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Title: Historic Paris

Author: Jetta S. Wolff

Release date: May 16, 2013 [eBook #42722]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC
PARIS ***

Every attempt has been made to replicate
the original book as printed. Some

typographical errors have been corrected.
(a list follows the text.) No attempt has
been made to correct or normalize all of
the printed accentuation of names or
words in French. (etext transcriber’s note)

HISTORIC PARIS

BY THE SAME
AUTHOR
THE STORY OF
THE CHURCHES
OF PARIS

LA TOUR DE L’HORLOGE, LES “TOURS POINTUES”
DE LA CONCIERGERIE ET LE MARCHÉ AUX FLEURS

[Frontispiece

HISTORIC PARIS
BY JETTA S. WOLFF
WITH FIFTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXXI

The Mayflower Press, Plymouth, England. William Brendon & Son, Ltd.

TO

LA FRANCE

THE BEAUTIFUL—THE VALOROUS

PREFACE

T HIS book, begun many years ago, was laid aside under the stress of
other work, which did not, however, hinder the sedulous amassing of
notes during my long and continuous residence in Paris. The appearance
of the Marquis de Rochegude’s exhaustive work, on somewhat the same
lines in a more extensive compass, took me by surprise, and I thought for a
moment that it would render my book superfluous. The vast concourse of
English-speaking people brought hither by the great war, people keen to
learn the history of the beautiful old buildings they find here on every side,
made me understand that an English book of relatively small compass was
needed, and I set to work to finish the volume planned and begun so long
ago.
I had made the personal acquaintance and consequent notes of most of
the ancient “Stones of Paris” before looking up published notes concerning
them. When such notes were looked up, I can only say their sources were
far too numerous and too scattered to be recorded here. I must beg every
one who may have published anything worth while on Old Paris to receive
my thanks, for I have doubtless read their writings with interest and benefit.
But I must offer special thanks to M. de Rochegude, for—writing under
pressure to get the book ready for press—his work as a reference book,
while pursuing my own investigations, has been invaluable.
To my readers I would say peruse what I have written, but use your own
eyes, your own keen observation for learning much more than could be
noted here. Look into every courtyard in the ancient quarters, look
attentively at every dwelling along the old winding streets, and fail not to
look up to their roofs. The roofs are never alike. They are strikingly
picturesque. Old world builders did not work mechanically, did not raise
streets in machine-like style, each structure exactly like its neighbour, one
street barely distinguishable from the street running parallel or crossing it,
according to the habit of to-day. The builders of les jours d’antan loved
their craft; every single house gave scope for some artistic trait. The roofs
offered a fine field for architectural ingenuity: wonderfully planned
windows, chimneys, balconies, gables are to be seen on the roofs often in
most unexpected corners, in every part of the Vieux Paris. Look up!—I

cannot urge this too strongly. And within every old hôtel—the French term
for private house or mansion—examine each staircase. In the erection of a
staircase the architect of past ages found grand scope for graceful lines, and
exquisite workmanship. Thus walks even through the dimmest corners of la
Ville Lumière will be for lovers of old-time vestiges a joy for ever.
This was an iconoclastic age even before the destructiveness of the awful
war just over. Precious architectural and historical relics were swept away
to make room for brand-new buildings. As it has been impossible during the
past months to verify in every instance the up-to-date accuracy of notes
made previously, it is probable that some old structures referred to in these
pages as still standing may no longer be found on the spot indicated. But
whether in such cases their site be now an empty space, or occupied by
newly built walls, it cannot fail to be interesting as the site where a vanished
historic structure stood erewhile.
JETTA SOPHIA WOLFF.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Three Palaces 1
II. Among Old Streets 22
III. The Neighbourhood of the Great Markets 35
IV. The Palais de Justice 45
V. The Neighbourhood of the Bibliothèque Nationale 51
VI. Round about Arts et Métiers (the Arts and Crafts
Institution) 62
VII. The Temple 70
VIII. The Home of Madame de Sévigné 81
IX. Notre-Dame 86
X. L’Île St-Louis 92
XI. L’Hôtel de Ville and its Surroundings 94
XII. The Old Quartier St-Pol 112
XIII. La Place des Vosges 119
XIV. The Bastille 123
XV. In the Vicinity of Two Ancient Churches 126
XVI. In the Region of the Schools 137
XVII. La Montagne Ste-Geneviève 144
XVIII. In the Valley of the Bièvre 149
XIX. Rue St-Jacques 152
XX. Le Jardin des Plantes 155
XXI. The Luxembourg 162
XXII. Les Carmes 168
XXIII. On Ancient Abbey Ground 170
XXIV. In the Vicinity of Place St-Michel 181
XXV. L’Odéon 184
XXVI. Round about the Carrefour de la Croix-Rouge 186
XXVII. Hôtel des Invalides 190
XXVIII. Old-time Mansions of the Rive Gauche 194

XXIX. Ancient Streets of the Faubourg Saint-Germain 203
XXX. The Madeleine and its Neighbourhood 208
XXXI. Les Champs-Élysées 213
XXXII. Faubourg St-Honoré 216
XXXIII. Parc Monceau 221
XXXIV. In the Vicinity of the Opera 223
XXXV. On the Way to Montmartre 227
XXXVI. On the Slopes of the Butte 232
XXXVII. Three Ancient Faubourgs 236
XXXVIII. In the Paris “East End” 243
XXXIX. On Tragic Ground 246
XL. Les Gobelins 251
XLI. The Neighbourhood of Port-Royal 256
XLII. In the South-West 260
XLIII. In Newer Paris 263
XLIV. Towards the Western Boundary 269
XLV. Les Ternes 276
XLVI. On the Butte 278
XLVII. Among the Coalyards and the Meat-markets 290
XLVIII. Père-Lachaise 292
XLIX. Boulevards—Quays—Bridges 297
L. Les Boulevards Extérieurs 309
LI. The Quays 320
LII. Les Ponts 337
Index To Historic Persons
Index To Streets

ILLUSTRATIONS
[Some illustrations have been moved from within paragraphs for ease of
reading. (note of e-text transcriber.)]

La Tour de L’Horloge, les “Tour pointues” de la Conciergerie
Frontispiece
et le Marché aux Fleurs
PAGE
Le Vieux Louvre 3
The Louvre of To-day 5
Palais des Tuileries 9
Palais-Royal 15
L’Église St-Germain-l’Auxerrois 20
Place et Colonne Vendôme 31
Portail de St-Eustache 37
La Tour de L’Horloge, les “Tours Pointues” de la Conciergerie
et le Marché aux Fleurs 46
La Sainte-Chapelle 48
Rue Quincampoix 63
St-Nicolas-des-Champs 65
Rue Beaubourg 67
La Porte du Temple 71
Porte de Clisson 75
Ruelle de Sourdis 77
Hôtel Vendôme, Rue Béranger 79
Notre-Dame 87
Rue Massillon 89
Place de Grève 95
La Tour St-Jacques 97
View across the Seine from Place du Châtelet 99
Rue Brisemiche 101
L’Église St-Gervais 103
Hôtel de Beauvais, Rue François-Miron 105

Rue Vieille-du-Temple 109
Rue Éginhard 113
Rue du Prévôt 115
Hôtel de Sens 117
Rue de Birague, Place des Vosges 121
La Bastille 124
Rue St-Séverin 127
Église St-Séverin 129
Hôtel Louis XV, Rue de la Parcheminerie 131
St-Julien-le-Pauvre 133
Bas-relief, Rue Galande 134
Le Musée de Cluny 139
St-Étienne-du-Mont 145
Interior of St-Étienne-du-Mont 147
Rue Mouffetard et St-Médard 150
Jardin et Palais du Luxembourg 163
L’Abbaye St-Germain-des-Prés 171
Cour de Rohan 179
Rue Hautefeuille 183
Castel de la Reine Blanche 253
La Salpétrière 255
Rue des Eaux, Passy 271
St-Pierre de Montmartre 281
Vieux Montmartre, Rue St-Vincent 282
Rue Mont-Cenis: Chapelle de la Trinité 283
Vieux Montmartre: Cabaret du Lapin-Agile 284
Moulin de la Galette 287
Le Mur des Fédérés 295
Old Well at Salpétrière 311
Cloître de l’Abbaye de Port-Royal 315
Remains of the Convent des Capucins 317
Hôtel de Fieubet, Quai des Célestins 325
Quai des Grands-Augustins 333
Le Pont des Arts et l’Institut 338

Pont-Neuf 339

HISTORIC PARIS

CHAPTER I

THREE PALACES
THE LOUVRE

T HE Louvre has existed on the selfsame site from the earliest days of the
history of Paris and of France. It began as a rough hunting-lodge,
erected in the time of the rois fainéants—the “do-nothing” kings: a
primitive hut-like construction in the dark wolf-haunted forest to the north
of the settlement on the islets of the Seine, called Leutekia, the city of mud,
on account of its marshy situation, or Loutouchezi, the watery city, by its
Gallic settlers, by the Romans Lutetia Parisiorum—the Paris of that long-
gone age. The name Louvre, therefore, may possibly be derived from the
Latin Word lupus, a wolf. More probably its origin is the old word leouare,
whence lower, louvre: a habitation.
Lutetia grew in importance, and the royal hunting-lodge in its vicinity
was made into a fortress. The city of mud was soon known by the tribe
name only, Parisii-Paris, and the Louvre, freed from surrounding forest
trees, came within the city bounds. It was gradually enlarged and
strengthened. A white circle in the big court shows the site of the famous
gate between two Grosses Tours built in the time of the warrior-king
Philippe-Auguste. Twelve towers of smaller dimensions were added by
Charles V. Each tower had its own special battalion of soldiers. The inner
chambers of each had their special use. In the Tour du Trésor, the King kept
his money and portable objects of great value. In the Tour de la
Bibliothèque were stored the books of those days, first collected by King
Charles V, and which formed the nucleus of the National Library. Charles V
made many other additions and adornments, and the first clocks known in
France were placed in the Louvre in the year 1370. About the same time a
primitive stove—a chauffe-poële—was first put up there. The grounds
surrounding the fortress were laid out with care, the chief garden stretching
towards the north. A menagerie was built and peopled; nightingales sang in
the groves. The palace became a sumptuous residence. Sovereigns from
foreign lands were received by the Kings of France with great pomp in

“Notre Chastel du Louvre, où nous nous tenons le plus souvent quand nous
sommes en notre ville de Paris.”
The Louvre was the scene of two of the most important political events
of the fourteenth century. In the year 1303, when Philippe-le-Bel was King,
the second meeting of that imposing assembly of barons, prelates and lesser
magnates of the realm which formed, as a matter of fact, the first états
généraux took place there. In 1358, at the time of the rising known as the
Jacquerie, Étienne Marcel, Prévôt des Marchands, made the Louvre his
headquarters. In the fourteenth century a King of England held his court
there: Henry V, victorious after Agincourt, kept Christmas in great state in
Paris at the Louvre.

LE VIEUX LOUVRE

The royal palaces of those days, like great abbeys, were fitted with
everything that was needed for their upkeep and the sustenance of their
staff. Workmen, materials, provisions were at hand, all on the premises. A
farm, a Court of Justice, a prison were among the most essential elements of
palace buildings and domains. Yet the Louvre with its prestige and its
immense accommodation was never inhabited continuously by the Kings of
France, and in the sixteenth century the Palace was so completely
abandoned as to be on the verge of ruin. Then François I, looking forward
to the state visit of the Emperor Charles-Quint, sent workmen in haste and
in vast numbers to the Louvre, to repair and enlarge. Pierre Lescot, the most
distinguished architect of the day, took the great task in hand. The Grosse
Tour had already been razed to the ground. The ancient walls to the south

and west were now knocked down. One wall of the Salle des Cariatides,
and the steps leading from the underground parts of the palace to the ground
floor, are all that remain of the Louvre of Philippe-Auguste.
It is from this sixteenth-century restoration that the Old Louvre as we
know it dates in its chief lines. Much of the work of decoration was done by
Jean Goujon and by Paul Pouce, a pupil of Michael Angelo. But the Louvre
nevermore stood still. Thenceforward each successive sovereign, at some
period of his reign, took the palace in hand to beautify, rebuild or enlarge—
sometimes, however, getting little beyond the designing of plans. Richelieu,
that arch-conceiver of plans, architectural as well as political, would fain
have enlarged the old palace on a very vast scale. His King, Louis XIII, laid
the first stone of the Tour de l’Horloge. As soon as the wars of the Fronde
were over, Louis XIV, the greatest builder of that and succeeding ages,
determined to enlarge in his own grand way. An Italian architect of repute
was summoned from Italy; but he and Louis did not agree, and the Italian
went back to his own land.

THE LOUVRE OF TO-DAY

The grand Colonnade, on the side facing the old church, St-Germain-
l’Auxerrois, was built between the years 1667-80 by Claude Perrault. The
façade facing the quay to the south was then added. After the death of the
King’s active statesman, Colbert, work at the Louvre stopped. The fine

palace fell from its high estate. It may almost be said to have been let out in
tenements. Artists, savants, men of letters, took rooms there—logements!
The Louvre was, as a matter of fact, no longer a royal palace. Its “decease”
as a king’s residence dates from the death of Colbert. The Colonnade was
restored in 1755 by the renowned architect, Gabriel, and King Louis XVI
first put forward the proposition of using the palace as a great National
Museum. It was the King’s wish that all the best-known, most highly valued
works of art in France should be collected, added to the treasures of the
Cabinet du Roi, and placed there. The Revolutionary Government put into
effect the guillotined King’s idea. The names of its members may be read
inscribed on two black marble slabs up against the wall of the circular ante-
chamber leading to the Galerie d’Apollon, where are preserved and shown
the ancient crown jewels of France, the beautiful enamels of Limoges and
many other precious treasures once the possession of royalty. This grand
gallery, planned and begun by Lebrun in the seventeenth century, is modern,
built in the nineteenth century by Duban.
The First Empire saw the completion of the work begun by the
Revolutionists. In the time of Napoléon I the marvellous collection of
pictures, statuary, art treasures of every description, was duly arranged and
classified. The building of the interior court was finished in 1813.
On the establishment of the Second Empire, Napoléon III set himself the
task of completely restoring the Louvre and extending it. The Pavillon de
Flore was then rebuilt, joining the ancient palace with the Tuileries, which
for two previous centuries had been the habitation of French monarchs.
After the disasters of 1870-71 restoration was again undertaken, but
though the Tuileries had been burnt to the ground the Louvre had suffered
comparatively little damage.
Within its walls the Louvre has undergone drastic changes since its
conversion from a royal palace to a National Museum. The Salle des Fêtes
of bygone ages has become the Salle Lacaze with its fine collection of
masterpieces. What was once the King’s Cabinet, communicating with the
south wing, where in her time Marie de’ Medici had her private rooms, is
known as the Salle des Sept Cheminées, filled with examples of early
nineteenth-century French art.
In the Salle Carrée, where Henri IV was married, and where the
murderers of President Brisson met their fate by hanging—swung from the

beams of the ceiling now finely vaulted—masterpieces of all the grandest
epochs in art are brought together; from among them disappeared in 1911
the now regained Mona Lisa. Painting, sculpture, works of art of every
kind, every age and every nation fill the great halls and galleries of the
Louvre. We cannot attempt a description of its treasures here. Let all who
love things of beauty, all who take pleasure in learning the wonderful
results of patient work, go and see[A].
Nor can I recount here the numberless incidents, the historic happenings
of which the Louvre was the scene. It is customary to point out the gilded
balcony from which Charles IX is popularly supposed to have fired upon
the Huguenots, or to have given the signal to fire, on that fatal night of St-
Bartholemew, 1572. But the balcony was not yet there. Nor is it probable
the young King fired from any other balcony or window. Shots were fired
maybe from the palace by men less timorous.
On the Seine side of the big court is the site of the ancient Gothic Porte
Bourbon, where Admiral Coligny was first struck and Concini shot through
the heart. In our own time we have the startling theft of the Joconde from
the Salle Carrée, its astonishing return, and the hiding away of the treasures
in the days of war, of air-raids and long-range guns and threatened invasion,
to strike our imagination. “The great black mass,” which the enemy aviator
saw on approaching Paris, and knew it must be the Louvre, grand, majestic,
undisturbed, is the most notable monument of Paris and of France.
THE TUILERIES
The Palace has gone, burnt to the ground in the war year 1870-71. The
gardens alone remain, those beautiful Tuileries gardens, the brightest spot
on the right bank of the Seine. Several moss-grown pillars, some remnants
of broken arches, the pillars and frontal of the present Jeu de Paume and of
the Orangery, are all that is left to-day of the royal dwelling that erewhile
stood there. The palace was built at the end of the sixteenth century by
Catherine de’ Medici to replace the ancient palace Les Tournelles, in the
Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, where King Henri II had died at a
festive tournament, his eye and brain pierced by the sword of his great
general, Comte de Montmorency. Queen Catherine hated the sight of the
palace where her husband had died thus tragically. Its destruction was
decreed; and the Queen commanded the erection in its stead of the

magnifique bâtiment de l’Hôtel royal, dit des Tuileries des Parisiens,
parcequ’il y avait autrefois une Tuilerie au dit lieu.
The site of that big tile-yard was in those days outside the city boundary.
The architect, Philibert Delorme, set to work with great ardour. A rough
road was made leading from the bac, i.e. the ford across the Seine, now
spanned near the spot by the Pont Royal, to the quarries in the
neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-des-Champs and Vaugirard, whence stone
was brought. Thus was born the well-known Rue du Bac. The palace was
from the first surrounded by a fine garden, separated until the time of Louis
XIV from the Seine on the one side, from the palace on the other, by a
ruelle; i.e. a narrow street, a lane.

PALAIS DES TUILERIES

Catherine took up her abode at the new palace as soon as it was
habitable; but the Queen-Mother was restless and oppressed, haunted by
presentiments of evil. An astrologer had told her she would meet her death
beneath the ruins of a mansion in the vicinity of the church, St-Germain-
l’Auxerrois. She left her new palace, therefore, bought the site of several
houses, appropriated the ground and buildings of an old convent in the
neighbourhood of St-Eustache, had erected on the spot a fine dwelling:
l’hôtel de la Reine, known later as l’hôtel de Soissons, where we see to-day
the Bourse de Commerce. One column of the Queen’s palace still stands
there, within it a narrow staircase up which she was wont to climb with her
Italian astrologer.
Meanwhile, the Tuileries palace showed no signs of ruin—quite the
reverse. Catherine’s son, Charles IX, had a bastion erected in the garden on
the Seine side; a small dwelling-house, a pond, an aviary, a theatre, an echo,

a labyrinth, an orangery, a shrubbery were soon added. Henri IV began a
gallery to join the new palace to the Louvre, a work accomplished only
under Louis XIV. Under Henri’s son, Louis XIII, the Tuileries was the
centre of the smart life of the day; visitors of distinction, but not of royal
rank, were often entertained in royal style in the pavilion in the garden.
Under Louis XIV the King’s renowned garden-planner, Le Nôtre, took in
hand the spacious grounds and made of them the Jardin des Tuileries, so
famous ever since. The fine statues by Coustou, Perrault, Bosi, etc., were
soon set up there. The manège was built—a club and riding-school
stretching from what is now the Rue de Rivoli from the then Rue Dauphine,
now Rue St-Roch, to Rue Castiglione. There the jeunesse dorée of the day
learned to hold in hand their fiery thoroughbreds. The cost of subscription
was 4000 francs—£160—a year, a vast sum then. Each member was bound
to have his personal servant, duly paid and fed. A swing-bridge was set
across the moat on the side of the waste land, soon to become Place Louis
XV, now Place de la Concorde.
The Garden was not accessible to the public in those days. Until the
outbreak of the Revolution, the noblesse or their privileged associates alone
had the right to pace its alleys. Soldiers were never permitted to walk there.
Once a year only, a great occasion, its gates were thrown open to the
peuple.
A period of neglect followed upon the fine work done under Louis XIV.
His successor cared nothing for the Tuileries palace and grounds. They fell
into a most lamentable state; and, when in the troublous days of the year
1789, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their little son took up their abode
at the Tuileries, the Dauphin looked round in disgust. “Everything is very
ugly here, maman,” he said. It was the Paris home of the unhappy royal
family thenceforth until they were led from the shelter of its walls to the
Temple prison. It was from the Tuileries they made the unfortunate attempt
to fly from France. Stopped at Varennes, the would-be fugitives were led
back to the palace across the swing-bridge on the south-western side.
Beneath the stately trees of the garden the Swiss Guards were massacred
soon afterwards. The Revolutionary authorities had taken possession of the
Riding-School, a band of tricolour ribbon was stretched along its frontage
and the Assemblée Nationale, which had sat first in the old church, St-Pol,
then at the archevêché, installed itself there. There, under successive
governments, were decreed the division of France into departments, the

suppression of monastic orders, the suspension of the King’s royal power
after his flight. And there, in 1792, Louis XVI was tried, and after a sitting
lasting thirty-seven hours condemned to death. The Terrace was nicknamed
the Jardin National; sometimes it was called the Terre de Coblentz, a
sarcastic reference to emigrated nobles who erewhile had disported there. In
1793, potatoes and other vegetables—food for the population of Paris—
grew on Le Nôtre’s flower-beds, replacing the gay blossoms of happier
times, even as in our own dire war days beans, etc., are grown in the park at
Versailles, and the government of the day sat in the Salle des Machines
within the Palace walls.
On June 7th, 1794, the Tuileries palace and gardens were the scene of a
great Revolutionary fête. A few months later the body of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau was laid out in state in the dry bassin before being carried to the
Panthéon. Revolutionary fêtes were a great feature of the day, and
Robespierre, in the intervals of directing the deadly work of the Guillotine,
devised the semi-circular flower-beds surrounded by stone benches for the
benefit of the weak and aged who gathered at those merry-makings.
Then it was Napoléon’s turn. The Tuileries became an Imperial palace.
For Marie Louise awaiting the birth of the son it was her mission to bear, a
subterranean passage was made in order that the Empress might pass
unnoticed from the palace to the terrace-walk on the banks of the Seine. The
birth took place at the Tuileries, and a year or two later a pavilion was built
for the special use of the young “Roi de Rome.” At the Tuileries, in the
decisive year 1815, the chiefs of the Armies allied against the Emperor met
and camped.
Louis XVIII died there in 1824. In 1848, Louis-Philippe, flying before
the people in revolt, made his escape along the hidden passage cut in 1811
for Marie-Louise. The palace was then used as an ambulance for the
wounded and for persons who fell fainting in the Paris streets during the
tumults of that year. Its last royal master was Napoléon III. The new
Emperor set himself at once to restore, beautify and enlarge. The great iron
railing and the gates on the side of the Orangery were put up in 1853. A
buvette for officers was built in the garden. The Prince Imperial was born at
the Tuileries in 1854. During the twenty years of Napoléon’s reign, the
Tuileries was the scene of gay, smart life. The crash of 1870 was its doom.
The Empress Eugénie fled from its shelter after Sedan. The Commune set
fire to its walls. Crumbling arches, blackened pillars remained on the site of

the palace until 1883. Then they were razed, cleared away and flower-beds
laid out, where grand halls erewhile had stood. The big clock had been
saved from destruction. It was placed among the historic souvenirs of the
Musée Carnavalet. The Pavillon de Marsan of the Louvre, built by Louis
XIV, and the Pavillon de Flore joining the Tuileries, were rebuilt in 1874.
THE PALAIS-ROYAL
Crossing the Rue de Rivoli in the vicinity of the Louvre, we come to
another palace—the Palais-Royal—of less ancient origin than the Louvre or
the Tuileries, and never, strictly speaking, a royal palace. Built in the earlier
years of the seventeenth century by Louis XIII’s powerful statesman,
Cardinal Richelieu, it was known until 1643 as the Palais-Cardinal.
Richelieu had lived at 20 and 23 of the Place-Royale, now Place des
Vosges, and at the mansion known as the Petit Luxembourg, Rue de
Vaugirard. The great man determined to erect for himself a more splendid
residence, and made choice of the triangular site formed by the Rue des
Bons-Enfants, Rue St-Honoré and the city wall of Charles V, whereon to
build. Several big mansions encumbered the spot. Richelieu bought them
all, had their walls razed, gave the work of construction into the hands of
Jacques de Merrier. That was in the year 1629. The central mansion was
ready for habitation four years later; additions were made, more hôtels
bought and razed during succeeding years. Not content with mere courts
and gardens around his palace, the Cardinal acquired yet another mansion,
the hôtel Sillery, in order to make upon its site a fine square in front of his
sumptuous dwelling. He did not live to see its walls knocked down. A few
days after the completion of this purchase the famous statesman lay dead. It
was then—a month or two later—that the Palais-Cardinal became the
Palais-Royal. By his will, Richelieu bequeathed his palace to his King,
Louis XIII, who died a few months later. Anne d’Autriche, mother of the
young Louis XIV, was living at the Louvre which, in a continual state of
reparation and enlargement, was not a comfortable home. Richelieu’s fine
new mansion tempted her. It was truly of royal aspect and dimensions, and
was fitted with all “the modern conveniences and comforts” of that day. To
quote the words of a versifier of the time:

“Non, l’Univers ne peut rien voir d’égal.
Aux superbes dehors du Palais Cardinal.

