Hard-Hearted

He had not expected to find one of Labrouste's buildings on the fringe of Neuilly-sur-Seine, a settlement for the dull and wealthy that sat between Paris and one of the Seine’s lazy curves as it made its way to Rouen and the sea. When Labrouste had been drawing up his plans in the 1850s, this had been a bucolic corner with trees and meadows running down to the river’s edge. Now his villa stubbed its toes against a four-lane expressway, which meant that its admirably proportioned red-brick and cut-stone facade rarely received the appreciative glances it deserved.