Hôtel Valentinois - Benjamin Franklin in Passy

During the nine years Benjamin Franklin spent in Paris, he spent a great amount of that time at Hôtel Valentinois as a guest of the noble family that owned this estate in an area known as the village of Passy.

Passy was annexed to Paris in 1860 and became a part of the 16th arrondissement during the urban transformation of the city and while "Hôtel Valentinois" disappeared in the process, a building bears a plaque honouring the Renaissance man.

The plaque mentions Franklin had installed there the first lightning rod in France. That was one of his invention and one for which he was so admired by the Parisian elite who called him Dr Franklin!