Toute une ville entière avec pompe bâtie;
Semble d’un vieux fossé par miracle sortie.
Et nous fait présumer à ses superbes toits
Que tous ses habitants sont des Dieux ou des Rois.”

PALAIS-ROYAL

In 1643 the Queen moved across to it with her family. When the King
left it in 1652, Henriette of England, widow of Charles I, lived there for a
time. In 1672 Louis XIV made it over to his brother the duc d’Orléans, who
did some rebuilding, but the most drastic changes were made in the vast
construction close upon Revolutionary days. Then, in 1784, Philippe-
Égalité, finding himself in an impecunious condition, conceived a fine plan
for making money. Round three sides of the extensive garden of his palace
he built galleries lined with premises to let—shops, etc.—and opened out
around them three public thoroughfares: Rue de Valois, Rue Beaujolais,
Rue Montpensier. The garden thus truncated is the Jardin du Palais-Royal as
we know it to-day. It was even in those days semi-public. Parisians from all
time have loved a fine garden, and the population of the city resented this
curtailment. They resented more especially the mercantile spirit which had
prompted it.
It was in the year 1787 that the theatre known subsequently as the
Comédie Française, more familiarly the “Français,” was built. The artistes

of the Variétés Amusantes played there then, and for several succeeding
years. The theatre Palais-Royal had already been built, bore many
successive different names and became for a time the Théâtre Montansier,
later Théâtre de la Montagne. The fourth side of the palace had been left
unfinished. The duc d’Orléans had planned its completion in magnificent
style. The outbreak of the Revolution put a stop to all such plans.
Temporary wooden galleries had been built in 1784. They were burnt down
in 1828 and replaced by the Galerie d’Orléans, now let out in flats.
Richelieu was titular Superintendent-General of the Marine: some of the
friezes and bas-reliefs illustrative of this office, decorating the Galerie des
Proues, are still to be seen there. But of the great statesman’s original palace
comparatively little remains. The duc d’Orléans, Regent for Louis XV,
razed a great part of Richelieu’s construction; many of the walls of the
palace as we know it date from his time—1702-23. Disastrous fires
wrought havoc in 1763 and 1781. The financially inspired transformations
of Philippe-Égalité made in 1786, and finally the incendiary work of the
Commune in 1871, changed the whole aspect of the palace. It went through
many phases also during the Revolution. Seized as national property, it was
known for a time as Palais-Égalité. Revolutionary meetings took place in its
gardens. Revolutionary clubs were organized in its galleries. The statue of
Camille Desmoulins, set up in recent years—1905—records that decisive
day, July 12th, 1789, when Desmoulins, haranguing the crowd, hoisted a
green cocarde in sign of hope. That garden was thenceforth through many
years the meeting-place of successive political agitators. In our own day the
Camelots du Roi met and agitated there.
Under Napoléon as Premier Consul, the Tribunat was established there
in a hall since razed. The Bourse de Commerce succeeded the Tribunat.
Then the Orléans regained possession of the palace and Prince Louis-
Philippe went thence to the hôtel de Ville, to return Roi des Français.
The galleries and the façade of the portico of the second court date from
the first half of the nineteenth century. The upheaval of 1848 and the reign
of Napoléon III resulted in further changes for the Palais-Royal. It became
for a time Palais-National, and was subsequently put to military uses. Then
King Jérôme took up his abode there, and was succeeded by his son Prince
Napoléon. The little Gothic Chapel where Princess Clothilde was wont to
pray serves now as a lumberroom. Prince Victor, the husband of Princess
Clémentine of Belgium, was born at the Palais-Royal in 1862.

The galleries surrounding the garden are brimful of historic associations.
Besides the clubs, noted Revolutionary clubs which met in the cafés,
notorious gambling-houses existed there.
Galerie Montpensier, Nos. 7-12, is the ancient Café Corazza, the famous
rendezvous of the Jacobins, frequented later by Buonaparte, Talma, etc.; 36,
once Café des Mille Colonnes, was so named from the multiple reflection in
surrounding mirrors of its twenty pillars. At 50 we see the former Café
Hollandais, which had as its sign a guillotine; at 57-60 the Café Foy, before
the doors of which Desmoulins harangued the people crowding there.
Galerie Beaujolais, No. 103—now a bar and dancing-hall—is the ancient
Café des Aveugles, where in the sous-sol an orchestra played, formed
entirely of blind men from the Quinze-Vingts, the hospital at first close by
then removed to Rue Charenton, while the Sans-Culottes met and plotted.
The mural portraits of notable Revolutionists seen there is modern work.
Galerie de Valois, Nos. 119, 120, 121, Ombres Chinoises de Séraphin
(1784-1855) and Café Mécanique formed practically the first Express-Bar.
At 177, was formerly the cutler’s shop where Charlotte Corday bought the
knife to slay Marat.
Of the three streets made by the mercantile-minded duc d’Orléans the
walls of two still stand undisturbed. In Rue de Valois we see, at No. 1, the
ancient pavilion and passage leading from the Place de Valois, formerly the
Cour des Fontaines, where the inhabitants of Palais-Royal drew their water;
at 6-8 the restaurant, Bœuf à la mode, built by Richelieu as hôtel Mélusine;
at 10, the façade of hôtel de la Chancellerie d’Orléans; at 20, hôtel de la
Fontaine-Martel, inhabited for a year by Voltaire, 1732-33. In Rue de
Beaujolais we find the theatre which began as Théâtre des Beaujolais, was
for several years towards the close of the eighteenth century a theatre of
Marionnettes, and is now Théâtre Palais-Royal. Then Rue de Montpensier
—1784—shows us interesting old windows, ironwork, etc.; Rue
Montesquieu—1802—runs where the Collège des Bons-Enfants once
stood. The Mother-house of the Restaurants Duval, so well known in every
quarter of Paris, at No. 6, is on the site of the ancient Salle Montesquieu,
once a popular dancing saloon, then a draper’s shop with the sign of “Le
Pauvre Diable” where the founder of the world-known Bon Marché was in
his youth a salesman.

Three notable churches stand in the immediate vicinity of these three
palaces. The ancient St-Germain-l’Auxerrois, St-Roch, erewhile its chapel
of ease, and the Oratoire. St-Germain opposite the Louvre was the Chapel
Royal of past ages. Its bells pealed for royal weddings, announced the birth
of princes, tolled for royal deaths, rang on every other occasion of great
national importance. Its biggest bell sounded the death-knell of the
Protestants on the fatal eve of St-Bartholomew’s Day, 1572. No part of the
fine old church as its stands to-day dates back as a whole beyond the
fifteenth century, but a chapel stood on the site as early as the year 560. A
baptistery and a school were built close to the chapel about a century later,
and this early foundation was the eldest daughter of Notre-Dame—the Paris
Cathedral. After its destruction by the invading Normans, it was rebuilt as a
fine church by Robert le Pieux, in the first years of the eleventh century,
and no doubt many of its ancient stones found a place in the walls of
successive rebuildings and restorations. The beautiful Gothic edifice is rich
in ancient glass, marvellous woodwork, pictures, statuary and historic
memorials.

L’ÉGLISE ST-GERMAIN-L’AUXERROIS

The first stone of St-Roch, in the Rue St-Honoré, was laid by Louis XIV,
in 1653, but the church was not finished till nearly a century later. In the
walls of its Renaissance façade we see marks of the grape-shot—the first
ever used—that poured from the guns of the soldiers of the young Corsican

officer, Napoléon Buonaparte, in the year 1795. Buonaparte had taken up
his position opposite the church, facing the insurgent sectionnaires grouped
on its broad steps. The fight that followed was the turning-point in the early
career of the young officer fated to become for a time master of the city and
of France. St-Roch is especially interesting on account of its many
monuments of notable persons of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
and its groups of statuary. The Calvary of the Catechists’ Chapel, as seen
through the opened shutters over the altar in the Chapel of the Adoration, is
of striking effect.
The Oratory, Rue de Rivoli and Rue St-Honoré, was built during the
early years of the seventeenth century as the mother-church of the Society
of the Oratorians, founded in 1611, and served at times as the Chapel Royal.
The Revolution broke up the Society of the Oratorians, their church was
desecrated, secularized. In 1810, it was given to the Protestants and has
been ever since the principal French Protestant Church of Paris. The statue
of Coligny on the Rue de Rivoli side is modern—1889.

CHAPTER II

AMONG OLD STREETS

R OUND about these old palaces and churches some ancient streets still
remain and many old houses, relics of bygone ages. Others have been
swept away to make room for up-to-date thoroughfares, shops and
dwellings. Place de l’École and Rue de l’École record the existence of the
famous school at St-Germain-l’Auxerrois, a catechists’ school in the first
instance, of more varied scope in Charlemagne’s time, where the pupils
took their lessons in the open air when fine or climbed into the font of the
baptistery when the font was dry. Rue de l’Arbre-Sec, once Rue de l’Arbre-
Sel, from an old sign, a thoroughfare since the twelfth century, was in past
days the site of the gallows. There it is said Queen Brunehaut was hacked to
death. Part of this ancient street was knocked down to make way for the big
shop “la Samaritaine”; but some ancient houses still stand. No. 4, recently
razed, is believed to have been the hôtel des Mousquetaires, the home of
d’Artagnan, lieutenant-captain of that famous band.
Rue Perrault runs where in bygone times Rue d’Auxerre, dating from
1005, and Rue des Fossés St-Germain-l’Auxerrois stretched away to the
Monnaie—the Mint. No. 4, hôtel de Sourdis, rebuilt in the eighteenth
century, was the home in her childhood of Gabrielle d’Estrées. No. 2, is the
entrance to the presbytère St-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Rue de la Monnaie, a
thirteenth-century street known at first by other names, recalls the existence
of the ancient Mint on the site of Rue Boucher close by. In Rue du Roule,
eighteenth century, we see old ironwork balconies. Rue du Pont-Neuf is
modern, on the line of ancient streets of which all traces have gone. Most of
the houses in Rue des Bourdonnais are ancient: In the walls of No. 31 we
see two or three ancient stones of the famous La Trémouille Mansion once
there occupied by the English under Charles VI. No. 34 dates from 1615.
From the door of 39 the Tête-Noire with its barbe d’Or, which gave the
house its name, still looks down. The sixth-century cabaret of l’Enfant-
Jesus, the monogram I.H.S. in wrought iron on its frontage, has been razed.
No. 14 is believed to have been the home of Greuze. The impasse at 37, in
olden times Fosse aux chiens, was a pig-market where in the fourteenth

century heretics were burnt. Rue Bertin-Poirée dates from the early years of
the thirteenth century, recording the name of a worthy citizen of those long
past days. At No. 5 we see a curious old sign “La Tour d’Argent”; out of
this old street we turn into the Rue Jean-Lantier recording the name of a
thirteenth-century Parisian, much of it and the ancient place du Chevalier-
du-Guet which was here, swept away in 1854. Rue des Lavandières-Ste-
Opportune, thirteenth century, reminds us of the existence of an old church,
Ste-Opportune, in the neighbourhood. Rue des Deux-Boules existed under
another name in the twelfth century. And here in the seventeenth century
was l’École du Modèle, nucleus of l’Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Rue des Orfèvres began in 1300 as Rue des Deux-portes. An old chapel,
St-Eloi, stood till 1786 by the side of No. 8. Rue St-Germain-l’Auxerrois
was a thoroughfare so far back as the year 820. No. 19 is the site of a
famous episcopal prison: For-l’Evêque. 38, at l’Arche Marion, duels were
wont to be fought in olden days. Rue des Bons-Enfants, aforetime Rue des
Echoliers St-Honoré, was so-called from the College founded in 1202 for
“les Bons-Enfants” on the site of the neighbouring Rue Montesquieu,
suppressed in 1602. Many of the old houses we see there were the
possession and abode of the dignitaries of St-Honoré. A tiny church
dedicated to Ste-Claire was in past days close up against the walls of No.
12. A vaulted arch and roof and staircase, lately razed, formed the entrance
to the ancient cloister. Beneath a coat-of-arms over the doorway of No. 11,
where is the Passage de la Vérité, an old inscription told of a reading-room
once there, where both morning and evening papers were to be found. 19,
hôtel de la Chancellerie d’Orléans, is on the site of a more ancient mansion.
All the houses of this and neighbouring streets show some trace of their
former state. Rue Radziwill was once Rue Neuve des Bons-Enfants, the
name still to be seen on an old wall near the Banque de France. Nearly all
the houses there have now become dependencies and offices of the Banque
de France, one side of which gives upon the even number side of the street.
At No. 33 is a wonderful twin staircase. At its starting it divides in two and
winds up with old-time grace to the top story. Two persons can mount at
once without meeting. Rue la Vrillière dates from 1652, named after the
Secrétaire d’État of Louis XIV, whose mansion, remodelled, is the Banque
de France with added to it the Salle Dorée des Fêtes and some other
remains of the hôtel de Toulouse.

Rue Croix des Petits-Champs dates from 1600, its name referring to a
cross which stood on the site of No. 12. No. 7, entrance of the old Cloître
St-Honoré. In the courtyard of No. 21 we see traces of the habitation of the
abbés. No. 23, hôtel des Gesvres, was the home of the parents of Mme de
Pompadour.

Two long and important streets, one ancient the other modern, stretch
through the entire length of this first arrondissement from east to west: Rue
de Rivoli and Rue St-Honoré.
Rue de Rivoli, dating from the first half of the nineteenth century, was
begun at its western end in the year 1811, across the site of ancient royal
stables, along the line of the famous riding-school of the Tuileries gardens,
and on through grounds erewhile the property of the three great convents:
les Feuillants, les Capucins, l’Assomption. It swept away ancient streets and
houses, picturesque courts and corners—a fine new thoroughfare built over
the ruins of historic walls and pavements. There is little to say, therefore,
about the buildings one sees there now. The hôtel Continental is on the site
of one of the first of the constructions then erected—the Ministère des
Finances, built during the second decade of the nineteenth century, burnt to
the ground by the Commune in 1871. The famous Salle des Manèges,
where the Revolutionary governments sat and King Louis XVI’s trial took
place, was on the site of the houses numbered 230-226: l’hôtel Meurice,
restaurant Rumpelmayer, etc., No. 186, a popular tearoom run by a British
firm, is near the site of the Grande Écurie of vanished royalty, and of a well-
known passage built there in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Admiral Coligny fell assassinated on the spot occupied by the house
number 144. Passing on into the fourth arrondissement, we come to the
Square St-Jacques, formed in 1854, where had stood the ancient church St-
Jacques-la-Boucherie, of which the tower alone remains, a beautiful
sixteenth-century tower, restored in the nineteenth century by the architect
Ballu. Nos. 18-16 are on the site of the ancient convent of the Petit St-
Antoine. In its chapel the Committee of the section “des droits de
l’Homme” sat in Revolution days.
Rue St-Honoré is full of historic houses and historic associations. Its
present name dates only from the year 1540, recalling the existence of the
collegiate church of the district. Like most other long, old thoroughfares,

Rue St-Honoré is made up of several past-time streets lying in a direct line,
united under a single name. Almost every building along its course bears
interesting traces of past grandeur or of commercial importance. Many have
quaint, odd sign-boards: No. 96 is on the site of the Pavillon des Singes,
where, in 1622, Molière was born. At No. 115 we see inscriptions dating
from 1715. No. 108 is l’hôtel de l’Ecouvette, formerly part of hôtel Brissac.
No. 145 is on a site where passed the boundary wall of Phillippe-Auguste
and where was built subsequently a mansion inhabited by the far-famed duc
de Joyeuse, then by Gabrielle d’Estrées, and wherein one Jean Châtel made
an attempt upon the life of Henri IV. Nos. 180, 182, 184 were connected
with the Cloître St-Honoré. No. 202 bore an inscription recording the
erection here of the Royal Academy of Music by Pierre Moreau—1760-70
—burnt down ten years later. No. 161, the Café de la Régence, replaced the
famous café founded at the corner of the Palais-Royal in 1681, the meeting-
place of chess-players. A chessboard was lent at so much the hour, the rate
higher after sunset to pay for the two candles placed near. Voltaire,
Robespierre, Buonaparte, Diderot, etc., and in later days Alfred de Musset
and his contemporaries, met here. The city wall of Charles V passed across
the site with its gateway, Porte St-Honoré. At this spot Jeanne d’Arc was
wounded in 1429 and carried thence to the maison des Genêts on the site of
No. 4, Place du Théâtre-Français. A bit of the ancient wall was found
beneath the pavement there some ten years ago. No. 167, Arms of England.
No. 280: Jeanne Vanbernier is said to have been saleswoman in a milliner’s
shop here. No. 201 shows the old-world sign “Au chien de St-Roch.” At
No. 211, hôtel St-James, are traces of the ancient hôtel de Noailles, which
included several distinct buildings and extensive grounds. Part of it became,
at the Revolution, the Café de Vénus; part the meeting-place of the
Committees of Revolutionary governments. At 320 we see another old sign-
board: “A la Tour d’Argent.” No. 334 was inhabited by Maréchal de
Noailles, brother of the Archbishop of Paris, in 1700. Nos. 340-338 show
traces of the ancient convent of the Jacobins. At No. 350, hôtel Pontalba,
with its fine eighteenth-century staircase, lived Savalette de Langes, keeper
of the Royal Treasure, who lent seven million francs to the brothers of
Louis XVI, money never repaid, the home in Revolution days of Barrère,
where Napoléon signed his marriage contract. Nos. 235, 231, 229, were
built by the Feuillants 1782 as sources of revenue, and are the last
remaining vestiges of the old convent. At 249 we see the Arms and portrait

of Queen Victoria dating from the time of Louis-Philippe. No. 374 was the
hôtel of Madame Géoffrin, whose salon was the meeting-place of the most
noted politicians, littérateurs and artistes of the day, among them
Châteaubriand, who made the house his home for a time. At No. 263 stands
the chapel of the ancient convent des Dames de l’Assomption (see p. 29).
No. 398 is perhaps in part the very house, more probably the house
entirely rebuilt, inhabited for a time by Robespierre and some of his family
and by Couthon. No. 400 was the Imperial bakery in the time of Napoléon
III. No. 271, now a modern erection, was till quite recently the famous
cabaret du St-Esprit, dating from the seventeenth century, where during the
Terreur sightseers gathered to watch the tragic chariots pass laden with
victims for the guillotine. Marie-Antoinette passed that way and was
subjected to that cruel scrutiny.
The greater number of the streets of this arrondissement running
northwards start from Rue de Rivoli, and cross Rue St-Honoré, or start from
the latter. Beginning at the western end of Rue Rivoli, we see Rue St-
Florentin dating from 1640, so named more than a century later when the
comte de St-Florentin deputed the celebrated architects Chalgrin and
Gabriel to build the mansion we see at No. 2. It was a splendid mansion
then, with surrounding galleries, fine gardens, a big fountain, and was the
home of successive families of the noblesse. In 1792, it was the Venetian
Embassy, under the Terreur a saltpeter factory. At No. 12 was an inn where
people gathered to watch the condemned pass to the scaffold.
Rue Cambon, so named after the Conventional author of the Grand Livre
de La Dette Publique, dates in its lower part, when it was Rue de
Luxembourg, from 1719, prolonged a century later. Some of the older
houses still stand, and have interesting vestiges of past days; others, razed
in recent years, have been replaced by modern constructions. The new
building, “Cour des Comptes,” built to replace the Palais du Quai d’Orsay
burnt by the Communards in 1871, is on the site of the ancient convent of
the Haudriettes, suppressed in 1793, when it became the garrison of the
Cent Suisses, later a financial depot. The convent chapel, left untouched,
serves as the catechists’ chapel for the Madeleine, and has services attended
especially by Poles.
In Rue Duphot, opened in 1807 across the old garden of the Convent of
the Conception, we see at No. 12 an ancient convent arch and courtyard.

