In 1856, Nathaniel and his wife purchased the property at 33 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris from Denis, duc Decrès. At the time it was rented to the Russian Embassy but when the lease ran out in 1864, he renovated the building and made it his city residence. Passed down to his son Arthur de Rothschild, he sold it in 1918 to the Cercle de l'Union interalliée. In 1878, Nathaniel bought the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay in Cernay-la-Ville in the Vallée de Chevreuse, at the time only a ruins of a Cistercian abbey built in 1118. He and his wife undertook extensive restoration work and new construction to turn the lakeside property into a luxurious country home.