To better understand this historical Parisian home for sale, we need to give you some background on its impressive former owner. Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette, is often known simply—and thankfully—as Lafayette. Born in 1757, he was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought for the US in the American Revolutionary War. After helping to secure French aid in the form of 6,000 troops, money and ships for the US, George Washington credited Lafayette as one of the major players in America’s overall victor—he was even posthumously made an honorary citizen of the USA in 2002.