Rue Castiglione (1811) stretches across the site of the convents Les
Feuillants and Les Capucins.
In Rue du Mont-Thabor, stretching where was once a convent garden, a
vaulted roof and chapel-like building at No. 24, at one time an artist’s
studio, remains of the convent once there, is about to be razed. Orsini died
at No. 10; Alfred de Musset at No. 6 (1857).
PLACE VENDÔME
In the year 1685 Louis XIV set about the erection of a grand place
intended as a monument in his own honour. The site chosen was that of the
hôtel Vendôme which had recently been razed, and of the neighbouring
convent of the Capucins. The death of Louvois—1691—interrupted this
work. It was taken in hand a year or two later by Mansart and Boffrand,
who designed in octagonal form the vast place called at first Place des
Conquêtes, then Place Louis-le-Grand. A statue of Louis XIV was set up
there in 1699. The land behind the grand façades and houses erected by the
State was sold for building purposes to private persons, and the notorious
banker Law and his associates finished the Place in 1720. Royal fêtes were
held there and popular fairs. Soon it was the scene of financial agitations,
then of Revolutionary tumults. On August 10, 1792, heads of the guillotined
were set up there on spikes and the square was named Place des Piques. A
bonfire was made of volumes referring to the title-deeds of the French
noblesse and the archives of the St-Esprit; and in 1796 the machines which
had been used to make assignats were solemnly burnt there. In 1810 the
Colonne d’Austerlitz was set up where erewhile had stood the statue of
Louis XIV, made of cannons taken from the enemy, its bas-reliefs
illustrative of the chief events of the momentous year 1805. It was
surmounted by a statue of Napoléon, which, in 1814, the Royalists vainly
attempted to pull down by means of ropes. It was taken away later, the
drapeau blanc put up in its stead. Napoléon’s statue, melted down, was
transformed into the statue of Henri IV on the Pont-Neuf, replacing the
original statue set up there (see p. 340). In 1833, Napoléon went up again, a
newly designed statue, replaced in its turn by a reproduction of the first one
in 1865. In 1871, the Column was overturned by the Communards, but set
up anew by the French Government under MacMahon.
Every mansion on the Place, most of them now commercial hotels or
business-houses, was at one time or another the habitation of noted men and

women, and recalls historic events. The façades of Nos. 9 and 7 are classed
as historic monuments; their preservation cared for by the State. No. 23 was
the scene of Law’s speculations after his forced move from his quarters in
the old Rue Quincampoix. At No. 6 Chopin died.

PLACE ET COLONNE VENDÔME

The Rue and Marché St-Honoré are on the site of the ancient convent
and chapel of the Jacobins, suppressed at the Revolution, and where the
famous club des Jacobins was established. The market dates from 1810.
Rue Gomboust dates from the thirteenth century, when it was Rue de la
Corderie St-Honoré. Rue de Ste-Hyacinthe dates from 1650. Rue de la
Sourdière from the seventeenth century shows us many old-time walls and
vestiges and much interesting old ironwork.
On the wall of the church St-Roch we still see the inscription “Rue
Neuve-St-Roch,” the ancient name of the street at its western end. The
street has existed from the close of the fifteenth century bearing different
names in the different parts of its course. The part nearest the Tuileries was
known in the eighteenth century as Rue du Dauphin, in Revolution days as
Rue de la Convention. Many of its houses are ancient and of curious aspect.
In Rue d’Argenteuil, leading out of Rue St-Roch, once a country road,
stood until recent years the house where Corneille died.
Rue des Pyramides dates only from 1806, but No. 2 of the street is noted
as the meeting-place, in the rooms of a friend, of Béranger, Alexandre

Dumas, père, Victor Hugo and other famous writers of the day. In the fourth
story of a house in the corner of the Place dwelt Émile Augier.
From the Place du Théâtre-Français where the fountain has played since
the middle of the nineteenth century, the Avenue de l’Opéra opened out
about 1855 as Avenue Napoléon, cut through a conglomeration of ancient
streets and dwellings. Leading out of the Avenue there still remains in this
arrondissement Rue Molière, known in the seventeenth century as Rue du
Bâton-Royal, then as Rue Traversière, and always intimately associated
with actors and men of letters. Rue Ste-Anne was known in its early days as
Rue du Sang and Rue de la Basse Voirie, then an unsavoury alley-like
thoroughfare. Its present name, after Anne d’Autriche, was given in 1633.
Then for a time it was known as Rue Helvetius, in memory of a man of
letters born there in 1715. Nearly all its houses are ancient and were the
habitation in past days of noted persons, artists and others. Nos. 43 and 47
were the property of the composer Lulli. The street runs on into
arrondissement II, where at No. 49, hôtel Thévenin, we see an old statue of
John the Baptist holding the Paschal Lamb. At No. 46 Bossuet lived and
died. No. 63 was part of the New Catholic’s convent. Nos. 64, 66, 68,
mansions owned by Louvois.
Rue Thérèse (Marie-Thérèse of Austria) was in 1880 joined on to Rue du
Hazard, a short street so called from a famous gambling-house; No. 6 has
interesting old-time vestiges. At No. 23 we see two inscriptions honouring
the memory of Abbé de l’Epée, inventor of the deaf and dumb alphabet,
who died at a house, no longer there, in Rue des Moulins. Rue Villedo
records the name of a famous master-mason of olden time. Rue Ventadour
existed in its older part in 1640. Rue de Richelieu, starting from the Place
du Théâtre-Français, goes on to arrondissement II in the vicinity of the
Bourse. It dates from the time when the Cardinal was building his palace.
Most of its constructions show interesting architectural features, vestiges of
past days, many have historic associations. Some of the original houses
were rebuilt in the eighteenth century, some have quite recently been razed
and replaced by modern erections. Much of the fine woodwork once at No.
21 was bought and carried away by the Marquis de Breteuil; the rest by
Americans. In a house where No. 40 now stands Molière died in 1763. No.
50, hôtel de Strasbourg, was rebuilt in 1738 by the mother of Madame de
Pompadour. In 1780 the musician Grétry lived in the fourth story of No. 52.

Rue du Louvre is a modern street where ancient streets once ran,
demolished to make way for it. At No. 13 we find traces of a tower of the
city wall of Philippe-Auguste, as also at No. 7 of the adjacent Rue
Coquillère, a thirteenth-century street with, at No. 31, vestiges of an ancient
Carmelite convent. At No. 15 we find ourselves before an arched entrance
and spacious courtyard surrounded by imposing buildings and in its centre
an immense fountain. This structure is a modern re-erection of the ancient
Cour des Fermes; the institution of the “Fermiers Généraux” was
suppressed in 1783 and definitely abolished by law in the first year of the
Revolution—1789. The members, however, continued to meet; many were
arrested and shut up as prisoners in their own old mansion on this spot, used
thenceforth, until the Revolution was over, as a State prison.

CHAPTER III

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE GREAT MARKETS
LES HALLES CENTRALES

T HE legend telling us the great Paris Market was first called “les
Alles”—no “H”—because everybody y allait, i.e. went there, need not
be taken seriously. Even in remote mediæval times the markets had
some covered premises or “Halles.” The earliest Paris market of which we
have record takes us back to the year 1000, that momentous year predicted
by sooth-sayers for the end of the world; few sowings, therefore, had been
made the preceding season. The market stalls of that year were but scantily
furnished. That ancient market lying along the banks of the Seine in the
vicinity of the present Place St-Michel, and its successor on what was then
Place de Grève (see p. 95) went by the curious name Palu. In ancient days,
under Louis-le-Gros, the site of the immense erection and market-square we
see now was known of old as le terrain des champeaux—the territory of
little fields—land owned in part by the King, in part by ecclesiastical
authorities, and bought for the great market in the twelfth century. The sale
of herrings, wholesale and retail, goes on to-day on the very site set apart
for fishmongers in the time of St. Louis. Rue Baltard, running through the
centre of the pavilions, records the name of the architect of the present
structure, which dates from 1856. Rue Antoine-Carême records the name of
Napoléon I’s cook. Ancient streets surround us here on every side, old
houses, curious old signs. Rue Berger is made up of several ancient streets
united. The part of Rue Rambuteau bordering les Halles lies along the line
of four thirteenth-century streets known of yore by old-world names. Rue
des Halles, leading up to the Markets from the Rue Rivoli, a modern
thoroughfare (1854), made along the course of ancient streets, has curious
old streets leading into it: Rue des Déchargeurs, a characteristic name, was
opened in 1310. The short Rue du Plat d’Étain opening out of it dates from
1300, when it was Rue Raoul Tavernier. Rue de la Ferronnerie, extremely
narrow at that period, is noted as the scene of the assassination of Henri IV
in front of a house on the site of No. 11 (14 May, 1610). From the days of
Louis IX the street was, as its name implies, the resort of ironmongers.

Good old ironwork is still seen on several of the houses. Rue Courtalon
(thirteenth century) is entirely made up of ancient houses. Rue de la
Lingerie, formerly Rue des Gantiers, was a well-built street in the time of
Henri II, but most of the houses seen there now are modern. Rue Prouvaires
—from provoire, old French for prêtres—thirteenth century, is referred to in
the time of Louis IX as one of the finest streets of Paris. It extended
formerly to the church St-Eustache. Of the old streets once along the course
of the modern Rue du Pont-Neuf all traces have been swept away.

PORTAIL DE ST-EUSTACHE

To the north side of Les Halles, we find Rue Mondétour, dating from
1292, but many of its ancient houses have been razed; modern ones occupy
their site. A dancing-hall in this old street was the meeting-place of French
Protestants before the passing of the Edict of Nantes. No. 14 has cellars in
two stories.

The church St-Eustache is often familiarly referred to by the market
women as Notre-Dame des Halles. The crypt, once the chapel Ste-Agnes,
the nucleus of the grand old church, dating from 1200, secularized but still
forming one with the sacred building, is a fruiterer’s shop—truly St-
Eustache is the church of the Markets. The edifice as it stands dates as a
whole from the seventeenth century. Gothic in its grand lines, very
strikingly impressive, it has a Jesuit frontage, substituted for the Gothic
façade originally planned, and Renaissance ornamentation within. The
church was mercilessly truncated in the eighteenth century to allow for the
making and widening of surrounding streets.
Rue du Jour under other names has existed from the early years of the
thirteenth century, but was then close up against the city wall of Philippe-
Auguste. Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 11 are ancient, and No. 25, with its traces of
bygone ages, is believed to be on the site of the house where Charles V
made from time to time a séjour, hence the name, truncated, of the street.
Rue Vauvilliers, until 1864 Rue du Four St-Honoré, dates from the
thirteenth century. Here, at No. 33, lodged young Buonaparte, the future
Emperor, at the ancient hôtel de Cherbourg, in 1787. To-day it is a butcher’s
shop. Several of the houses have curious signs and other vestiges of past
days. The circular colonnaded street we come to now, Rue de Viarmes, was
built in 1768 by the Prévôt des Marchands whose name it bears. It
surrounds the Bourse de Commerce built in 1889 on the site of the Halles
aux Blés erected in the first instance in 1767, twice burnt to the ground and
twice subsequently rebuilt on the site of the famous hôtel de Nesle where la
Reine Blanche, mother of St. Louis, is said to have died in 1252. L’hôtel de
Nesle was inhabited later by the blind King of Bohemia, killed at Crécy,
and subsequently by other persons of note, then was taken to form part of
the Couvent des Filles Pénitentes, appropriated with several adjoining
hôtels in after years by Catherine de’ Medici (see p. 9). After the Queen’s
death, as the possession of the comte de Bourbon, it was known as l’hôtel
de Soissons; in 1749 it was razed to the ground. One ancient pillar, la
Colonne de l’Horoscope, with its interior flight of steps still stands.
Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the days when its upper part was the
ancient Rue Platrière, the lower Rue Grenelle-St-Honoré, counted among its
inhabitants Rousseau, Bossuet, Marat, Fragonard, Boucher, the duchesse de
Valentinois, and other noted personages. Most of the ancient dwellings have
been replaced by modern constructions. Where the General Post Office now

stands, extending down Rue du Louvre, the comte de Flandre had a fine
mansion in the thirteenth century. Destroyed in 1543, it was replaced by
another fine hôtel, which became the Paris post office in 1757, rebuilt in
1880. We see interesting architectural traces of past days at Nos. 15, 18, 19,
20, 33, 56, 64, 68. This brings us to Rue Étienne-Marcel, its name recalling
the stirring and tragic history of the Prévôt de Paris at the time of the
Jacquerie-Marcel, in revolt against the Dauphin; Charles V had the two
great nobles, Jean de Conflans and Robert de Clermont, killed in the King’s
presence, and was himself struck down dead when on the point of giving
Paris over to Charles-le-Mauvais in 1358. But the name only is ancient, the
street is entirely modern, cut across the line where ancient streets once ran.
Some few old-time vestiges remain here and there, notably the Tour de Jean
Sans Peur at No. 20, all that is left of the hôtel de Bourgoyne, built in the
thirteenth century, to which the tower was added in 1405; it was partially
destroyed in the sixteenth century, while what still stood became a theatre,
the chief Paris play-house, the cradle of the Comédie Française.
Rue Montmartre, crossing Rue Étienne-Marcel and going on into the
arrondissement II, dates at this end—its commencement—from the close of
the eleventh century. In Revolution days it was known as Rue Mont-Marat!
As long as Paris had fortified boundary walls there was always a Porte
Montmartre, moved northward three times, as the city bounds extended.
The Porte of Philippe-Auguste was where the house No. 30 now stands, and
this part of the street was known then as Rue Porte-Montmartre. The
Passage de la Reine de Hongrie memorizes a certain dame de la Halle in
whom Marie-Antoinette saw a remarkable likeness to her mother, the
Queen of Hungary. The woman became for her generation “la Reine de
Hongrie”—the alley where she dwelt was called by this name. She shared
not only the title but the fate of royalty: was beheaded by the guillotine.
Rue Montorgueil, beginning here and leading to the higher ground called
when the Romans ruled in Gaul “Mons Superbus,” now the levelled
boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle and its surrounding streets, was known in the
thirteenth century as Mont Orgueilleux. In bygone days, the Parisians
strolled out to the Mont Orgueilleux to eat oysters. There was a famous
oyster-bed on the site of the house now razed where, in 1780, was born that
exquisite song and ballad writer, Béranger. The ancient house, No. 32, is
said to have been the home of the architect, Jean Goujon. The little side-
street Rue Mauconseil dates from 1250, and tradition says its name is due to

the mauvais conseil given within the walls of the hôtel de Bourgoyne, close
by, which led to the assassination of the duc d’Orléans by Jean Sans Peur.
In Revolution days, therefore, it was promptly renamed for the nonce Rue
du Bon Conseil! At No. 48 we find a famous tripe-eating house. No. 47 was
once the Central Sedan Chair Office. At No. 51 we see interesting signs
over the door, and painted panels signed by Paul Baudry within (1864).
Nos. 64, 72 is the old sixteenth-century inn, the “Compas d’Or,” and the
famous restaurant Philippe. The coachyard of the inn is little changed from
the days when coaches plied between that starting-place and Dreux. The
restaurant du Rocher de Cancale, at No. 78, dating from 1820, where the
most celebrated men of letters and art of the nineteenth century met and
dined, was at first “Le Petit Rocher,” then the successor of the ancient
restaurant at No. 59 dating from the eighteenth century, where the dîners du
Caveau and the dîners du Vaudeville were eaten by gay literary and artistic
dîneurs of olden time.
Rue Turbigo is modern and makes us think regretfully of ancient streets
and of the apse of the church St-Elisabeth demolished to make way for it.
Turning down Rue St-Denis, the famous “Grande Chaussée de Monsieur
St-Denis” of ancient days, the road along which legend tells us the saint,
coming from the heights above, walked carrying his head after decapitation,
we find it, from this point to the vicinity of the Châtelet, rich in historic
buildings and vestiges of a past age. Kings on their way to Notre-Dame
entered Paris in state along this old road; it was connected more or less
closely with every political event of bygone times, with Parisian pleasures
too, for there of old the mystery plays went on. Curious old streets and
passages open out of it: at 279 the quaint Rue Ste-Foy. In the court of No.
222 we see the hôtel St. Chaumont, its façade on boulevard Sebastopol,
dating from 1630.
The church we come to at No. 92 dedicated to St. Leu and St. Gilles was
built in the early years of the thirteenth century on the site of an earlier
church, a dependent of the Abbaye St-Magloire close by, suppressed at the
Revolution. Subsequent restorations, and the building in the eighteenth
century of a subterranean chapel for the knights of the Holy Sépulcre, have
resulted in an interesting old church of mingled Gothic and Renaissance
style; its apse was lopped off to make way for the modern boulevard
Sébastopol. The would-be assassin Cadoudal hid for three days crouched up
against the figure of Christ in the chapel beneath the chancel (1804). Rue

des Lombards dates from the thirteenth century, and at one or two of its
houses, notably No. 62, we find an underground hall with vaulted roof and
Gothic windows. At No. 56 we see an open corner. It is “ground accurst.”
The house of two Protestant merchants who in 1579 were put to death for
their “evil practices!” once stood there. Their dwelling was razed and a
pyramid and crucifix were set up on the spot, soon afterwards removed to
the cemetery des Innocents hard by.
The chemist’s shop at No. 44, “Au Mortier d’Or,” united now to its
neighbour “A la Barbe d’Or,” dates, as regards its foundation, from the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the window we see an open volume
printed in 1595 with the engraved portrait of the founder.
Rue des Innocents was opened in 1786 across the site of the graveyard of
the church des Saints-Innocents, founded in 1150 and which stood till 1790.
More than a million bodies are said to have been buried in that churchyard.
In 1780 the cemetery was turned into a market-place. But it was again used
as a burial ground for victims of the Revolution of 1830. Their bones lie
now beneath the Colonne de Juillet on the Place de la Bastille. The market-
place became a square: “Le Square des Innocents.” The fine old fountain
dating from 1550, the work of the famous sculptors Pierre Lescot and Jean
Goujon, was taken from its site in the Rue St-Denis, restored by the best
sculptors of the day, and set up there in 1850. The beautiful portal of the
ancient bureau des Marchandes-lingères was placed there in more recent
times. The ground floor of most of the old houses of this street are ancient
charniers, many of them built by one Nicolas Flamel. Therein were laid in
past days the bones periodically gathered from the graveyard. The name
“Cabaret du Caveau” at No. 15 tells its own tale. In Rue Berger, formed
along the line of several demolished streets of old, we see some ancient
signs, but little else of interest. Old signs too, in Rue de la Cossonnerie, so
named from the cossonniers, i.e. poultry-merchants, whose market was here
and which was known as early as 1182 as Via Cochonerie. Rue des
Prêcheurs is another twelfth-century street and there we see many ancient
houses: Nos. 6-8, etc. Rue Pirouette, one of the most ancient of Paris
streets, recalls the days of the pilori des Halles, when its victims, forced to
turn from side to side, made la pirouette. Here the duc d’Angoulême had
his head cut off under Louis XI, and the duc de Nemours in 1477. At No. 5
we see the ancient doorway of the demolished hôtellerie du Haume
(fourteenth century), at No. 9 was the cabaret de l’Ange Gabriel (now

razed), at No. 13 vestiges of an ancient mansion. A few old houses still
stand in the Rue de la Grande Truanderie (thirteenth century). Rue de la
Petite Truanderie, of the same date, was once noted for its old well, “le
Puits d’Amour,” in the small square half-way down the street, of old the
truands’ quarter (see p. 56).

CHAPTER IV

THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE

T HE history of Paris and of France, from the earliest days of their story,
is connected with the Palais de Justice on the western point of the island
on the Seine. The palace stands on the site of the habitation of the rulers
of Lutetia in the days of the Romans, of the first Merovingian and of the
first Capetian kings. The present building, often reconstructed, restored,
enlarged, dates in its foundations and some other parts from the time of
Robert le Pieux. King Robert built the Conciergerie. Under Louis IX the
palace was again considerably enlarged; the kitchens of St. Louis are an
interesting feature in the palace as we know it. In 1434, Charles VII gave up
the palace to the Parliament. It met in the great hall above St. Louis’
kitchens, and round an immense table there law tribunals assembled. For
the French Parliament of those times was in some sort a great law-court.
Guizot describes it as: “la cour souveraine du roi, la cour suprême du
royaume.” Known in its earliest days as “Le Conseil du Roi,” its members
were the grandees of the kingdom: vassals, prelates, officers of State, and it
was supposed to follow the King wherever he went, though as a matter of
fact it rarely moved from Paris. When, in course of time, it was considered
desirable that its members should all be able not only to read but to write,
the great nobles of that age declared they were not going to change their
swords for a writing-desk and many withdrew, to be replaced by men of
lesser rank but greater skill in other directions than that of arms, and who
came to be regarded as the noblesse de la robe—distinct from la noblesse
de l’épee.

LA TOUR DE L’HORLOGE, LES “TOURS POINTUES” DE LA CONCIERGERIE ET LE
MARCHÉ AUX FLEURS

The big hall of that day and other adjacent halls and passages were burnt
down more than once in olden times, and burnt down again in 1871, when
the Communards wrought havoc on so many fine old buildings of their city.
The most thrilling incidents, the most stirring events in the history of the
Nation had some point of connection with that ancient palace—often a
culminating point. And within those grim walls where the destinies of men
and women of all conditions and ranks were determined, where tragedy
held its own, scenes in lighter vein were not unknown in ancient days.
Mystery plays were often given there, and every year in the month of May,
reputed a “merry month,” even in the Palais de Justice, the company of men
of law known as the “basoche,” planted a May-tree in the courtyard before
the great entrance doors—hence the name “la Cour de Mai.” It is a tragic
courtyard despite its name, for the Conciergerie prison opened into it;
through the door of what is now the Buvette du Palais—a refreshment-room

—men and women condemned to death passed, in Revolution days, while
other men and women, women chiefly, crowded on the broad steps above to
see the laden charrettes start off for the place of execution.

