La Garenne

In 1770, this Empire style building, which then only had a ground floor and a first floor, was sold under a lease by Joseph, Marquis de Mesmes, Lord of Bougival and of La Chaussée, Marshall of the King’s camps and armies, to Jean-Jacques Garnier (1729-1805), an inspector at the Collège Royal of France where he introduced numerous reforms.
In 1873-1874, widowed Madame Halgan rented the house to the Viardot and Ivan Turgenev family.
Georgette Wallace, an opera singer by the name of Lucy Arbell, the granddaughter of the philanthropist and benefactor Sir Richard Wallace, donated it on her death in 1947 to the Arts Orphanage. The founder of this institution, she divided her life between music and charity.