Fran�ois-Auguste-Ren� Rodin's Villa des Brillants in Meudon, where he died and is buried, is now a museum, an extension of the already heavily placemarked Musee Rodin in Paris' Faubourg Saint-Germain district (the Hotel Biron on rue de Varenne).

Rodin moved in 1893 to this Louis XIII villa of red stone and brick. It stands on a rise overlooking the Val Fleury, its vast grounds sloping to the River Seine. The sculptor rented the property for two years before buying it at auction.

A succession of visitors came here, including George Bernard Shaw and, in 1908, England's King Edward VII, who made a special trip just to see Rodin (his mistress, the Countess of Warwick, had sat for the sculptor).

The Villa des Brillants is open from mid-April through September. Its website is here. For more on Rodin, visit Rodin-web.org and the Cantor Foundation.