LA SAINTE-CHAPELLE

The Sainte-Chapelle, that wondrous piece of purest Gothic architecture,
the work of Pierre de Montereau (1245-48) built for the preservation of
sacred relics brought by Louis IX on his return from the Holy Land, vividly
recalls the days when the palace was a royal habitation. Its upper story was
in direct communication with the royal dwelling-rooms; the lower story was
for the palace servants and officials. During the Revolution the chapel was
devastated and used as a club and a flour-store. The Chambre des Comptes,
a beautiful old building in the courtyard of the Sainte-Chapelle, was
destroyed by fire in 1737. Its big arch was saved and forms part of the

Musée Carnavalet (see p. 81). A chief feature of the chapelle is its exquisite
stained glass.
The enlarging of the Palais in recent times (1908) swept away
surrounding relics of bygone ages. Some vestiges of past days still remain
in Rue de Harlay opposite the Palais, to the west—Nos. 20, 54, 52, 68, 74.
The buildings of the boulevard du Palais and Rue de Lutèce, on its eastern
side, arrondissement IV, are all modern on ancient historic sites.
Place Dauphine dates from 1607. It was built as a triangular place, its
name referring to the son of Henri IV. In earlier ages, the site formed two
islets, on one of which, l’îlot des Juifs, Jacques de Morlay, Grand Master of
the Templars, suffered death by burning in 1314. A fountain stood on the
Place to the memory of General Desaix, erected by public subscription,
carted away in the time of the first Republic, and set up at Riom. Painters
excluded from the Salon used to exhibit their work here each year, in the
open air, on Corpus Christi day. Some of the houses still show seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century vestiges. No. 28, now much restored, was Madame
Roland’s early home. The writer Halévy died at 26 (1908).
The Quays of the island bordering the Palais north and south both date
from the sixteenth century. Both have been curtailed by the enlargement of
the Palais. On Quai des Orfèvres, the goldsmith’s quay, from the first the
jewellers’ quarter, still stands the shop once owned by the jewellers
implicated in the affair of the “Collier de la Reine.” The Quai de l’Horloge
is still the optician’s quarter and was known in olden days as Quai des
Morfondus, on account of the blasting winds which swept along it—and do
so still in winter-time. The palace clock in the fine old tower built in the
thirteenth century, restored after the ravages of the Revolution in the
nineteenth, from which the quay takes its present name, is a successor of the
first clock seen in France, set up there about the year 1370. There, too, hung
in olden days a great bell rung as a signal on official occasions, and which
perhaps rang out the death-knell of the Huguenots even before the sounding
of the bell at St-Germain l’Auxerrois, on the eve of St. Bartholomew’s Day,
1572.

CHAPTER V

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE
NATIONALE
ARRONDISSEMENT II. (BOURSE)

R UE DES PETITS-CHAMPS marks the boundary between the
arrondissements I and II—the odd numbers in arrondissement I, the
even ones in arrondissement II. The street was opened in 1634. Many of
its old houses still stand and show us, without and within, some interesting
architectural features of past days. The hôtel Tubeuf, No. 8, destined with
adjoining mansions to become the Bibliothèque Nationale, was, tradition
tells us, staked at the gambling table and won by the statesman Mazarin.
The Cardinal bought two adjoining hôtels and surrounding land as far as the
Rue Colbert and built thereon his own fine mansion, using the two hôtels as
wings. The first books placed there were those of his own library, a fine
collection, taken at his death, according to the directions of his will, to the
Collège des Quatre Nations, known to-day as the Institut Mazarin. The
Cardinal’s vast mansion was divided among his heirs and in its different
parts was put to various uses during following years till, in 1721, it was
bought by the Crown. The King’s library was then taken there from Rue
Vivienne, where it had been placed in 1666, and soon afterwards opened to
the public. The greater part of the building has been reconstructed in
modern times and enlarged. The blackened walls of a part of Mazarin’s
mansion, that formed l’hôtel de Nivers, still stand at the corner of Rue
Colbert. The chief entrance to the Library is in Rue de Richelieu.
Engravings, medals, works of art of many descriptions connected with
letters may be seen at what has been successively Bibliothèque Royale,
Bibliothèque Impériale and is now Bibliothèque Nationale. The ceiling of
the Galerie Mazarin is covered with splendid frescoes by Romanelli. The
heart of Voltaire is said to be encased in the statue we see there. Madame de
Récamier died at the Library in 1849; she had taken refuge there in the
rooms of her niece, whose husband was one of the officials when the
cholera broke out in l’Abbaye-aux-Bois. Opposite the Library, on the Rue
Richelieu side, is the Square Louvois dating from 1839, on the site of two

old hôtels once there. There, in 1793, Citoyenne Montansier set up a
theatre, known successively as Théâtre des Arts, Théâtre de la Loi and the
Opéra.
After the assassination of the duc de Berri in front of No. 3 Rue du
Rameau (February 13, 1820) as he was about to re-enter the Opera-House,
Louis XVIII intended to build there a chapelle expiatoire. The Revolution
of 1830 put an end to that project. The big poplar-tree, seen until recent
years overlooking Rue Rameau, was planted as a tree of Liberty in 1848. It
suddenly died in 1912. The fountain is the work of Visconti and Klagman
(1844). In Rue Chabanais (1777) at No. 11, Pichegru, betrayed by Leblanc,
was arrested (1804). Proceeding down Rue de Richelieu we see grand old
mansions throughout its entire length. No. 71 formed part of the hôtel
Louvois, given some four years before her tragic death to princesse de
Lamballe who built roomy stables there. On the site of No. 62, quite
recently demolished, was the hôtel de Talaru, built in 1652, which became
one of the most noted prisons of the Terreur, and where its owner, the
marquis de Talaru, was himself imprisoned. No. 75 was l’hôtel de Louis de
Mornay, one of the most noted lovers of Ninon de Lenclos. No. 78, in the
past a famous lace-shop, was owned by the East India Company. No. 93,
once the immense hôtel Crozet, property of the ducs de Choiseul, cut
through in 1780 by the making of two neighbouring streets, was inhabited
in 1715 by Watteau. No. 102 stands on the site of a house owned by
Voltaire, inhabited at one time by his niece. No. 104, at first a private
mansion, became successively Taverne Britannique (1845-52), Restaurant
Richelieu, Union Club du Billard et du Sport. No. 101 was at one time the
restaurant du Grand U, so called in 1883 from an article in “Le National”
apropos of the Union Republicaine.
Leading out of Rue Richelieu, in the vicinity of the Bibliothèque
Nationale, we see old houses in Rue St-Augustin, and Rue des Filles de St-
Thomas, the latter cut short in more recent days by the Place de la Bourse
and the Rue du Quatre-Septembre. The busts on No. 7 of the latter street
recall a theatrical costume store of past days. No. 21 Rue Feydeau was the
site of the Théâtre des Nouveautés, which became the Opéra-Comique,
demolished in 1830. Rue des Colonnes was in former days closed at each
end by gates. At No. 14 Rue St-Marc, Ernest Logouvé was born, lived, died
(1807-1903). La Malibran was born at No. 31.

The Bourse stands on the site of the convent of les Filles St-Thomas. Its
cellars still exist beneath what was before 1914 the Restaurant Champeaux,
Rue du 4 Septembre. The chapel stood till 1802 and was during the
Revolution the meeting-place of the reactionary section Le Peletier; the
insurgent troops defeated by Buonaparte on the steps of St-Roch had
assembled there (1795) (see p. 20).
The first stone of the present Bourse was laid in 1808. The building was
enlarged in the early years of this century. The Paris Exchange stockbrokers
had in early times met at the Pont-au-Change; during the Revolution they
gathered in the chapelle des Petits-Pères; later at the Palais-Royal.
The fine old door of the hôtel Montmorency-Luxembourg still stands at
the entrance to the Passage des Panoramas, leading to the old galleries:
Galerie Montmartre and Galerie des Variétés—opening out on Rue
Montmartre and Rue Vivienne. Until after the Revolution there were no
shops in Rue Vivienne, so full to-day of shops and business houses. It
records the name of a certain sire Vivien, King’s secretary, owner of a hôtel
in the newly opened thoroughfare. Thierry lived there in 1834, Alphonse
Karr in 1835. The great gates of the Bibliothèque Nationale on this side are
those which in bygone days closed the Place-Royale, now Place des Vosges.
No. 49 is the most ancient Frascati Dining Saloon with the old ballroom
candelabras. Many of the houses have interesting old-time vestiges.
Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was until after 1633 le “Chemin-Herbu,”
the grass-grown road; Nos. 30, 28, 14, 13, 10, 4, 2 are ancient: other old
houses have been demolished. The Place-des-Victoires from which it starts
was the site of the fine hôtel de Pomponne, which later served as the
Banque de France. Most of the houses are ancient with interesting
architectural features.
Place des Petits-Pères close by is best known for the church there, Notre-
Dame-des-Victoires, a name given to record the taking of La Rochelle from
the Protestants in 1627. Its first stone was laid by Louis XIII in 1629, but
the church was not finished till more than a century later. It was for long the
convent chapel of the Augustins Déchaussés, commonly known as the
Petits-Pères, from the remarkably short stature of the two monks, its
founders. The Lady-chapel is a place of special pilgrimage and is brimful of
votive offerings. The church is never empty. Passers-by rarely fail to go in
to say a prayer, or spend a quiet moment there; work-girls from the shops

and offices and workrooms of the neighbourhood go there in their dinner-
hour for rest and shelter from the streets. Services of thanksgiving after
victory are naturally a special feature there. The choir has fine pictures by
Van Loo. Rue des Petits-Pères dates from 1615 and shows interesting traces
of past ages. Rue d’Aboukir lies along the line of three seventeenth-century
streets, in one of which Buonaparte lived for a time. Many old houses still
stand there; others of historical association have been demolished, modern
buildings erected on their site. Half-way down the street is Place du Caire,
once the site of that most truly Parisian industry: carding and mattress-
making and cleaning. French mattresses are, in normal times, turned inside
out, cleaned or refilled very frequently.
A hospital and a convent stretched along part of the place and across
Passage du Caire in past days. Several houses there are ancient, as also in
Rue Alexandrie.
In Rue du Mail, at what is now hôtel de Metz, Buonaparte lodged in
1790. We see many old houses. Spontini lived here, and No. 12 was
inhabited by Madame Récamier and also by Talma. The modern Rue du
Quatre-Septembre has swept away many an interesting old thoroughfare. At
No. 100 the Passage de la Cour des Miracles recalls the ancient cour of the
name, done away with in 1656, of which some traces still remain—the
scene in olden days of feats of apparent healing and of physical
transformation whereby the truands, persons of no avowed or avowable
occupation, gained precarious deniers. Out of this long modern street we
may turn into many shorter ancient ones. Rue du Sentier, recalling by its
name a pathway through a wood—sentier, a corruption of chantier—has
fine old houses and knew in its time many inhabitants of mark. At No. 8
lived Monsieur Lebrun, a famous picture dealer, husband of Madame Vigée
Lebrun. At No. 2 dwelt Madame de Staël, at Nos. 22-24, in rooms erewhile
decorated by Fragonard, Le Normand d’Étioles, husband of La Pompadour,
after his separation from her. No. 33 was the home of his wife in her
girlhood and at the time of her marriage. At No. 30 lived Sophie Gay.
Rue St-Joseph, so named from a seventeenth-century chapel knocked
down in 1800, of which we find some traces, was previously Rue du
Temps-Perdu; in the graveyard attached to St-Eustache—later a market—La
Fontaine and Molière were buried, their ashes transferred in 1818 to Père-
Lachaise. At No. 10 Zola was born (1840). Rue du Croissant (seventeenth
century) is a street of ancient houses and the chief newspaper street of the

city. Paper hawkers crowd there at certain hours each day, then rush away,
vying with one another to call attention to their stock-in-trade. At No. 22,
Café du Croissant, at the corner where this street meets the Rue
Montmartre, journalists assemble, and there the notable Socialist, Jaurès,
was shot dead on the eve of the outbreak of war, July 31st, 1914. The sign
at No. 18 is said to date from 1612. In Rue des Jeûneurs (1643)—the name
a corruption from des Jeux-Neufs—we see more ancient houses and leading
out of it the old Rue St-Fiacre, once Rue du Figuier. No. 19 was inhabited
in recent years by a lady left a widow after one year’s married life, who,
owner of the building, dismissed the tenants of its six large flats and shut
herself up in absolute solitude till her death at the age of eighty-nine. No. 23
was designed by Soufflot le Romain (1775). Rue Montmartre in its course
continued from arrondissement I, which it leaves at Rue Étienne-Marcel,
shows many interesting vestiges. At No. 178 we see a bas-relief of the Porte
Montmartre of past days. Within the modern Brasserie du Coq, a copy of
the automatic cock of Strasbourg Cathedral, dating from 1352. On the
frontage of No. 121 a curious set of bells, and a quaint sign, “A la grâce de
Dieu,” dating from 1710. No. 118 was known in past days as the house of
clocks. Thirty-two were seen on its frontage, the work of a Swiss
clockmaker. Going up this old street in order to visit the streets leading out
of it, we turn into Rue Tiquetonne, which recalls by its aspect fourteenth-
century times, by its name a prosperous baker of that century, a certain M.
Rogier de Quinquentonne. Among the ancient houses there, Nos. 4 and 2
have very deep cellars stretching beneath the street. In Rue Dussoubs,
which under other names dates back to the fifteenth century, we see more
quaint houses. At No. 26 Goldoni died. The short street Marie-Stuart recalls
the days when for one brief year the beautiful Scotswoman was Queen
Consort of France. The name of Rue Jussienne is a corruption of Marie
l’Égyptienne, patron saint of a fourteenth-century chapel which stood there
till 1791. At No. 2 lived Madame Dubarry after the death of Louis XV. Rue
d’Argout dates as Rue des Vieux-Augustins from the thirteenth century.
Here, at No. 28, lived in more modern times, Savalette de Langes, supposed
for many years and proved at her death to be a man. In Passage du Vigan at
No. 22, we find bas-reliefs in a courtyard. At No. 56, a small ancient hôtel.
Rue Bachaumont is on the site of the vanished Passage du Saumur, a
milliner’s quarter, the most ancient of Paris passages, demolished in 1899.
Rue d’Uzès crosses the site of the ancient hôtel d’Uzès. Rue de Cléry was

till 1634 an ancient roadway. Madame de Pompadour was born here. Pierre
Corneille and Casanava, the painter, lived here; and, where the street meets
Rue Beauregard, Baron Batz made his frantic attempt to save Louis XVI on
his way to the scaffold. No. 97, now a humble shop with the sign “Au poète
de 1793,” was the home of André Chenier. Nos. 21-19 belonged to Robert
Poquelin, the priest-brother of Molière, later to Pierre Lebrun, where in pre-
Revolution days theatrical performances were given, and the Mass said
secretly during the Terror. Leading out of Rue Cléry, we find Rue des
Degrés, six mètres in length, the smallest street in Paris, a mere flight of
steps.
Rue St-Sauveur (thirteenth century) memorizes the church once there.
From end to end we see ancient houses, fine old balconies, curious signs,
architectural features of interest. In Rue des Petits-Carreaux, running on
from this end of Rue Montorgueil (see p. 40) we see at No. 16 the house
where, till recent days, musicians assembled for hire each Sunday. Now
they meet at the Café de la Chartreuse, 24, Boulevard St-Denis. In a house
in a court where the house No. 26 now stands, lived Jean Dubarry. Rue
Poissonnière, “Fishwives Street,” once “Champ des Femmes” (thirteenth
century), shows us many ancient houses.
Rue Beauregard was so named in honour of the fine view Parisians had
of old after mounting Rue Montorgueil. The notorious sorceress, Catherine
Monvoisin—“la Voisin”—implicated in a thousand crimes, built for herself
a luxurious habitation on this eminence—somewhat higher in those days
than in later years. We find several ancient houses along this old street,
notably No. 46. We see ancient houses also in Rue de la Lune (1630). No. 1
is a shop still famed for its brioches du soleil. Between these two streets
stretched in olden days the graveyard of Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle, a
church built in 1624 on the site of the ancient chapel Ste-Barbe. The name
is said to refer to a piece of good news told to Anne d’Autriche one day as
she passed that way. The tower only of the seventeenth-century church
remains; the rest was rebuilt in 1823. Four short streets of ancient date cross
Rue de la Lune: Rue Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle (eighteenth century),
Rue Thorel (sixteenth century), the old Rue Ste-Barbe, Rue de la Ville-
Neuve, Rue Notre-Dame de la Recouvrance—with old houses of interest in
each. At No. 8 Rue de la Ville-Neuve we see médaillons of Jean Goujon and
Philibert Delorme.

Surrounded by old streets, just off the boulevard des Italiens, is the
Opéra-Comique, originally a Salle de Spectacles, built on the park-lands of
their fine mansion by the duke and duchess de Choiseul, who reserved for
themselves and their heirs for ever the right to a loge of eight seats next to
the royal box. Its name, at first, Salle Favart, has changed many times.
Burnt down twice, in 1838 and 1887, the present building dates only from
1898. Rue Favart, named after the eighteenth-century actor, has always
been inhabited by actors and actresses. Rue de Grammont dates from 1726,
built across the site of the fine old hôtel de Grammont. Rue de Choiseul,
alongside the recently erected Crédit Lyonnais, which has replaced several
ancient mansions, recalls the existence of another hôtel de Choiseul. At No.
21 we find curious old attics. Passing through the short Rue de Hanovre, we
find in Rue de la Michodière, opened in 1778, on the grounds of hôtel
Conti, the house (No. 8) where Gericault, the painter, lived in 1808, and at
No. 19, the home of Casabianca, member of the Convention where
Buonaparte, at one time, lodged. At No. 3, Rue d’Antin, then a private
mansion, Buonaparte married Joséphine (9 March, 1796). Though serving
as a banker’s office, the room where the marriage took place is kept exactly
as it then was. In a house in Rue Louis-le-Grand, opened in 1701, known in
Revolution days as Rue des Piques, Sophie Arnould was born. Rue Daunou,
where at No. 1 we see an ancient escutcheon, leads us into the Rue de la
Paix, opened in 1806 on the site of the ancient convent of the Capucines
and called at first Rue Napoléon. All its fine houses are modern, as are also
those of Rue Volney and Rue des Capucines, on the even number side. In
the latter street, formed in the year 1700, the Crédit Foncier is the old hôtel
de Castanier, director of the East India Company (1726), and the hôtel
Devieux of the same date. Nos. 11, 9, 7, 5 (fine vestiges at No. 5) were the
stables of the duchesse d’Orléans in 1730.

CHAPTER VI

ROUND ABOUT THE ARTS ET MÉTIERS (THE ARTS AND
CRAFTS INSTITUTION)
ARRONDISSEMENT III. (TEMPLE)

A LONG stretch of the busy boulevard Sébastopol forms the boundary
between arrondissements II and III. Several short old streets run
between the Boulevard and Rue St-Martin. Rue Apolline (eighteenth
century), Rue Blondel, Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, where curiously
enough is a Jewish synagogue, show us some ancient houses. The latter, in
the fifteenth century a roadway, in the seventeenth century a street along the
course of a big drain, memorizes the convent once there. We find vestiges
of an ancient hôtel at No. 6, and close by old passages: Passage du Vertbois,
Passage des Quatre-Voleurs, Passage du Pont-aux-Biches. In Rue Papin we
find the théâtre de la Gaîté, first set up at the Fair St-Laurent in the
seventeenth century, here since 1861, when it was known as théâtre du
Prince Impérial. Crossing Rue Turbigo, we reach Rue Bourg l’Abbé,
reminding us of a very ancient street of the name swept away by the
boulevard Sébastopol, and Rue aux Ours, dating from 1300, originally Rue
aux Oies, referring maybe to geese roasted for the table when this was a
street of turnspits. On the odd number side some ancient houses still stand.
Rue Quincampoix, beginning far down in the 4th arrondissement, runs to its
end into Rue aux Ours. It is through its whole course a street of old-time
associations. In this bit of it we find interesting old houses, arched
doorways, sculptured doors, etc., at Nos. 111, 99, 98, 96, 92, 91, 90. At No.
91 the watchman’s bell rang to bid the crowds disperse that pressed
tumultuously round the offices of the great financier Law, who first set up
his bank at the hôtel de Beaufort, on the site of the house No. 65. The Salle
Molière was at No. 82, through the Passage Molière, dating from
Revolution days, when it was known as Passage des Nourrices. The Salle
began as the théâtre des Sans-Culottes, to become later the théâtre École.
There Rachel made her debut. Many traces of the old theatre are still seen.

RUE QUINCAMPOIX

The old Roman road Rue St-Martin coming northward through the 4th
arrondissement enters the 3rd from Rue Rambuteau. Along its entire course
it is rich in old-world vestiges: ancient mansions, old signs, venerable
sculptures, bas-reliefs, etc. In the Passage de l’Ancre, opening at No. 223,
the first office for cab-hiring was opened in 1637. At No. 254 we come to
the old church St-Nicolas-des-Champs, originally a chapel in the fields
forming part of the abbey lands of St-Martin-des-Champs, subsequently the
parish church of the district, rebuilt at the beginning of the fifteenth century,
enlarged towards the end of the sixteenth century—a beautiful edifice in
Gothic style of two different periods and known as the church of a hundred
columns. The sacristy, once the presbytery, and a sundial dating from 1666,
front the old Rue Cunin-Gridaine. Crossing Rue Réaumur, we reach the fine
old abbey buildings which since the Revolution have served as the Paris
Arts and Crafts Institution. The Abbey was built on the spot beyond the
Paris boundary where St. Martin, on his way to the city, is said to have
healed a leper. The invading Normans knocked it down; it was rebuilt in
1056 and the Abbey grounds surrounded a few years afterwards by high
walls, rebuilt later as strong fortifications with eighteen turrets. Part of those
walls and a restored tower are seen at No. 7 Rue Bailly. Within the walls
were the Abbey chapel, long, beautiful cloisters, a prison, a market, etc. In
the fourteenth century the Abbey was included within the city bounds and
the monks held their own till 1790. In 1798, the disaffected Abbey buildings
were chosen wherein to place the models collected by Vaucanson—pioneer

of machinists; other collections were added and in the century following
various changes and additions made in the old Abbey structure.

