| The ideal place to start an architectural exploration of the Beaux Quartiers is the Église d'Auteuil métro station. Around this area are several of Hector Guimard's Art Nouveau buildings: at 34 rue Boileau, 8 av de la Villa-de-la-Réunion, 41 rue Chardon-Lagache, 142 av de Versailles, and 39 bd Exelmans. The house at no. 34 rue Boileau was one of Guimard's first commissions, in 1891. To reach it from Église d'Auteuil métro, head directly west along rue d'Auteuil for 200m, then turn left (south) into Boileau. A high fence and wisteria obscure much of the view, but you can see some of the decorative tile-work under the eaves and around the doors and windows. Further down the street, just before you reach boulevard Exelmans, the Vietnamese embassy at no. 62 successfully combines 1970s Western architecture with the traditional Vietnamese elements of a pagoda roof and earthenware tiles. Continue south for half a kilometre along rue Boileau beyond boulevard Exelmans, turn right onto rue Parent de Rosan and you'll find a series of enchanting villas off to the right, backing onto the Auteuil cemetery. Rue Boileau terminates on avenue de Versailles, where you can turn left and head back to the Église d'Auteuil métro via the Guimard apartment block at 142 av de Versailles (1905), with its characteristic Art Nouveau flower motifs and sinuous, curling lines. It's just by the Exelmans crossroads (on bus #72's route). You can then cut across the Jardin de Ste-Périne, once the rural residence of the monks of Ste Geneviève's abbey, established here in 1109, to get back to the métro. The entrances to the garden are opposite l35 av de Versailles and alongside the hospital on rue Mirabeau, just north of the rue Chardon-Lagache junction. For more of the life of the quartier, follow the old village high street, rue d'Auteuil, west from the métro exit to place Lorrain, which hosts a Saturday market. From here you could take rue de la Fontaine for some more Guimard buildings and the Maison de Radio France, or if the bulgy curves of Art Nouveau make you feel queasy, head up rue du Dr-Blanche for the cool, rectilinear lines of Cubist architects Le Corbusier and Mallet-Stevens.
Pages in section ‘Auteuil’: Auteuil bus routes, Rue de la Fontaine and the Maison de Radio-France, From place Lorrain to the Musée Marmottan, Musée Marmottan.
| 
