), has attempted to assert the rights she
claims, along with her brothers Pierre and Michel, on the luxurious
Haussmannian building on the Champs Elysées – the location of Fouquet’s. On June 30, 2008, the siblings’ case was dismissed by the
court but they promised to “continue the fight” in making an appeal. Thursday, the Paris appeals court confirmed
the decision in a case where the motives are not immediately available. The Renaults base their rights on an inheritance dating
back to the Countess Octavia Coëtlogon [Tom and I just walked the rue Coëtlogon
yesterday evening] who died childless in 1865. She bequeathed the property to her husband
and a German cousin, Joseph-Paul Mauprivez.
Mauprivez then left the property to the grandparents of the Renault
siblings. In 2007, the Renaults from Burgundy had seemed to make
some points in their argument since the office of Mortgages of Paris issued a
certificate recognizing their inheritance of the property and seemingly
giving them the prestigious building, worth 70 million euros. RCP, the owner of record, did not like that, since they
had held title to the property since 1929.
RCP took the Renaults to court. In 2008, the Paris Court finally ruled against the
Renaults, saying they “do not prove beyond a doubt the existence of property
rights they are claiming” on this property since a “certificate does not
constitute a real estate title.” The Renaults appealed the decision. RCP has, “since July 1, 1929, held
possession of the building in question as its owner.” Because a French law says only gives 20 years
for property rights to be contested, RCP’s rights to the building have been
solid since July 1, 1949, according to the court. Thursday (March 11, 2010), the court confirmed this
judgment, causing resentment among the Renaults. “We will continue the fight and
appeal. We still claim Fouquet’s,”
responded Laurent Montagnon, the advisor and counselor for Lina Renault. In addition to this particular legal battle, Lina Renault
claims rights to “half of the Champs Elysées.” According to her, the inherited legacy that
was “hijacked” by lawyers in the late 19th century, also includes
two large tracts of land on the most beautiful avenue in the world. Lina has also written to President Nicolas Sarkozy,
asking him to intervene and appoint an administrator. September 7, 2010: Leaning on her black cane, Lina Renault, a former
vegetable farmer of 73 years retired from Rouvray (Cote-d’Or) paces along the
Champs Elysées. Accompanied by her
daughter Carmen and relatives, she made the trip to Paris yesterday to express
her anger after learning that the building located at number 109, which
housed the HSBC, had been sold with the land to the Bank of Kuwait. The transaction took place last February 25
for an amount of 400 million euros. “A fraud,” complains the red-haired septuagenarian
furiously, waving the certificate of ownership issued in 2006 by the mortgage
office of the City of Paris. A
document that acknowledges the inheritance of this parcel by Lina Renault and
her two brothers, Pierre and Michel, from Count Jean-Baptiste Lanche and
Countess Agathe Rosalie Mauprivez, nobles of the empire [I guess Countess
Octavia Coëtlogon was their daughter?]. But the legacy is not limited to this parcel. Lina Renault, who lives on her small
pension of 630 euros (monthly) and a disability pension of 200 euros per
trimester, claims to own almost half of the Champs Elysées. “There is no question of abandoning the
fight I started,” she says. It all started 50 years ago when her grandmother told her
that their ancestors owned buildings in Paris. Lina Renault, who raised her three children
on the family farm in mountainous Morvan part of Burgundy, decided to embark
on the trail of this mysterious inheritance.
She finally determined that the property was on the Avenue de Neuilly,
and focused her research on the Paris suburb of Neuilly. Her searching was unsuccessful until a
family friend, Patricia Brandao, decided to help. For four years, Patricia peeled through the
archives, discovering that the Avenue de Neuilly is the former name of the
Champs Elysées and that the Renaults were owners of parcels of land, one of
them in the Golden Square, and the other stretching, according to Lina
Renault, just up to the former lawns of Etoile, where the Arc de Triomphe is
now. “In 1863, a part of these lands were expropriated for the
construction of the Avenue George V.
In compensation, the Lanche couple obtained the construction of the
Hotel d’Albe, where Louis Vuitton is now located.” Three years ago, the siblings had
tried to assert their rights to Fouquet’s, whose deed of ownership has not
yet been registered at the mortgages office.
After having been dismissed by the courts, the siblings have appealed. Pending the court’s decision, Lina Renault
has decided to continue the fight on the other parcel owned by the Bank of
Kuwait, as well as other Parisian buildings that she owns. “I want only to get some rent on the land I
own,” she says. “I have worked all my
life. I want to live a little more
comfortably and to profit, in the time I have left, from this large
inheritance.” What a story. As I read it, it was Lina’s parents who dropped the ball in not exerting their property rights between 1929 and 1949. But hey, there was a war in that time period, wasn’t there? Tom says, and I agree, that if the Bank of Kuwait and RCP were smart, they’d just pay her some rent and make her last years a little more comfortable. That’s all she wants. It would be good PR for them. They can afford it. In the U.S., I think a case like this would be settled out of court, and a woman like Lina would not have to be quite so destitute as she is. Tom and I went over to John and Linda’s apartment on the rue du Cherche Midi (not far at all) for nibblies and then the four of us walked to the nearby restaurant l’Epi Dupin on the rue Dupin. We had an absolutely wonderful, creative, exciting, modern three-course dinner. It was definitely the best food I’ve ever consumed in Paris. Words cannot describe it, so I will leave it there. Sign
my guestbook. View
my guestbook. Note: For addresses & phone numbers of
restaurants in this journal, click
here. And here’s the 2009 Paris Journal. |
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Statue
of an old queen in the Luxembourg Gardens.
In
the Luxembourg Gardens, a monument to Jules Massenet (1842-1912), a French
composer best known for his operas.
Pulpit
in the Saint Sulpice church. |