ST-NICOLAS-DES-CHAMPS

The big door giving on Rue St-Martin dates only from 1850. The great
flight of steps in the court, built first in 1786, was remodelled and
modernized in 1860. The ancient cloisters, remodelled, have been for years
past the scene of busy mechanical and industrial study. The ancient and
beautiful refectory, the work of Pierre de Montereau, architect of the Sainte-
Chapelle (see p. 48) has become the Library. Beneath the fine vaulted roof,
amid tall, slender columns of exquisite workmanship, students read where
monks of old took their meals. The old Abbey chapel (twelfth and thirteenth
centuries) restored in the nineteenth century, serves as the depot for models
of steam-engines, etc. A small Gothic chapel is in the hands of a gas

company. Other venerable portions of the Abbey, fallen into ruin, have quite
recently been removed.
Rue Vertbois, on the northern side of the institution, records the
existence of a leafy wood in the old Abbey grounds. The tower dates from
1140, the fountain from 1712; both were restored at the end of the
nineteenth century. Going on up this old street we find numerous traces of
what were erewhile the Abbey precincts.
Porte St-Martin at the angle where the rue meets the boulevard is that
last of three great portes moving northward, and each in its time marking
the city boundary.
Rue Meslay, opening out of Rue St-Martin at this point, dates from the
first years of the eighteenth century, when it was Rue du Rempart. No. 49
was the home of the last Commandant du Guet. At No. 46 Aurore Dupin,
known as George Sand, the famous novelist, was born in 1804. At No. 40
we see the fine old hôtel, with a fountain in the court, where in eighteenth-
century days dwelt the Commandant de la Garde de Paris, the garde having
replaced the guet (the Watch) in 1771.

RUE BEAUBOURG

Rue Beaubourg, stretching from Rue Rambuteau to Rue Turbigo, and the
streets and passages leading out of it, show us many traces of bygone times.
At No. 28 we find subterranean halls, with hooks where iron chains were
once held fast—for this was an ancient prison—and a salon Louis XVI,
with traces of ancient frescoes and sculpture. The city wall of Philippe-
Auguste passed where the house No. 39 now stands. At No. 62, opposite

which stretched the graveyard of St-Nicolas-des-Champs, was the palace of
the bishops of Châlons, taken later to form part of a Carmelite convent
suppressed in 1793. In a later revolutionary period—when Louis-Philippe
was on the throne of France—the Paris insurrections centred here and
horrible scenes took place on this spot[B].
In Rue au Maire, a secular official, mayor or bailiff of the Abbey, had his
seat of office. In the Passage des Marmites (Saucepan Street) dwelt none
but chaudronniers (coppersmiths and tinkers). We see ancient houses all
along Rue Volta, and Rue des Vertus, so called by derision, having been the
Rue des Vices, is made up of quaint old houses. Most of the houses, rather
sordid, in Rue des Gravilliers, are ancient. No. 44 is said to have been the
meeting-place of the secret Society “l’Internationale” in the time of
Napoléon III. At Nos. 69 and 70 we see traces of the hôtel built by the
grandfather of Gabrielle d’Estrées. At No. 88 the accomplices of Cadoudal,
of the infernal machine conspiracy, were arrested.
Rue Chapon, formerly Capon, is named from the Capo, i.e. the cape
worn by the Jews who in thirteenth-century days were its chief inhabitants.
Its western end, known till 1851 as Rue du Cimetière St-Nicolas-des-
Champs, shows many vestiges of past time. No. 16 was the hôtel of
Madame de Mandeville, at first a nun-novice, to become in the time of
Louis XV a celebrated courtesan. No. 13 was the hôtel of the archbishops of
Reims, then of the bishops of Châlons, ceded in 1619 to the Carmelites. A
big door and other interesting vestiges remain.
Rue de Montmorency is named from the fine old hôtel at No. 5, where
the Montmorency lived from 1215 to 1627, when the last descendant of the
famous Constable Mathieu perished on the scaffold. The street is rich in
historic houses, historic associations. The stretch between Rue Beaubourg
and Rue du Temple was known till 1768 as Rue Courtauvillain, originally
Cour-au-Vilains—the Vilains, not necessarily “villains,” were the serfs or
“common people” of bygone days. There lived Madame de Sévigné before
making hôtel Carnavalet her home. No. 51 is the Maison du Grand Pignon,
the big gable, owned, about the year 1407, by Nicolas Flamel and his wife
Pernelle. Nicolas was a reputed schoolmaster of the age who made a good
thing out of his establishment and was cited as having discovered the
philosopher’s stone. On his death, he bequeathed his house and all his
goods to the church St-Jacques-la-Boucherie, of which la Tour St-Jacques
alone remains (see pp. 95, 97).

Rue Grenier-St-Lazare, in the thirteenth century Rue Garnier de St-
Ladre, shows us interesting old houses, and at No. 4 a Louis XVI staircase.
Rue Michel-le-Comte, another street of ancient houses, erewhile hôtels
of the noblesse, reminds one of the popular punning phrase, “Ça fait la Rue
Michel,” i.e. ça fait le compte—Michel-le-Comte. No. 28 was at one time
inhabited by comte Esterhazy, Hungarian Ambassador. Impasse de
Clairvaux, Rue du Maure (fourteenth century, known at one time as Cour
des Anglais), and Rue Brantôme make a cluster of ancient streets, with
many vestiges of past ages.

CHAPTER VII

THE TEMPLE

O F the renowned citadel and domain of mediæval times, from which the
arrondissement takes its name, nothing now remains. A modern square
(1865) has been arranged on the site of the mansion and the gardens of
the Grand Prieur, but the surrounding streets, several stretching where the
Temple once stood and across the site of its extensive grounds, show us
historic houses, historic vestiges and associations along their entire course.
The Knights-Templar settled in Paris in 1148. Their domain with its
dungeon, built in 1212, its manor and fortified tower, and the vast
surrounding grounds, were seized in 1307 and given over to the knights of
St. John of Jerusalem, known later as the knights of Malta. From that time
to the Revolution the Temple was closely connected with the life of the city.
The primitive buildings were demolished, streets built along the site of
some of them in the seventeenth century, and an immense battlemented
castle with towers and a strong prison erected where the original stronghold
had stood. The Temple, as then built, was like the old abbeys and royal
palaces: a sort of township, having within its enclosures all that was needful
for the daily life of its inhabitants. Besides Louis XVI and his family many
persons of note passed weary days in its prison. Sidney Smith effected his
escape therefrom. Its encircling walls were razed in the first years of the
nineteenth century; and in 1808 Napoléon had the great tower knocked
down. In 1814 the Allies made the Grand Priory their headquarters. Louis
XVIII gave over the mansion to an Order of Benedictine nuns. In 1848 it
served as a barracks. Its end came in 1854, when it was razed to the ground.
Then a big place and market hall were set up on the site of the old Temple
chapel and its adjacent buildings—a famous market, given up in great part
to dealers in second-hand goods—the chief Paris market of occasions
(bargains). The Rotonde which had been erected in 1781 was allowed to
stand and lasted till 1863. A new ironwork hall, built in 1855, was not
demolished till recent years—1905.

LA PORTE DU TEMPLE

Those pretty, gay knick-knacks, that glittering cheap jewellery known
throughout the world as “articles de Paris” had their origin among a special
class of the inhabitants of the old Temple grounds. No one living there paid
taxes. Impecunious persons of varying rank sought asylum there—a society
made up in great part of artists and artistically-minded artisans. To gain
their daily bread they set their wits and their fingers to work and soon found
a ready sale for their Brummagem—not mere Brummagem, however, and
all of truly Parisian delicacy of conception and workmanship.
Starting up Rue du Temple, from Rue Rambuteau, this part of it before
1851 Rue Ste-Avoie, we come upon the passage Ste-Avoie, and the
entrance to the demolished hôtel, once that of Constable Anne de
Montmorency, later, for a time, the Law’s famous bank. At No. 71 we see
l’hôtel de St-Aignan, built in 1660, used in 1812 as a mairie, with fine
doors and Corinthian pilastres in the court. No. 79 was l’hôtel de Montmort
(1650). No. 86 is on the site of a famous cabaret of the days of Louis XII.
At Nos. 101-103 we see vestiges of l’hôtel de Montmorency. No. 113 was
the dependency of a Carmelite convent. At No. 122 Balzac lived in 1882. At
No. 153 was the eighteenth-century bureau des Vinaigrettes—Sedan-chairs
on wheels. The great door of the Temple, demolished in 1810, stood
opposite No. 183. Vestiges were found in recent years beneath the
pavement. At No. 195, within the Église Ste-Elisabeth, originally the
convent chapel of the Filles de Ste-Elisabeth (1614-1690), we see most
beautiful woodwork. Rue Turbigo cut right through the ancient presbytère.
Turning back down this old street to visit the streets leading out of it, we
find Rue Dupetit-Thouars, on the site of old hôtels within the Temple

grounds. Rue de la Corderie, where the Communards met in 1871. Rue des
Fontaines (fifteenth century), with at No. 7 the ancient hôtellerie du Grand
Cerf: at No. 15 the hôtel owned by the Superior of the convent of the
Madelonnettes—a house of Mercy—suppressed at the Revolution, used as a
political prison, later as a woman’s prison. Rue Perrée, where a shadowy
Temple market is still to be seen, runs through the ancient Temple grounds.
Rue de Bretagne stretches from the Rue de Réaumur at the corner of the
Temple Square, in old days known in its course through the Temple
property as Rue de Bourgogne, farther on as Rue de Saintonge; leading out
of it, at No. 62, the short Rue de Caffarelli runs along the line of the eastern
wall of the vanished Temple fortress; at No. 45 is the Rue de Beauce where
we come upon the ancient private passage, Rue des Oiseaux, with its
vacherie of the old hospice des Enfants-Rouges. At No. 48 opens the
ancient Rue du Beaujolais-du-Temple, renamed Rue de Picardie. At No. 41
we find the Marché des Enfants-Rouges, a picturesque old-time market hall
with an ancient well in the courtyard. Rue Portefoin, thirteenth century. Rue
Pastourelle, of the same epoch where at No. 23 lived the culottier, Biard,
who wrote the Revolutionary song: la Carmagnole. Rue des Haudriettes,
known in past days as Rue de l’Échelle-du-Temple, for there at its farther
end was the Temple pillory and a tall ladder reaching to its summit. The
name Haudriette is that of the order of nuns founded by Jean Haudri,
secretary to Louis IX, who, given up by his wife as lost while travelling in
the East, returned at length to find her living among a community of
widows to whom she had made over her home. Haudri maintained the
institution thus founded, which was removed later to a mansion, now razed,
near the chapel of the Assumption, in Rue St-Honoré. Rue de Brague, until
1348 Rue Boucherie-du-Temple, the Templars meat market. The fine old
hôtel at Nos. 4 and 6 has ceilings painted by Lebrun. All these streets are
rich in old-time houses, old-time vestiges, and they are all, as is the whole
of this arrondissement on this side Rue du Temple as far as Rue de Turenne,
in the Marais, a name referring to the marshy nature of the district in long-
past days—but which was for long in pre-Revolution times the most
aristocratic quarter of the city. We find ourselves now before the Archives
and the Imprimerie Nationale, the latter to be transferred to its new quarters
Rue de la Convention. The frontage of this fine old building and its entrance
gates give on the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, of which more anon (see p.
84). On the western side we see a thick high wall and the Gothic doorway

of what was, in the fourteenth century, the Paris dwelling of the redoubtable
Constable, Olivier de Clisson, subsequently for nearly two hundred years in
the hands of the Guise. In 1687 it was rebuilt for the Princess de Soubise by
the architect, Delamair. Pillaged during the Revolution, it became national
property, and in 1808 the Archives were placed there by Napoléon.
Frescoes, fine old woodwork, magnificent mouldings, architectural work of
great beauty are there to be seen. The Duke of Clarence is said to have
made the hôtel Clisson his abode during the English occupation under
Henry V. Going up Rue des Archives we see at No. 53, dating from 1705,
the hôtel built there by the Prince de Rohan, and onward up the street fine
old mansions, once the homes of men and women of historic name and
fame. No. 72 is said to have been the “Archives” in the time of Louis XIII.
An eighteenth-century fountain is seen in the yard behind the stationer’s
shop there. No. 78 was the hôtel of Maréchal de Tallard. No. 79 dates from
Louis XIII. At No. 90 we see traces of the old chapel of the Orphanage des
Enfants-Rouges, so called from the colour of the children’s uniform. The
eastern side of the Imprimerie Nationale adjoining the Archives, built by
Delamair, as the hôtel de Strasbourg, and commonly known as hôtel de
Rohan, because four comtes de Rohan were successively bishops of
Strasbourg, is bounded by Rue Vieille-du-Temple, that too along its whole
course a sequence of old houses bearing witness to past grandeur. No. 54 is
the picturesque house and turret built in 1528 by Jean de la Balue, secretary
to the duc d’Orléans. No. 56 was once the abode of Loys de Villiers of the
household of Isabeau de Bavière. No. 75 was the town house of the family
de la Tour-du-Pin-Gouvernet (1720). On the walls of No. 80 we read the old
inscription “Vieille rue du Temple.” No. 102 was the hôtel de Caumartin,
later d’Epernon. Nos. 106 and 110 were dependencies of the hôtel
d’Epernon.

PORTE DE CLISSON
(Archives)

Rue des Quatre-Fils on the north side of the Archives and its adjoining
buildings, known in past times as Rue de l’Échelle-du-Temple, recalls to
mind the romantic adventures of four sons of a certain Aymon, sung by a
thirteenth-century troubadour. Most of its houses are ancient. Leading out
of it is the old Rue Charlot with numerous seventeenth-century and
eighteenth-century houses or vestiges. We peep into the Ruelle Sourdis, a
gutter running down the middle of it, once shut in by iron gates and
boundary stones. At No. 5 we see what remains of the hôtel Sourdis, which
in 1650 belonged to Cardinal Retz. The church St-Jean-St-François,
opposite, is the ancient chapel of the convent St-François-des-Capucins du
Marais. It replaced the old church St-Jean-en-Grève, destroyed at the
Revolution, and here we see, surrounding the nave, painted copies of
ancient tapestries telling the story of the miracle of the sacred Hostie which
a Jew in mockery sought to destroy by burning. The fête of Reparation kept
from the fourteenth century at the church of St-Jean and at the chapel les
Billettes (see p. 107) has since 1867 been kept here. Here too, piously
preserved, is the chasuble used by the Abbé Edgeworth at the last Mass

heard before his execution by Louis XVI in the Temple prison hard by. In
the short Rue du Perche behind the church, lived for a time at No. 7 bis
Scarron’s young widow, destined to become Madame de Maintenon. Fine
frescoes cover several of its ceilings. In Rue de Poitou we find more
interesting old houses. In Rue de Normandie Nos. 10, 6, 9 show interesting
features, old courtyards, etc. Turning from Rue Charlot into Rue Béranger,
known until 1864 by the name of the Grand Prior of the Temple de
Vendôme, we find the hôtel de Vendôme, Nos. 5 and 3, dating from 1752
where Béranger lived and died. At No. 11, now a business house, lived
Berthier de Sauvigny, Intendant-Général de Paris in 1789, hung on a lamp-
post after the taking of the Bastille, one of the first victims of the
Revolution.

RUELLE DE SOURDIS

Running parallel to Rue Charlot, starting from the little Rue du Perche,
Rue Saintonge, formed by joining two seventeenth-century streets, Rue
Poitou and Rue Touraine, shows us a series of ancient dwellings. From
October, 1789, to 15th July, 1791, Robespierre lived at No. 64. A fine

columned entrance court at No. 5 has been supplanted by a brand-new
edifice. The hôtel at No. 4, dating originally from about 1611, was rebuilt in
1745.
Rue de Turenne, running in this arrondissement from Rue Charlot to the
corner of the Place des Vosges, began as Rue Louis, then in its upper part
was Rue Boucherat, as an ancient inscription at No. 133 near the fountain
Boucherat records. From the old street whence it starts, Rue St.-Antoine in
the 4th arrondissement, it is a long line of ancient hôtels, the homes in
bygone days of men of notable names and doings; one side of the convent
des Filles-du-Calvaire stretched between the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire and
Rue Pont-au-Choux. No. 76 was the home of the last governor of the
Bastille, Monsieur de Launay. The church of St-Denis-du-St-Sacrament at
No. 70 was built in 1835 on the site of the chapel of a convent razed in
1826, previously a mansion of Maréchal de Turenne. At No. 56, Scarron
lived and died. No. 54 was the abode of the comte de Montrésor, noted in
the wars of the Fronde. At No. 41, fresh water flows from the fontaine de
Joyeuse on the site of the ancient hôtel de Joyeuse. We find a beautiful
staircase in almost every one of these old hôtels.

HÔTEL VENDÔME, RUE BÉRANGER

Shorter interesting old streets lead out of this long one on each side.
Rue du Parc-Royal, memorizes the park and palace of Les Tournelles,
razed to the ground after the tragic death of Henri II by his widow,

Catherine de’ Medici (see p. 8). No. 4, dating from 1620, was inhabited by
successive illustrious families until the early years of the nineteenth century.
There, till recently, was seen a wonderful carved wood staircase. Many of
the ancient houses erewhile here have been demolished in recent years, and
are supplanted by modern buildings and a garden-square.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HOME OF MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ

W E are now in the vicinity of that most entrancing of historic museums,
Musée Carnavalet, and its neighbouring library. On the wall of Rue de
Sévigné is still to be read engraved in the stonework its more ancient
name, Rue de la Culture-Ste-Catherine, so called because it ran across
cultivated land in the vicinity of an ancient church dedicated to St.
Catherine. It was in 1677 that Madame de Sévigné and her daughter,
Madame de Grignan, settled in the first story of the house No. 23, built
some hundred and thirty years before by Jacques de Ligneri under the
direction of the renowned architect Pierre Lescot and the sculptor Jean
Goujon. The widow of a Breton lord, Kernevenoy, or some such word by
name, which resolved itself into Carnavalet, bought the hôtel from the
Ligneri; inhabitants and owners changed as time went on, but this name
remained. At the Revolution, the mansion was taken possession of by the
State, was used for a school, to become after 1871 the historical Museum of
Paris. In 1898 the museum was taken in hand by M. Georges Cain and from
that day to this has been continually added to, made more and more
valuable and attractive by this eminently capable administrator. To study the
history, and learn “from the life” the story of Paris and of France, go to the
Musée Carnavalet. And to read about all you see there, turn at No. 29 into
the Bibliothèque de la Ville. In olden days le Petit Arsenal de la Ville stood
on the site. The edifice we see, l’hôtel St-Fargeau, was built in 1687. The
city library, which had been re-organized by Jules Cousin, was placed there
in 1898.
Rue Payenne runs across the site of ancient houses and of part of two
convents, a door of one is seen at that regrettably modern-style erection, so
out of keeping with its surroundings, the Lycée Victor-Hugo. At No. 5 we
see a bust of Auguste Compte, with an inscription, for this was the “Temple
of the religion of Humanity,” and Compte’s friend and inspirer Clotilde de
Vaux died here. Here souvenirs of the philosopher are kept in a memorial
chapel. Nos. 11 and 13 formed the mansion of the duc de Lude, one of the
most noted admirers of Madame de Sévigné, Grand Maître d’Artillerie in

1675, and was inhabited at one time by Madame Scarron. In Rue Elzévir—
in the sixteenth century Rue des Trois-Pavillons—was born Marion
Delorme (1613). Ninon de Lenclos lived here in 1642. We see a fine old
house at No. 8, and at No. 2 l’hôtel de Lusignan. Leading out of Rue
Elzévir, the old Rue Barbette records the name of a master of the Mint
under Philippe-le-Bel, and a house he built with extensive gardens, known
as the Courtille Barbette; the Courtille was destroyed by the populace,
displeased at a change in the coinage, in 1306; the house remained and
became a rendezvous of courtiers, passed into the hands of the extremely
light-lived Isabeau de Bavière, who inaugurated there her wonderful bals
masqués. It was on leaving the hôtel Barbette that the duc d’Orléans,
Isabeau’s lover, was assassinated, on the threshold of a neighbouring house,
by the men of Jean Sans Peur, 23 November, 1407 (see p. 40). The mansion
passed subsequently through many hands, and was finally in part
demolished in 1563, and this street cut across the ground where it had
stood. No. 8 was the “petit hôtel” of Maréchal d’Estrées, brother of
Gabrielle, confiscated at the Revolution and made later the mother-house of
the Institution “la Legion d’Honneur” for the education of officer’s
daughters. The grand old mansion has been despoiled of its splendid
decorations, precious woodwork, etc.—all sold peacemeal for high prices.
Almost every house in this old street is an ancient hôtel. No. 14 was the
hôtel Bigot de Chorelle, No. 16 the hôtel de Choisy, No. 18 the hôtel
Massu, No. 17 the hôtel de Brégis, etc. We see other ancient houses in Rue
de la Perle. At No. 1, dating from the close of the seventeenth century, we
find wonderfully interesting things in the courtyard; busts of old Romans,
fine bas-reliefs, etc.
Rue de Thorigny, sixteenth century, was named after Président Lambert
de Thorigny, whose descendants built, a century or two later, the fine hôtel
Lambert on l’Ile St-Louis. Marion died in a house in this street; Madame de
Sévigné lived here at one time, as did Balzac in 1814. The fine hôtel at No.
5 goes by the name hôtel Salé, because its owner, Aubert de Fontenay, had
grown rich through the Gabelle (salt-tax). Later it was the abode of
Monseigneur Juigné, Archbishop of Paris, who in the terrible winter 1788-
89 gave all he possessed to assuage the misery of the people, yet met his
death by stoning on the outbreak of the Revolution. Confiscated by the
State, the fine old mansion was for a time put to various uses; then bought
and its beauties reverently guarded by its present owners. Rue Debelleyme,

made up of four short ancient streets, shows interesting vestiges. The
nineteenth-century novelist, Eugène Sue, lived here.
To the east of Rue de Turenne, at its junction with Rue des Francs-
Bourgeois, we find old streets across the site of the ancient palace des
Tournelles; of the palace no trace remains save the name of the old Rue des
Tournelles. Rue du Foin runs where hay was once made in the fields of the
palace park. Rue de Béarn was in olden times Rue du Parc-Royal. Here we
find vestiges of the convent des Minimes, founded by Marie de’ Medici in
1611, suppressed in 1790. Some of its walls form part of the barracks we
see there, and the cloister still stands intact in the courtyard, while at No.
10, Rue des Minimes, may be seen the old convent door. The building No. 7
of this latter street, now a school, dates from the seventeenth century. A
famous chestnut-tree, several hundred years old, flourished in the court at
No. 14 till a few years ago. In Rue St-Gilles, we see among other ancient
houses the Pavilion of the hôtel Morangis, No. 22, and at No. 12, the Cour
de Venise. In Rue Villehardouin, when it was Rue des Douze Portes, to
which Rue St-Pierre was joined at its change of name, lived Scarron and his
young wife. Rue des Tournelles with its strikingly old-world aspect shows
us two houses inhabited by Ninon de Lenclos, Nos. 56 and 26, and at No.
58, that of Locré, who with some other men of law drew up the famous
Code Napoléon.
At No. 1, Rue St-Claude, one side of the house in Rue des Arquebusiers,
dwelt the notorious sorcerer, Joseph Balsamo, known as comte de
Cagliostro. The iron balustrade dates from his day and the heavy handsome
doors came from the ancient Temple buildings. Rue Pont-au-Choux recalls
the days when the land was a stretch of market gardens. Rue Froissard and
Rue de Commines lie on the site of the razed couvent des Filles-du-
Calvaire, of which vestiges are to be seen on the boulevard at No. 13.

CHAPTER IX

NOTRE-DAME
ARRONDISSEMENT IV. (HÔTEL-DE-VILLE)

R UE LUTÈCE, the French form of the Roman word Lutetia, recording
the ancient name of the city, is a modern street on ancient historic
ground. There, on the river island, the first settlers pitched their camp,
reared their rude dwellings, laid the foundation of the city of mud to
become in future days the city of light, the brilliant Ville Lumière. When the
conquering Romans took possession of the primitive city and built there its
first palace, the island of the Seine became l’Île du Palais.

NOTRE-DAME

Of the buildings erected there through succeeding centuries, few traces
now remain. But Roman walls in perfect condition were discovered beneath
the surface of the island so recently as 1906. Close to the site of Rue Lutèce
ran, until the middle of last century, the ancient Rue des Fèves, where was

the famous Taverne de la Pomme de Pin, a favourite meeting-place from the
time of Molière of great men of letters. Crossing Rue de la Cité, formed in
1834 along the line of the old Rue St-Éloi which stretched where
Degobert’s great statesman had founded the abbey St-Martial, we come to
the Parvis Notre-Dame. The Parvis, so wide and open to-day, was until very
recent times—well into the second half of the nineteenth century—crowded
with buildings; old shops, old streets, erections connected with the old
Hôtel-Dieu, covered in great part the space before the Cathedral, now an
open square. The statue of Charlemagne we see there is modern, set up in
1882.
The Cathedral, beloved and venerated by Parisians from all time
—“Sacra sancta ecclesia civitatis Parisiensis”—stands upon the site of two
ancient churches which in early ages together formed the Episcopal church
of the capital of France. One bore the name of the martyr, St. Stephen, the
other was dedicated to Ste-Marie.
These churches stood on the site of a pre-Christian place of worship, a
temple of Mars or Jupiter: Roman remains of great extent were found
beneath the pavements when clearing away the ancient buildings on the
Parvis. Fire wrought havoc on both churches, entirely destroyed one, and
towards the year 1162 Sully set about the erection of a church worthy of the
capital of his country. Its first stone was laid by the Guelph refugee, Pope
Alexander III, in 1163. The chancel, the nave and the façade were finished
without undue delay, and in 1223 the whole of the beautiful Gothic building
was finished; alterations were made during the years that followed until
about 1300. From that time onward Notre-Dame was made a store-house of
things beautiful. The finest pictures of each succeeding age lined its walls—
at length so thickly that there was room for no more. Much beautiful old
work, including a fine rood screen, was carted away under Louis XIV, when
space was wanted for the immense statue of the Virgin set up then in
fulfilment of the vow of Louis XIII, destroyed later. The figures on the great
doors, we see to-day, are modern: the original statuettes were hacked to
pieces at the outbreak of the Revolution by the mob who mistook the Kings
of Israel for the Kings of France!

RUE MASSILLON

The flêche, too, is of latter-day construction, built by Viollet le Duc, to
replace the ancient turret bell-tower. Destruction and desecration of every
kind fell upon the Cathedral in Revolution days. Priceless glass was
smashed, magnificent work of every sort ruthlessly torn down, trampled in
the dust. On the Parvis—the space before the Cathedral doors where in
long-gone ages the mystery plays were acted—a great bonfire was made of
all the Mass books and Bibles, etc., found within the sacred edifice:
priceless illuminated missals, etc., perished then. Marvellous woodwork,
glorious stained-glass windows, fine statuary happily still remain.
From the time of its erection, the grand Cathedral was closely connected
with the greatest historical events of France, just as the church built by
Childebert and the older church of St-Étienne had been before. St. Louis
was buried there in 1271. The first States-General was held there in 1302.

There Henry VI of England was crowned King of France in 1431, and
Marie-Stuart crowned Queen Consort in 1560. Henri IV heard his first Mass
there in 1694. Within the sacred walls the Revolutionists set up the worship
of reason, held sacrilegious fêtes. Napoléon I was crowned there and was
there married to Marie Louise of Austria. Napoléon III’s wedding took
place there. These are some only singled out from a long list of historical
associations. National Te Deums, Requiems, Services of Reparation all take
place at this Sancta Ecclesia Parisionis.
The Hôtel-Dieu on the north side of the Parvis is the modern hospital
raised on the site of the ancient Paris House of God, the hospital for the
Paris poor built in the thirteenth century, always in close connection with
the Cathedral and having its annexe across the little bridge St-Charles, a
sort of covered gallery. Those blackened walls stood till 1909.
Rue du Cloître Notre-Dame belonged in past ages to the Cathedral
Chapter, a cloistered thoroughfare. Its fifty-one houses have almost entirely
disappeared. Three still stand: Nos. 18, 16, 14. Pierre Lescot, the notable
sixteenth-century architect, to whom a canonry was given, died there in
1578. Rue Chanoinesse is still inhabited by the Cathedral canons. Its houses
are all ancient. At No. 10 lived Fulbert, the uncle of the beautiful Héloïse,
who braved his anger for the sake of Abelard, who lived and taught hard by.
Racine is said to have lived at No. 16. The old Tour de Dagobert, which did
not, however, date back quite to that monarch’s time, stood at No. 18 till
1908. Its wonderful staircase, formed of a single oak-tree, is at the Musée
Cluny. Lacordaire is said to have lodged at No. 17. A curious old courtyard
at No. 20. At No. 24, vestiges of the old chapel St-Aignan (twelfth century).
At 26, a passage with old pillars and paved with old tombstones. Leading
out of it runs the little Rue des Chantres where the choristers lived and
worked to perfect their voices and their knowledge of music. Rue Massillon
is entirely made of old houses with most interesting features—a marvellous
carved oak staircase at No. 6, fine doors, curious courtyards. Another
beautiful staircase at No. 4. In Rue des Ursins, connected with Rue
Chanoinesse, we find many ancient houses. At No. 19 we see vestiges of
the old chapel where Mass was said secretly during the Revolution by
priests who went there disguised as workmen.
Rue de la Colombe, where we find an inscription referring to the
discovery there of Roman remains, dates from the early years of the
thirteenth century.

CHAPTER X

L’ÎLE ST-LOUIS

C ROSSING the bridge painted of yore bright red and known therefore as
le Pont-Rouge, we find ourselves upon the Île St-Louis, in olden days
two distinct islands: l’Île Notre-Dame and l’Île-aux-Vaches, both
uninhabited until the early years of the seventeenth century. Tradition says
the law-duels known as jugements de Dieu took place there. The Chapter of
Notre-Dame had certain rights over the island.
In the seventeenth century, consent was given for the Île St-Louis to be
built upon, and the official constructor of Ponts and Chaussées obtained the
concession of the two islets under the stipulation that he should fill up the
brook which separated them, and make a bridge across the arm of the Seine
to the city quay. The brook became Rue Poulletier, where we see interesting
vestiges of that day and two ancient hôtels, Nos. 3 and 20—the latter now a
school.
All along Rue St-Louis-en-l’Île and in the streets connected with it, fine
old mansions, or beautiful vestiges of the buildings then erected, still stand.
The church we see there was begun by Le Vau in 1664, on the site of a
chapel built at his own expense by one Nicolas-le-Jeune. The curious belfry
dates from 1741. The church is a very store-house of works of art, many of
them by the great masters of old, put there by its vicar, Abbé Bossuet, who
devoted his whole fortune and his untiring energy to the work of restoring
the church left in ruins after its despoliation at the Revolution, and died so
poor in consequence as to be buried by the parish. At No. 1 of this quaint
street we find a pavilion of l’hôtel de Bretonvilliers of which an arch is seen
at No. 7, and other vestiges at Nos. 5 and 3. The Arbalétriers were wont to
meet here in pre-Revolution days. No. 2, its northern front giving on Quai
d’Anjou (see p. 328), is the grand mansion of Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny,
built by Le Vau, 1680; its splendid decorations are the work of Lebrun and
other noted artists and sculptors of the time. In 1843 it was bought by the
family of a Polish prince and used in part as an orphanage for the daughters
of Polish exiles till 1899.

CHAPTER XI

L’HÔTEL DE VILLE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

T HE Hôtel de Ville, which gives its name to the arrondissement, is a
modern erection built as closely as possible on the plan and from the
designs of the fine Renaissance structure of the sixteenth century burnt
to the ground by the Communards in 1871. Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, where
it stands, was until 1830 Place de Grève, the Place du Port de Grève of
anterior days, days going back to Roman times. Like the Paris Cathedral,
the hôtel de Ville is closely linked with the most marked events of French
history. The first hôtel de Ville was known as la Maison-aux-Piliers,
previously l’hôtel des Dauphins du Viennois, bought in 1357 by Étienne
Marcel, Prévôt des Marchands, of historic memory (see p. 39), whose statue
we see in the garden. The first stone of the fine building burnt in 1871 was
laid by François I in 1533, its last one in the time of Henri IV. On the
Square before it executions took place, for offences criminal, political,
religious, by burning, strangling, hanging and the guillotine. In its centre
stood a tall Gothic cross reared upon eight steps, at the foot of which the
condemned said their last prayers. The guillotine first set up there in 1792
was soon moved about, as we know, to different points of the city, when
used for political victims. Common-law criminals continued to expiate their
evil deeds on Place de Grève. It was a comparatively small place in those
days. Its enlargement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries caused the
destruction of many old streets, in one of which was the famous Maison de
la Lanterne. Close up against the Hôtel de Ville stood in past days the old
church St-Jean-en-Grève and a hospice; both were incorporated in the town
hall by Napoléon I. The entire building was destroyed in 1871, but the
present structure is remarkably fine in every part, both within and without,
and the Salle St-Jean, memorizing the church once there, is splendidly
decorated. The Avenue Victoria, on the site of ancient streets, memorizes
the visit of the English Queen in 1855. The short Rue de la Tâcherie (from
tâche: task, work) crossing it, was in the thirteenth century Rue de la
Juiverie, for here we are in the neighbourhood of what is still the Jews’
quarter.

PLACE DE GRÈVE

A modern garden-square surrounds the beautiful Tour St-Jacques, all that
is left of the ancient church St-Jacques-la-Boucherie, built in the fifteenth
century, on the site of a chapel of the eighth century, finished in the
sixteenth, entirely restored in the nineteenth century and again recently. It is
used as an observatory. Paris weather statistics hail from la Tour St-Jacques.
On the site of the modern Place du Châtelet rose in bygone ages the
primitive tower of the Grand Châtelet, which developed under Louis-le-
Gros into a strongly fortified castle and prison guarding the bridge across
the Seine to the right, while the Petit Châtelet guarded it on the left bank. A
chandelle—a flaming tallow candle—set up by command of Philippe-le-
Long near its doorway, is said to be the origin of the lighting, dim enough
as it was for centuries, of Paris streets. The fortress was rebuilt by Louis
XIV; part of it served as the Morgue until it was razed to the ground in
1802. The fountain plays where the prison once stood. Numerous old streets
lead out of the modern Rue de Rivoli at this point. Rue Nicolas-Flamel,
running where good Nicolas had a fine hôtel in the early years of the
fifteenth century, and Rue Pernelle recording the name of his wife, have
existed under other names from the thirteenth century. Rue St-Bon recalls
the chapel on the spot in still earlier times.
Rue St-Martin beginning at Quai des Gesvres, the high road to the north
of Roman days, after cutting through Avenue Victoria, crosses Rue de
Rivoli at this point, and here was the first of the four Portes which in
succession marked the city boundary on this side. The beautiful sixteenth-
century church we see here, St-Merri, stands on the site of a chapel built in
the seventh century. In a Gothic crypt remains of its patron saint who lived
and died on the spot are reverently guarded, and the bones of Eudes the

Falconer, the redoubtable warrior who dowered the church, discovered in
perfect preservation in a stone coffin in the time of François I, lie in the
choir. It is a wonderfully interesting structure, with fine glass, woodwork,
mouldings, statues and statuettes. The statuettes we see on the walls of the
porch are comparatively modern, replacing the ancient ones destroyed at the
Revolution.

LA TOUR ST-JACQUES

VIEW ACROSS THE SEINE FROM PLACE DU CHÂTELET

RUE BRISEMICHE

L’ÉGLISE ST-GERVAIS

Rue de la Verrerie bordering the southern walls of the church and
running on almost to Rue Vieille-du-Temple, dates from the twelfth century
and reminds us by its name of the glaziers and glass painters’ Company,
developed from the confraternity which in 1187 made the old street its
quarter. Louis XIV, finding this a convenient road on the way to Vincennes,
had it enlarged. There dwelt Jacquemin Gringonneur, who, it is said,
invented playing cards for the distraction of the insane King Charles VI.
Bossuet’s father and many other persons of position or repute lived in the
old houses which remain or in others on the site of the more modern ones.
At No. 76 was the hôtel inhabited by Suger, the Minister of Louis VI and
Louis VII; part of its ancient walls were incorporated in the church in the
sixteenth century. Here, too, is the presbytery, where in the courtyard we
find a wonderful old spiral staircase, its summit higher than the church roof.
Old streets and passages wind in and out around the church. Exploring
them, we come upon interesting vestiges innumerable. The ancient clergy
house is at No. 76, Rue St-Martin. Rue Cloître-St-Merri, Rue Taille-pain,
Rue Brise-Miche, these two referring to the bakery once there and bread
portioned out, cut or broken for the Clergy; Rue St-Merri and its old

passage, Impasse du Bœuf, with its eighteenth-century grille; Rue Pierre-
au-lard, a humorous adaptation of the name Pierre Aulard, borne by a
notable parishioner of the eighteenth century. Passage Jabach on the site of
the home of the rich banker of the seventeenth century whose fine
collection of pictures were the nucleus of the treasures of the Louvre.
Impasse St-Fiacre, the word saint cut away at the Revolution, where dwelt
the first hirer-out of cabs; hence the term fiacre. Rue de la Reynie
(thirteenth century), renamed in memory of the Lieutenant-General of
Police who, in 1669, ordered the lighting of Paris streets, but did not
provide lamplighters. Private citizens were bound daily to light and
extinguish the lanterns then placed at the end and in the middle of each
thoroughfare. Everyone of these streets, dull and grimy though they be, are
full of interest for the explorer. Going on up Rue St-Martin, we see on both
sides numerous features of interest. Look at Nos. 97, 100, 103, 104; and at
No. 116, called Maison des Goths, with its fine old frieze. At No. 120 there
are two storeyed cellars and in one of them a well. The fontaine Maubuée at
No. 122 is referred to in old documents so early as 1320. Its name shortened
from mauvaise buée, i.e. mauvaise fumée, is not suggestive of the purity of
its waters at that remote period; the fountain was reconstructed in 1733—
the house some sixty years later. The upper end of Rue Simon-le-Franc,
which we turn into here, was until recent times Rue Maubuée. It may,
perhaps, still deserve the name. Rue Simon-le-Franc is one of the oldest
among all these old streets, for it was a thoroughfare in the year 1200. It
records the name of a worthy citizen of his day, one Simon Franque. All the
houses are ancient, some very picturesque. Next in date is that most
characteristic of old-time streets, the Rue de Venise. The name, a misnomer,
dates only from 1851, due to an old sign. The street was known by various
appellations since its formation somewhere about the year 1250. Every
house and court there is ancient, the space between those on either side so
narrow that the tall, dark buildings seem to meet at their apex. No. 27 is the
old inn “l’Épée de Bois,” lately renovated and its name changed to
“L’Arrivée de Venise,” where from the year 1658 a company of musicians
and dancing-masters duly licensed by Mazarin used to meet under the
direction of “Le roi des violons,” their chief. This was, in fact, the nucleus
of the Académie National of Music and Dancing, known later as the
Conservatoire. Great men of letters too were wont to meet in that old inn.
Rue de Venise opens into Rue Beaubourg, a road that stretched through a

beau bourg, i.e. a fine township, so far back as the eleventh century, with
special privileges, the rights of citizenship for its inhabitants although lying
without the boundary-wall. No. 4, now razed, was the “Restaurant du Bon
Bourg,” tenu par “le Roi du Bon Vin.” To the left is Rue des Étuves, i.e.
Bath Street, with houses old and curious. Rue de Venise runs at its lower
end into the famous Rue de Quincampoix, the street of Law’s bank (see p.
63), where every house is ancient or has vestiges of past ages. No. 43 was a
shop let in Law’s time at the rate of 100 francs a day. The street leads down
into Rue des Lombards, the ancient usurers’ and pawnbrokers’ street,
inhabited in these days by a very opposite class—herborists. Tradition says
Boccaccio was born here. Rue du Temple, Rue des Archives, Rue Vieille-
du-Temple, Rue de Sévigné, traversed in part in the 3rd arrondissement (see
p. 108) all have their lower numbers in this 4th arrondissement, the first
three branching off from Rue de Rivoli, the last from Rue St-Antoine. At
No. 61, Rue du Temple, on the site of the vanished Couvent des Filles de
Ste-Avoie, we see an old gabled house. In the courtyard of No. 57, l’hôtel
de Titon, the Bastille armourer. At No. 41 the old tavern “l’Aigle d’Or.” No.
20 is the ancient office of the Gabelles—the salt-tax. Here we see an old
sign taken from the vicinity of St-Gervais, showing the famous elm-tree, of
which more anon. Every house shows some interesting old-time feature.
This brings us again close up to the Hôtel de Ville, where we see the
venerable church St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, dating in its present form from
the sixteenth century, on the site of a church built there in the sixth. That
primitive erection grew into a beautiful church in the early years of the
twelfth century. Some of the exquisite work of that day may still be seen by
turning up the narrow passage to the left, where we find the ancient
charniers. Rebuilding was undertaken two centuries later. A curious half-
effaced inscription on an old wall within refers to this reconstruction and its
dedication fête day, instituted in honour of “Messieurs St. Gervais et St.
Protais.” The last rebuilding was in 1581. Then in the seventeenth century,
the Renaissance façade was added to the Gothic edifice behind it by
Salomon de Brosse. The church is full of precious artistic work, glorious
glass, frescoes, statuary and rich in historic associations. Madame de
Sévigné was married here; Scarron was married to the young girl destined
to become Mme de Maintenon, and was perhaps buried in the beautiful
Chapelle-Dorée. The church has always suffered in time of war. At the
Revolution the insurgents tried to shake down its fine tall pillars; the marks

are still to be seen. In 1830-48-71 cannon balls pierced its belfry walls, and
now on Good Friday of this war-year 1918, the enemy’s gun, firing at a
range of seventy-five miles, struck its roof, laid low a great pillar, brought
death and wounding to the assembled congregation. On the place before the
church we see a tree railed round. A shadier elm-tree stood there once, the
famous Orme de St-Gervais, beneath which justice—or maybe at times
injustice—was administered in the open air, in long-past ages.

HÔTEL DE BEAUVAIS, RUE FRANÇOIS-MIRON

Rue François-Miron running east, its lower end the ancient Rue St-
Antoine, shows us the orme, figured in the ironwork of all its balconies.
This end of the street was known in olden days as Rue du Pourtour St-
Gervais, then as Rue du Monceau St-Gervais, referring to the wide stretch
of waste ground in the vicinity which, unbuilt upon for centuries, was a
favourite site for festive gatherings and tournaments. It records the name of
the Prévôt des Marchands of the sixteenth century to whom was due the

façade of the Hôtel de Ville, burnt in 1871. Its houses are for the most part
ancient. No. 13, quaint and gabled, fifteenth century. No. 82 the old
mansion of President Henault. No. 68 hôtel de Beauvais, associated with
many historic personages and events, has Gothic cellars which of yore
formed part of the monastastic house where Tasso wrote his great poem
“Jerusalem Delivered.” The walls above those fine cellars were knocked
down in the third decade of the seventeenth century and replaced in 1655 by
those we see there now, built as the hôtel de Beauvais, destined to see many
changes. At the Revolution the grand old mansion was for a time a coach-
office, then a house let out in flats. Mozart is said to have stayed there in
1763.
Behind the church is the old Rue des Barres with an ancient inscription
and traces of an ancient chapel. The sordid but picturesque Rue de l’Hôtel
de Ville was known for centuries as Rue de la Mortellerie, from the
morteliers, or masons who had settled there. In the dread cholera year 1832
the inhabitants saw in the name of their street a sinister reference to the
word mort and demanded its change. Every house has some feature of old-
time interest. Beneath No. 56 there is a Gothic cellar, once, tradition says, a
chapel founded by Blanche de France, grand-daughter of Philippe-le-Bel,
who died in 1358. At No. 39 we see the narrowest street in Paris, Rue du
Paon Blanc, erewhile known as the “descente à la rivière.” Nos. 8-2 is the
venerable hôtel de Sens (see p. 117).
In Rue Geoffroy l’Asnier, between Rue de l’Hôtel de Ville and Rue
François-Miron, thirteenth century, we find among many other vestiges of
old times the fine seventeenth-century door of hôtel Chalons at No. 26. In
Rue de Jouy of the same period and interest, at No. 12 and No. 14,
dependencies of l’hôtel Beauvais; at No. 7 l’hôtel d’Aumont, built in 1648
on the site of the house where Richelieu was born. At No. 9, the École
Sophie-Germain, the ancient hôtel de Fourcy, previously inhabited by a rich
bourgeois family.
Rue des Archives (see p. 74) is chiefly interesting in its course through
this arrondissement for the old church des Billettes (see p. 76) on the site of
the house of the Jew Jonathas, so called from the sign hung outside a
neighbouring house—a billot—i.e. log of wood. Rebuilt in 1745, closed at
the Revolution, the church was given to the Protestants in 1808. The
beautiful cloisters of the fifteenth-century structure were left untouched and
are enclosed in the school adjoining the church. Rue Ste-Croix-de-la-

Bretonnerie dates from the early years of the thirteenth century and is rich
in relics of past ages. Its name records the existence there of the thirteenth-
century church de l’Exaltation de la Ste-Croix and of a convent instituted in
1258 in the ancient Monnaie du Roi—the Mint—suppressed at the
Revolution, but of which traces are still seen on the square. At No. 47 we
see a turret dating from 1610. The dispensary at No. 44 is the old hôtel
Feydeau de Brou (1760). No. 35 belonged to the old church Chapter. The
boys’ school at No. 22 is ancient. No. 20 dates from 1696. Rue Aubriot
from the thirteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was Rue du
Puits-au-Marais. Aubriot was the thirteenth-century Prévôt de Paris, an
active builder, and who first laid drains beneath Paris streets. No. 10 dates
from the first years of the seventeenth century. Vestiges of that or an earlier
age are seen all along the street. Rue des Blancs-Manteaux recalls the
begging Friars, servants of Mary, wearing long white cloaks, who settled
here in 1258. They united a few years later with the Guillemites, whose
name is recorded in a neighbouring street of ancient date. Their church at
No. 12 was entirely rebuilt in 1685, and in 1863 the portal of the
demolished Barnabite church added to its façade. Remains of the old
convent buildings are incorporated in the Mont-de-Piété opposite. At No. 14
we see traces of the old Priory. No. 22 and No. 25 have fine old staircases
and other interesting vestiges. The cabaret de “l’Homme Armé” existed in
the fifteenth century. We find ancient vestiges, often fine staircases, at most
of the houses.

RUE VIEILLE-DU-TEMPLE

Rue Vieille-du-Temple, which begins its long course opposite the
Mairie, has lost its first numbers. This old street shows us interesting
features at every step. No. 15, hôtel de Vibraye. No. 20, Impasse de l’hôtel
d’Argenson. No. 24, hôtel of the Maréchal d’Effiat, father of Cinq Mars.
The short Rue du Trésor at its side was so named in 1882 from the treasure-
trove found beneath the hôtel when cutting the street, gold pieces of the
time of King Jean and Charles V in a copper vase, a sum of something like
120,000 francs in the money of to-day. At No. 42 opens Rue des Rosiers;
roses once grew in gardens there. At No. 43 Passage des Singes, leading
into Rue des Guillemites, once Rue des Singes. No. 45 shows a façade
claiming to date back to the year 1416. No. 47, hôtel des Ambassadeurs de
Hollande, recalling the days when Dutch diplomats dwelt there and took

persecuted Protestants under their protection, is on the site of the hôtel of
Jean de Rieux, before which the duc d’Orléans met his death at the hands of
Jean Sans Peur, the habitation of historic persons and events until
Revolution days, when it was taken for dancing saloons. Here we see
splendid vestiges of past grandeur: vaulted ceilings, sculptures, frescoes.
The Marché des Blancs-Manteaux, in the street opening at No. 46, is part of
an ancient mansion. Turning down Rue des Hospitalières-St-Gervais,
recalling the hospital once there, we find in Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, at
No. 35, an old hôtel. At No. 31, l’hôtel d’Albret, its first stone laid in 1550
by Connétable Anne de Montmorency, restored in the eighteenth century. At
No. 25, one side of the fine hôtel Lamoignon. Crossing Rue des Rosiers we
turn down Rue des Écouffes, an ancient street of pawnbrokers, where in a
house on the site of No. 20, Philippe de Champaigne, the great painter,
lived and died (1674). Rue du Roi de Sicile records the existence there, and
on land around, of the palace of Charles d’Anjou, brother of St. Louis,
crowned King of Naples and Sicily in 1266. The mansion changed hands
many times and in 1698 became the hôtel de la Grande Force, a noted
prison. Part of it became later the Caserne des Pompiers in Rue Sévigné; the
rest was demolished. On the site of the house No. 2 lived Bault and his
wife, jailers of Marie-Antoinette. And here, at the corner of Rue Malher,
Princesse de Lamballe and many of her compeers were slain in the
“Massacres of September.”
Rue Ferdinand-Duval, till 1900 from about the year 1000 Rue des Juifs,
is full of old-time relics. At No. 20 we find a courtyard and hôtel known in
past days as l’hôtel des Juifs. Nos. 18 and 16, site of the hospital du Petit St-
Antoine in pre-Revolution days, of a famous shop store under the Empire.
Rue Pavée dates from the early years of the thirteenth century, the first
street in Paris to be paved. Here at Nos. 11 and 13 lived the duke of
Norfolk, British Ambassador in 1533. At No. 12 we find two old staircases,
once those of an ancient hôtel incorporated in the prison of La Force. At
No. 24 stands the fine old hôtel de Lamoignon, rebuilt on the site of an
older structure, by Diane de France, daughter of Henri II (sixteenth
century), the natal house of Lamoignon de Malesherbes, renowned for his
defence of Louis XVI. Alphonse Daudet lived here for a time. Close by was
the prison la Petite Force, a woman’s prison, too well known in Revolution
days by numerous notable women of the time. In Rue de Sévigné, which
begins here, we turn at No. 11 into the garden of a bathing establishment on

the site of a smaller hôtel Lamoignon, where in 1790 Beaumarchais built
the théâtre du Marais, otherwise l’Athénée des Étrangers, with materials
from the demolished Bastille. Here we see before us one single wall of the
demolished prison de la Force, and an indication of the spot where thirty
royalist prisoners were put to death. Rue de Jarente, so named from the
Prior of the monastic institution, Ste-Catherine du Val des Escholiers,
erewhile here, shows us an old fountain in the Impasse de la Poissonnerie.
Rue d’Ormesson stretches across the eighteenth-century priory fish market.

CHAPTER XII

THE OLD QUARTIER ST-POL

W E come now to the interesting old-world quarter behind and
surrounding the church St-Paul and the Lycée Charlemagne, the site
of the palace St-Pol of ancient days. The church, as we see it, dates
from 1641, replacing a tiny Jesuit chapel built in the previous century and
dedicated to St. Louis. Its first stone was laid by Louis XIII, and the chapel
built from the designs of two Jesuit priests, aided by the architect Vignole.
Hence the term Jesuite used in France for the ornate Renaissance style of
architecture we see in the façade of the church before us. Richelieu, newly
ordained, celebrated his first Mass here in 1641, and defrayed the cost of
completing the church by the erection of the great portal. The heart of Louis
XIII and of Louis XIV were buried here beneath sumptuous monuments. At
the Revolution the Tiers État, held their first assembly in the old church St-
Pol, soon razed to the ground by the insurgents. The Jesuits’ chapel was
saved from destruction by the books from suppressed convents which had
been piled up within it, forming thus a barricade. The dome was the second
erected in Paris. The holy water scoops were a gift from Victor Hugo at the
baptism of his first child born in the parish.

RUE ÉGINHARD

Turning into Rue St-Paul we see at No. 35 the doorway of the
demolished hôtel de Sève. In the Passage St-Paul, till 1877 Passage St-
Louis, we find at No. 7 the presbytère, once, tradition says, a pied-à-terre of
the grand Condé, and at No. 38 an old courtyard. At No. 36 vestiges of the
prison originally part of the convent founded by St. Éloi in the time of
Dagobert.[C] The arched Passage St-Pierre which led in olden days to the
cemetery St-Pol, the burial-place of so many notable persons: Rabelais,
Mansart, etc., and of prisoners from the Bastille, the man in the iron mask
among them, has lately been swept away, with some walls of the old
convent close up against it. The Manège till recent days at No. 30 was in
days past a favourite meeting place of the people when in disaccord with
the authorities in politics or on industrial questions. At No. 31 we look into
Rue Éginhard, the Ruelle St-Pol of the fourteenth century; the walls of
some of its houses once formed part of the old church St-Pol. At No. 8 we
see the square turret of an old-hôtel St-Maur. At No. 4, l’hôtel de Vieuville,
an interesting fifteenth-and sixteenth-century building, condemned to
demolition, which has been inhabited by notable personages of successive
periods. Passing through the black-walled court we mount a fine old-time
staircase to find halls with beautiful mouldings, a wonderful frescoed
ceiling, etc. etc., all in the possession at present of a well-known
antiquarian. No. 5, doorway of l’hôtel de Lignerac. In Rue Ave-Maria, its
site covered in past days by two old convents, we see at No. 15 an hôtel
where was once the tennis-court of the Croix-Noire, in its day the “Illustre
Théâtre” with Molière as its chief and whence the great tragedian was led
for debt to durance vile at the Châtelet. No. 2 was once “la Boucherie Ave-
Maria.”
Rue Charlemagne was known by various names till this last one given in
1844—one of its old names, Rue des Prêtres, is still seen engraved in the
wall at No. 7. The petit Lycée Charlemagne has among its walls part of one
of the ancient towers of the boundary wall of Philippe-Auguste which
passed in a straight line to the Seine at this point. It is known as Tour
Montgomery and shelters a ... gas meter! The remains of another tower are
seen behind the gymnasium. Before 1908 the last remaining walls of the
hôtel du Prévôt still stood in Passage Charlemagne, a picturesque turreted
Renaissance bit of “Old Paris” let out in tenements, the last vestiges of the
historic mansion where many notable persons, royal and other, had

sojourned. Interesting old-time features are seen at Nos. 18, 21, 22, 25; No.
25 underwent restoration in recent years.

RUE DU PRÉVÔT

In Rue du Prévôt we see more old-time vestiges. Rue du Figuier dates
from about 1300 when a fig-tree flourished there, cut down three centuries
later. Nos. 19-15, now a Jewish hospice, was the abode of the Miron, royal
physicians from 1550 to 1680. Every house shows some relic. At No. 5 we
come upon an old well and steps in the courtyard. No. 8 was perhaps the
home of Rabelais. At No. 1 we find ourselves before the turreted hôtel de
Sens, built between 1474 and 1519, on the site of a private mansion given
by Charles V to the archbishops of Sens, who at that time had ecclesiastical
jurisdiction over Paris. Ecclesiastics of historic fame, and at one time
Marguerite de Valois, la Reine Margot, dwelt there during the succeeding
150 years. Then Paris became an archbishopric, and this fine hôtel de Sens
was abandoned—let. It has served as a coaching house, a jam manufactory,
finally became a glass store and factory, and in part a Jewish synagogue. In
Rue du Fauconnier, Nos. 19, 17, 15, are ancient. Rue des Jardins, where
stretched the gardens of the old Palais St-Pol, has none but ancient houses.

At No. 5 we see a hook which served of yore to hold the chain stretched
across the street to close it. Molière lived there in 1645. Rabelais died there.

HÔTEL DE SENS

Crossing Rue St-Paul we come to Rue des Lions, recalling the royal
menagerie once there. Fine old mansions lie along its whole length. At No.
10 we find a beautiful staircase; another at No. 12, dating from the reign of
Louis XIII, and in the courtyard at No. 3 we see an ancient fountain. At No.
14 there was till recent times the fountain “du regard des lions.” No. 17
formed part of l’hôtel Vieuville. Chief among the ancient houses of Rue
Charles V is No. 12, l’hôtel d’Antoine d’Aubray, father of the notorious
woman-poisoner, la Brinvilliers, with its graceful winding staircase. Here
Mme de Brinvilliers tried to bring about the assassination of her lover
Briancourt by her other lover Ste-Croix. Nuns, nursing sisters, live there
now. Rue Beautreillis was in bygone days the site of a vine-covered trellis
in the gardens of the historic palace St-Pol made up of l’hôtel Beautreillis
and other fine hôtels confiscated from his nobles by King Charles V, and at
No. 1 we see an ancient and truly historic vine climbing a trellis, its origin
lost in the mist of centuries. Is it really, as some would have it, a relic of the
vines that gave grapes for the table of Charles V? All the houses here are

ancient. No. 10 was the mansion of the duc de Valentinois, prince de
Monaco in 1640. We see ancient houses along Rue du Petit Musc, a
fourteenth-century street. No. 1 is the south side of l’École Massillon (see p.
326). We cross boulevard Henri IV to the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, its
walls in part, the Arsenal built by Henri IV on the site of a more ancient
one, restored in the first half of the eighteenth century, its façade entirely
rebuilt under Napoléon III. The name of Sully given to the bridge and the
street reminds us that the statesman lived at the Arsenal. There Mme de
Brinvilliers was tried and condemned to death. The Arsenal was done away
with by Louis XVI, streets cut across the site of most of its demolished
walls. What remained became the library we see; it has counted among its
librarians men of special distinction: Nodier, Hérédia, etc., and is now under
the direction of the well-known man of letters Funck-Brentano. Various
relics of past days and of old-time inhabitants are to be seen there and traces
of the boundary wall of Charles V. Rue de la Cerisaie, hard by, is another
street recalling the palace gardens—for cherry-trees then grew here. On the
site of No. 10 Gabrielle d’Estrées was seized with her last illness while at
the supper-table of its owner, the friend of her loyal lover. The houses here
are all ancient and characteristic, as are also those in Rue Lesdiguières
where till the first years of this present century the wall of a dependency of
the Bastille still stood.

CHAPTER XIII

LA PLACE DES VOSGES

H ERE we are on the old Place Royale—the place where royalties dwelt
and courtiers disported in the days of Louis XIII, whose statue we see
still in the centre of the big, dreary garden square. That statue was put
there by Napoléon to replace the original one, carted away and melted down
in Revolutionary days when the ci-devant Place Royale became Place des
Fédérés, then Place de l’Indivisibilité. Napoléon first named it Place des
Vosges, a name confirmed after 1870 as a tribute of gratitude to the
department which had first paid up its share of the war contribution. In the
early centuries of the Bourbon kings the palace of the Tournelles had stood
here (see p. 8). After its demolition the site was taken for a horse market,
and there the famous duel was fought between the mignons of Henri II and
the followers of the duc de Guise. Henri IV created the Place and had it
parcelled out for building purposes. His idea was to make it the centre of a
number of streets or avenues each bearing the name of one of the provinces
of France. The King died and that project was not carried out, but the
extensive site was soon the square of the fine mansions we see to-day,
mansions fallen from their high estate, no longer the private abodes of the
world of fashion, but standing unchanged in outward aspect.
We see the Pavillon du Roi on the south side facing Rue de Birague,
once Rue du Pavillon du Roi, where at No. 11 was born Mme de Sévigné
(1626); opposite it the Pavillon de la Reine. At No. 7 the petit hôtel Sully
connected with the grand hôtel Sully of the Rue St-Antoine. Each house of
the place was inhabited and known by the name of a great noble or a
wealthy financier. Their enumeration would take too much space here. At
No. 6 we see the house where Victor Hugo lived in more modern times—
1833-48—now the Musée filled with souvenirs of his life and work and
dedicated to his memory. Behind it, at the corner of Impasse Guénémée, is
the hôtel once the dwelling of Marion Delorme. Théophile Gautier, and
later Alphonse Daudet occupied a flat at No. 8. Passing out of the place
through Rue du Pas de la Mule, in its day “petite Rue Royale,” we turn into
Rue St-Antoine, where modern buildings are almost unknown, and vestiges

of bygone ages are seen on every side. At No. 5 an inscription tells us this
was the site of the courtyard of the Bastille through which the populace
rushed in attack on the 14th July, 1789. At No. 7 we remark an ancient sign
“A la Renommée de la Friture.” At No. 17 we see what remains of the
convent built by Mansart in 1632, on the site of the hôtel de Cossé, where
for eighteen years St. Vincent de Paul was confessor. The chapel, left intact,
was given to the Protestants in 1802. Here Fouquet and his son, Mme de
Chantal, and the Marquis de Sévigné were buried. No. 20 is l’hôtel de
Mayenne et d’Ormesson, sixteenth or seventeenth century, on the site of an
older hôtel sold to Charles V to enlarge his palace St-Pol. It passed through
many hands, royal hands for the most part, and the building as we see it, or
the previous structure, was for a time the hôtel de Diane de Poitiers. In
modern times it became the Pension Favart, then in 1870, l’École des
Francs-Bourgeois under the direction of les Frères de la doctrine chrétienne.
At No. 28 Impasse Guénémée, known in its fifteenth-century days as Cul-
de-Sac du Ha! Ha! a passage connected with the hôtel Rohan-Guénémée in
Place Royale. In the seventeenth century a convent was built here, a sort of
reformatory for erring girls and women of the upper classes who were shut
up here in consequence of lettres de cachet. At No. 62 stands the hôtel de
Sully. Its first owner staked the mansion at the gambling table and lost. At
No. 101 we are before the Lycée Charlemagne, built in 1804 on the site of
two ancient mansions and of the old city wall, of which some traces still
remain. At No. 133 we see the Maison Séguier, with its fine old door,
balcony and staircase; another old house at No. 137; then this ancient
thoroughfare becomes in these modern days, Rue François-Miron (see p.
104).

RUE DE BIRAGUE, PLACE DES VOSGES

Rue des Tournelles in this earlier part of its course is chiefly interesting
for the fine hôtel at No. 28, built in 1690, decorated with frescoes by
Lebrun and Mignard, where the famous courtesan, Ninon de Lenclos, lived
and died.

CHAPTER XIV

THE BASTILLE

S O we come to Place de la Bastille.
The famous prison which stood there from the end of the fourteenth
century to the memorable summer of 1789, was built by Hugues
Aubriot, Prévôt du Roi, as a fortified castle to protect the palais St-Pol close
by, and Paris in general, against hostile inroads from the country beyond. Its
form is well known. A perfect model of it is to be seen at Carnavalet, in that
most interesting salle—the Bastille-room. It had eight towers each 23
mètres high, each with its distinct name and use. White lines in the
pavement of the place show where some of its walls, some of its towers
rose, houses stand upon the site of others. The great military citadel became
a regular prison in the time of Charles VI—a military prison, though
civilians were from the first shut up there from time to time. Aubriot
himself was put there by the mob, to be quickly released by the King.
Under Richelieu it became a State prison, the prison of lettres de cachet
notoriety. The Revolutionists attacked it in the idea that untold harshness,
cruelty, injustice dominated there. As a matter of fact, the Bastille was for
years rather a luxurious place of retirement for persons who themselves
wished or were desired by others to lie low for a time, than a fort of durance
vile. The last governor, M. de Launay, in particular, was generous and kind
even to the humblest of those placed beneath his rule. And we know the
attacking mob found seven prisoners only—two madmen, the others
acknowledged criminals. M. de Launay was massacred nevertheless. The
Revolutionists seized all the arms they could find, a goodly store; the walls
were razed soon afterwards and a board put up with the words “Ici on
dance.” In reality the attack upon the Bastille was a milder under-taking
than is generally supposed, and its entire destruction took place later on in
quite a business-like way by a contractor.

LA BASTILLE

The place was finished in 1803. The Colonne de Juillet we see there
dates from 1831. The bones of the victims of the two minor Revolutions
(1830-48) are beneath it. Louis Philippe’s throne was burnt before it in
1848.

CHAPTER XV

IN THE VICINITY OF TWO ANCIENT CHURCHES
ARRONDISSEMENT V. PANTHÉON. RIVE GAUCHE (LEFT
BANK)

C ROSSING the Seine by the Pont St-Michel we reach Place St-Michel,
of which we will speak in another chapter, as it lies chiefly in
arrondissement VI. Turning to the east, we come upon two of the oldest
and most interesting of Paris churches and a very network of ancient streets,
sordid enough some of them, but emphatically characteristic. Rue de la
Huchette dates from the twelfth century; there in olden days two very
opposite classes plied their trade:—the rotisseurs—turnspits, and the
diamond cutters. The old street is still of some renown in the district for
good cooking in the few restaurants of a humble order that remain. The
erewhile Bouillon de la Huchette is now a bal. Once upon a time
Ambassadors dined at l’hôtellerie de l’Ange in this old street. And the name
“Le Petit Caporal” tells its own tale. There Buonaparte, friendless and
penniless, lodged in the street’s decadent days. Rue Zacharie, dark and
narrow between its tall old houses, dates back to the twelfth or early
thirteenth century. Rue du Chat qui Pêche, less ancient (sixteenth century),
is a mere pathway between high walls. From Rue Zacharie we turn into Rue
St-Séverin, one of the most ancient of ancient streets. Many traces of past
ages still remain despite the demolition of old houses around the beautiful
old church we see before us, and subterranean passages run beneath the
soil. At No. 26 and again at No. 4 we see the name of the street, the word
Saint obliterated by the Revolutionists. The church porch gives on Rue de
Prêtres-St-Séverin—thirteenth century. It was brought here from the
thirteenth-century church St-Pierre-aux-Bœufs, razed in 1837. Till then the
entrance had been the old door, Rue St-Séverin, where we see still the
words, half effaced: “Bonne gens, qui par cy passées, priez Dieu pour les
trepassés,” and the figures of two lions, once on the church steps, where the
Clergy of the parish were wont of yore to administer justice: hence the
phrase “Datum inter leones.” The church was built in the twelfth century, on
the site of a chapel erected in the days of Childebert, over the tomb of

Séverin, the hermit. Thrice restored, partially rebuilt, the beautiful edifice
shows Gothic architecture in its three stages: primitive: porch, side door,
three bays; rayonnant: the tower and part of the nave and side aisle;
flamboyant: chancel and the splendid apse. Glorious stained glass, beautiful
frescoes—modern, the work of Flandrin, fine statues surround us here. A
striking feature is the host of votive offerings, some a mere slab a few
inches in size with the simple word “Merci” and a date. Many refer to the
successful passing of examinations, for we are in the vicinity of the
University. The presbytery and its garden cover what was once the
graveyard. Some of the old charniers still remain.

RUE ST-SÉVERIN

ÉGLISE ST-SÉVERIN

Rue de la Parcheminerie (thirteenth century), in part demolished
recently, in its early days Rue des Escrivains, was for long the exclusive
habitation of whoever had to do with the making and selling of books. The
“hôtel des Pères Tranquilles” once there has gone. Two old houses, Nos. 6
and 7, were in the thirteenth-century dependencies of Norwich Cathedral
for English student-monks. In Rue Boutebrie, one side entirely rebuilt of
late, dwelt the illuminators of sixteenth-century scrolls and books. We see a
characteristic ancient gable at No. 6. This house and No. 8 have ancient
staircases. Crossing Rue St-Jacques we turn into Rue St-Julien-le-Pauvre,

“le Vieux Chemin” of past times. Through the old arched doorway we see
there, surmounted by a figure of Justice, was the abode of a notable
eighteenth-century Governor of the Petit-Châtelet, whose duty was that of
hearing both sides in student quarrels and pronouncing judgment. The
church we see was the University church of the twelfth and several
succeeding centuries. University meetings were held there and many a town
and gown riot, or a merely gown riot, took place within its walls. The slab
above the old door tells of its cession to the administrators of the hôtel-Dieu
in 1655. Some of its stones date from the ninth or, maybe, from an even
earlier century; for the church before us was a rebuilding in the twelfth of
one erected in the ninth century to replace the hostel and chapel built there
in the sixth century and overthrown by the Normans—the hostel where
Gregory of Tours had made a stay. The ancient Gothic portal and two bays
falling to decay were lopped off in 1560. The well we see in the courtyard
was once within the church walls. Another well of miracle-working fame,
on the north side, had a conduit to the altar. Passing through a door near the
vestry we find ourselves on the site of the ancient annexe of the hôtel-Dieu,
razed a few years ago, and see on one side the chevet of the church with its
quaint belfry and flight of steps on the roof, on the other a high, strong,
moss-grown wall said to be a remnant of the boundary wall of Philippe-
Auguste. In 1802 the church was given to the Greek Catholics of Paris—
Melchites. The iconostase, therefore, very beautiful, is an important feature.
We see some very ancient statues, and a more modern one of Montyon,
founder of the Virtue-prizes bestowed annually by the Académie Française.

HÔTEL LOUIS XV, RUE DE LA PARCHEMINERIE

In Rue Galande, what remains of it, we see several interesting old
houses, and on the door of No. 42 a bas-relief showing St. Julien in a ship.
Rue du Fouarre, one side gone save for a single house, once Rue des
Escholiers, recalls the decree of Pope Urban V that students of the Schools
must hear lectures humbly sitting on the ground on bundles of straw which
they were bound themselves to provide. Benches were too luxurious for the
students of those days. In this street of the “Écoles des Quatre Nations,”
France, Normandie, Alsace, Picardie, Dante listened to the instruction of
Brunetto Latini. No. 8 with its old door is on the site of the “École de
Normandie.” The street close by, named in memory of the great Italian poet,
is modern. In Rue Domat stood, till the nineteenth century, the walls of the
suppressed convent de Cornouailles founded by a Breton in 1317. Rue des
Anglais, the resort of English students from the time of Philippe-Auguste,

was famous till recent days for the Cabaret du Père Lunette, about to be
razed. The first Père Lunette went about his business wearing enormous
spectacles. The second landlord of the inn, gaining possession of its
founder’s “specs,” wore them as a badge, slung across his chest. Rue de
l’hôtel Colbert has no reference to the statesman. In early times it was Rue
des Rats. Rue des Trois-Portes recalls the thirteenth-century days when
three houses only formed the street. No. 10, connected with No. 13 Rue de
la Bûcherie, the log-selling street, shows us the ancient “Faculté de
Médicine,” surrounded in past days by the garden, the first of the kind,
where medical men and medical students cultivated the herbs necessary for
their physic. The interesting old Gothic structure, more than once threatened
with demolition, has been classed as an historical monument, under State
care therefore, and reconstructed as the Maison des Étudiants. The students
were very keen about the completion of their new house on its time-
honoured site, and when the masons in course of reconstruction went on
strike, the young men threw aside their books, donned a workman’s jacket,
or failing that doffed their coats and rolled up their shirt-sleeves and set to
work with all youth’s ardour as bricklayers. Their zeal was greater,
however, than their technical knowledge or their physical fitness, and their
work left much to be desired, as the French say. Then fortunately the strike
ended.

ST-JULIEN-LE-PAUVRE

BAS-RELIEF, RUE GALANDE

Place Maubert, named after the second vicar of Ste-Geneviève, M.
Aubert, was the great meeting-place of students, and here Maître Albert, the
distinguished Dominican professor, surnamed “le Grand,” his name
recorded by a neighbouring street, gave his lectures in the open air.
Executions also took place here. In Impasse Maubert dwelt Ste-Croix, the
lover and accomplice of the poisoner Mme de Brinvilliers, and in Rue des
Grand Degrés Voltaire in his youth worked in a lawyer’s office. The cellars
of Rue Maître-Albert are said to have been prison cells; at No. 13 the negro
page Zamor, whose denunciation led Mme Dubarry to the scaffold, died in
misery in 1820. No. 16 was the meeting-place of the Communards in 1871.
Rue de la Bièvre reminds us that the tributary of the Seine, now a turgid
drain, closely covered, once joined the mother-river here. Tradition says
Dante made his abode here while in Paris. Over the door of No. 12 we see a
statue of St-Michel slaying the dragon. This was originally a college
founded in his own house in 1348 by Guillaume de Chanac, bishop of Paris,
for twelve poor scholars of the diocese of Limoges.
In Rue des Bernardins we see the church St-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, St-
Nicolas of the Thistle-field, built in the seventeenth century upon the site of
a thirteenth-century structure erected where till then thistles had run riot. It
was designed by a parishioner of mark, the painter Lebrun, enriched by his
paintings and those of other artists of note. The tomb of his mother is within
its walls and a monument to his memory by Coysevox. Rue St-Victor
recalls the abbey, once on the site where now we see the Halle-aux-Vins.

There Maurice de Sulli, builder of Notre-Dame, died and was buried in
1196. Hither, to its famous school, came Abelard, St. Thomas à Becket, St.
Bernard. It was razed to the ground in 1809. At Nos. 24-26 we saw till just
recently the ancient seminary of St-Nicolas, closed since 1906, with its long
rows of old-world windows, seventy-two panes on one story; the college
buildings were at the corner of Rue Pontoise, a street opened in 1772 as a
calf-market and named from the town noted for its excellent veal. And here
we find at No. 19 vestiges of the ancient convent of the Bernardins. Rue de
Poissy has more important remains of the convent and of its college,
founded in 1245 by the English Abbé de Clairvaux, Stephen Lexington,
aided by a brother of St. Louis. The grand old walls now serve as the
Caserne des Pompiers—the Fire Station. Within we find beautiful old-time
Gothic work, a fine staircase, arched naves, tall, slender pillars—the
refectory of the monks of yore; and beneath it vaulted cellars with some
seventy pillars and ancient bays.

CHAPTER XVI

IN THE REGION OF THE SCHOOLS
THE SORBONNE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

W HEN St. Louis was on the throne of France the physician attendant
upon his mother, la Reine Blanche, died bequeathing a sum of money
for the institution of a college of theology. In consequence thereof
Robert de Sorbon built the school for theological study, a very simple
erection then, which developed into the great college adapted to studies of
the most varied character, known as the Sorbonne: that was in the year
1253. Two hundred years later the first printing press in France was set up
there. In another nigh upon two hundred years Richelieu, elected Grand
Master of the college, built its church and rebuilt the surrounding structure.
Napoléon set the college in action on a vaster scale, after its suppression at
the Revolution, by making it the seat of the Académie de Paris, the “home”
of the Faculties of Letters and Science, as well as of Theology. But the
edifice was then again crumbling—in need of rebuilding. Time passed, ruin
made headway. Plans were made, and in 1853 the first stone of a new
structure was laid. It remained a first stone and a last one for many years.
The modern walls we see were not built till the close of the nineteenth
century, finished in 1901. In the great courtyard white lines mark the site of
Richelieu’s edifice. The vast building is richly decorated with statuary and
frescoes. In its church Richelieu seems still to hold sway. We see his coat-
of-arms on every side; over his tomb, the work of Girardon, hangs his
Cardinal’s hat. Another handsome monument covers the tomb of his
descendant, the minister of Louis XVIII. Many generations of Richelieu lie
in the vault beneath the chapel floor. The church is dismantled and partially
secularized. Grand classic concerts are held there during the Sundays of
term each year, but the Richelieu have still the right to be baptized, married,
buried there; the altar therefore has not been undraped.
Exactly opposite the Sorbonne, on its Rue des Écoles side, is the
beautiful Musée de Cluny, on the site of the ancient Palais des Thermes of
which the ruins are seen in the grounds bordered by the boulevard St-
Germain. The palace dates from Roman days. Julian was proclaimed

Emperor there. We see an altar from the time of Tiberius. The remains of
Roman baths—vestiges of the frigidarium, the tepidarium, the
hypocaustum, traces of the pipes through which the water flowed are still
there. In the fourteenth century Pierre de Chaslun, Abbot of Cluny, bought
the ruins of the ancient palace, and the exquisite Gothic mansion we see
was built close up against them. Many illustrious persons found shelter
within the home of the Abbots during the centuries that followed. James V
of Scotland stayed there. Men of learning were made welcome there. In
later times its tower was used as an observatory. The Revolution put an end
to the state and prestige of the beautiful mansion. It was sold, parcelled out
to a number of buyers, put to all sorts of common and commercial uses, till,
in 1833, M. de Sommerard, whose name is given to the street on its
northern side, acquired it and set up there his own precious collection of
things beautiful, the nucleus of the Museum. The whole property was taken
over later by the Beaux-Arts under State protection for conservation. In the
garden numerous interesting relics of ancient churches, that of St-Benoît
which once stood near, and others, are carefully preserved.

LE MUSÉE DE CLUNY

Rue Jean-de-Beauvais was in bygone days inhabited entirely by printers.
The Roumanian chapel there was the chapel of the famous College
Dormans-Beauvais, founded in 1370. Rue de Latran—modern—runs across
the site of the ancient commanderie of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
In Rue des Carmes, dating from 1250, we see at No. 15 the ancient
College des Lombards, now the Cercle Catholique d’Ouvriers, founded
1334, rebuilt under Louis XIV by two Irish priests. The little chapel there,
dedicated now to “Jesus Ouvrier,” is paved with the gravestones of the Irish
clergy who came of yore to live and study there.
Rue Basse des Carmes stretches across the site of the demolished
Carmelite Convent. We are close now to the Collège de France, le Lycée
Louis-le-Grand and l’École Polytechnique.
Le Collège de France, Rue des Écoles, its beautiful west façade giving
on Rue St-Jacques, was founded as an institution by François I (1530); its
lectures were to be given in different colleges. The edifice before us
replaces this “Collège Royal,” built in the early years of the seventeenth
century, destroyed in the eighteenth century. It dates from 1778, the work of
Chalgrin. Additions were made in the nineteenth century. The numerous
finely executed busts of noted scholars and eminent professors are the work
of the best sculptors of each period.
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Rue St-Jacques, on the site of four colleges
of bygone ages, dates in its foundation from 1550, rebuilt 1814-20, restored
1861-85. In the court we see some of the ancient walls. It has borne
different names characteristic of the different periods of the history of
France. It began as the Collège de Clermont, from its founder, the bishop; in
1682 it took the name of the King, Louis-le-Grand. In 1792 it became
Collège de l’Égalité; in 1800, Le Pyrtanée; Lycée Imperial in 1802; Collège
Royal-Louis-le-Grand in 1814; Lycée Descartes in 1848, to revert to its
present designation in 1849. Many of the most eminent men of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were pupils there.
The Collège Ste-Barbe built in the sixteenth century was added to Louis-
le-Grand in 1764. Its tower goes by the name Tour Calvin, for this was the
Huguenot quarter. Here many of the persecuted Protestants were in hiding
at the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Yet it was at Ste-Barbe that Ignatius
Loyola was educated.

Close around Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Collège de France, we find a
number of twelfth-and thirteenth-century streets condemned to demolition,
some of their houses already razed, those that remain showing many
interesting relics. Rue du Cimetière-St-Benoît, which bordered the cemetery
erewhile there; Rue Fromantel, the name a corruption of froid mantel, or
manteau, with its interesting old-world dwellings; Impasse Chartrière,
where at No. 2 we see an old sign and a niche of the time of Henri IV, who
was wont to visit his “belle Gabrielle” here. No. 11 was, it is said, the
entrance to the King’s stables. At the junction of Rue Lanneau four streets
form the quadrangle where was erewhile the well “Certain,” so named after
the vicar of the old church St-Hilaire, once close by, discovered beneath the
roadway in 1894. Roman remains of great interest were found at that time
below the surface of all these streets. Rue Valette, eleventh century, was
once Rue des Sept Voies, for seven thoroughfares met there. At No. 2, in the
billiard-room of the old inn, we find vestiges of the church St-Hilaire, once
there. No. 19 dates from the fourteenth century, and in the seventeenth
century was a meeting-place of the Huguenots who hid in its Gothic two-
storied cellars. In Rue Laplace lived Jean de Meung, author of Le Roman de
la Rose. At No. 12 we see the entrance of a vanished college, next door to
which was the Collège des Écossais.
L’École Polytechnique stands on the site of the college founded in 1304
by Jeanne de Navarre, wife of Philippe le Bel, for seventy poor scholars. It
was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The last vestiges of that rebuilding, a
beautiful Gothic chapel, were swept away in 1875. Traces of a Roman
cemetery were found in 1906. The present structure dates from the
eighteenth century, the work of Gabriel. The house of the Général-
Commandant is the ancient Collège de Boncourt, founded in 1357.
In Rue Clovis, at the summit of the Montagne Ste-Geneviève stands the
Lycée Henri IV, dating as a school from 1796, known for several
subsequent years as Lycée-Napoléon. It recalls vividly the abbey which
once stood there. Its tower, known as the “Tour de Clovis,” rises from the
foundations of the eleventh-century abbey tower and was for long used as
the Paris Observatory. The college kitchen is one of the ancient abbey
cellars—cellars in three stories. Some of the walls before us date from the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The library founded by Cardinal de la
Rochefoucauld is the boys’ dormitory. A cloister and seventeenth-century
refectory are there intact. The pupils go up and down a fine eighteenth-

century staircase, and study amid interesting frescoes and much beautiful
woodwork. New buildings were added to the ancient ones in 1873.

CHAPTER XVII

LA MONTAGNE STE-GENEVIÈVE

R UE DE LA MONTAGNE STE-GENEVIÈVE, leading to the hill-top
from Boulevard St-Germain, went in twelfth-century days by the
unæsthetic name Rue des Boucheries. Nearly every wall, every stone is
ancient. In past ages three colleges at different positions stood on its incline.
The sign at No. 40 dates from the time of the Directoire. A statuette of the
saint there in Revolution days was labelled, “A la ci-devant Geneviève;
Rendez-vous des Sans-Culottes.” And now we have before us the beautiful
old church St-Etienne-du-Mont. The place, in very early times a graveyard,
was laid out as a square in the fourteenth century and the church burial
ground was on the north-western side. The present church dates as a whole
from the early years of the seventeenth century, built on the site of a
thirteenth-century chapel dedicated to St-Etienne. The abside and the choir
were built in early sixteenth-century years, close up against the old basilic
of the abbey Ste-Geneviève. Among the people the church is still often
referred to as l’Église Ste-Geneviève, chiefly, no doubt, because the tomb of
the patron saint of Paris is there. The original châsse—a richly jewel-
studded shrine—was destroyed at the Revolution, melted down, its gems
confiscated, the bones of the Saint burnt. The stone coffin cast aside as
valueless was recovered, filled with such relics of Ste-Geneviève as could
be collected from far and near, and is now in the sumptuous shrine to which
pilgrimages are continually made. A smaller châsse is solemnly carried
round the aisles of the church each year during the “neuvaine” following
January 3rd, the revered Saint’s fête day, when services are held all day
long, while on the place without a religious fair goes on ... souvenirs of Ste-
Geneviève and objects of piety of every description are offered for sale on
the stalls set up upon the place from end to end. The church, showing three
distinct styles of architecture, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, is
especially remarkable for its rood-screen—the only one left in a Paris
church. It is rich, too, in exquisite stained glass, beautiful woodwork, fine
statuary. We see inscriptions and epitaphs referring to Pascal, Rollin and

many other men of note, buried in the church crypt or in the graveyard of
past days.

ST-ÉTIENNE-DU-MONT

The Panthéon, the most conspicuous if not the most ancient or most
seductive building of this hill-top, was begun as a new church Ste-
Geneviève. Louis XV, lying dangerously ill at Metz, made a vow to build
on his recovery a church dedicated to the patron saint of Paris. It was not
begun till 1755, not solidly constructed then; slips followed the erection of
its walls, threatening collapse, and Soufflot, the architect, died of grief
thereat. The catastrophe feared did not happen; the building was
consolidated. Instead, however, of remaining a church it was declared, in
the Revolutionary year 1791, the Panthéon, with the inscription, “Aux
Grands Hommes de France, la Patrie reconnaissante.” Napoléon restored it
to the ecclesiastical authorities at the Concordat. In 1830 it became again
the Panthéon; was once more a church in 1851—then the Panthéon for good

—so far—in 1885, when the body of Victor Hugo was carried there in great
state. Its façade is copied from the Panthéon of Agrippa at Rome. It is noted
for its frescoes illustrative of the life of Ste-Geneviève, by Gros,
Chavannes, Laurens and other nineteenth-century artists. Rodin’s “Penseur”
below the peristyle was put there in 1906.

INTERIOR OF ST-ÉTIENNE-DU-MONT (JUBÉ)

The Faculté de Droit, No. 10, is Soufflot’s work (1772-1823). The
Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève, quite modern (1884), covers the site of the
demolished Collège Montaigu, founded in 1314. Ignatius Loyola, Erasmus
and Calvin were pupils there. All the surrounding streets stretch along the
site of ancient buildings, convents, monasteries, etc., swept away but
leaving here and there interesting traces. In Rue Lhomond débris of the
potteries once there have been unearthed. Michelet lived for a time at the
ancient hôtel de Flavacourt. No. 10, incorporated later in the École Ste-
Geneviève, of which the chief entrance door is a vestige of the hôtel de
Juigné, was the private abode of the Archbishop of Paris in pre-Revolution
days. Another part of the school was the home of Abbé Edgeworth,
confessor to Louis XVI in his last days. Yet another was the Séminaire des
Anglais, founded under Louis XIV. We find a fine façade and balconies in

the courtyard at No. 29, once the abode of a religious community, now the
lay “Institution Lhomond.”
The Séminaire des Missions des Colonies Françaises at No. 30 dates
from the time of Louis XIV. Fine staircase and chapel. The cellars of the
modern houses from No. 48 to No. 54 are those of the convent which
erewhile stood above them.
In Rue des Irlandais we see the college founded in 1755 for Irish,
Scottish and English priest-students. In Rue Rataud, once Rue des Vignes,
which led to a cemetery for persons who had died of the plague, is, at No. 3,
the orphanage of l’Enfant Jésus, formerly “Les Cent Filles,” where the
duchesse d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI, had fifty young orphan
girls educated yearly at her own expense.

CHAPTER XVIII

IN THE VALLEY OF THE BIÈVRE

E MPHATICALLY a street of the past is the old Rue Mouffetard, its name
a corruption perhaps of Mont Cérarius, the name of the district under
the Romans, or derived maybe from the old word mouffettes, referring
to the exhalations of the Bièvre, flowing now below ground here, never
very odorous since the days when, coming sweet and clear from the
southern slopes, it was put to city uses, industrial and other, on entering
Paris. Every house along the course of this street has some curious old-time
feature, an ancient sign, an old well, old doors, old courtyards. Quaint old
streets lead out of it. The market on the place by the old church St-Médard
extends up its slope.
In the sordid shops which flourish on the ground-floor of almost every
house, or on stalls set on the threshold, one sees an assortment of foodstuffs
rarely brought together in any other corner of the city, and articles of
clothing of most varied kind and style and date.
The church dating from the twelfth century, partially rebuilt and restored
in later times, was for several centuries a dependency of the abbey Ste-
Geneviève. Its graveyard, for long past a market-place and a square, was in
the eighteenth century the scene of the notorious scandale Médard. Among
the graves of noted Jansenists buried there miraculous cures were supposed
to take place. Women and girls fell into ecstasies. The number of these
convulsionists grew daily. At last the King, Louis XV, ordered the cemetery
to be closed. A witty inhabitant of the district managed to get near one of
the tombstones the morning after the King’s command was made known
and wrote thereon:

“De par le Roi, défense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu.”

RUE MOUFFETARD ET ST-MÉDARD

It is the parish of the Gobelins and a beautiful piece of Gobelins tapestry
hangs over the vestry door. Fragments of ancient glass, a picture by
Watteau, others by Philippe de Champaigne, beautiful woodwork and the
quaintness of its architecture make the old church intensely interesting.
At No. 81 of this old-time street we find vestiges of a seventeenth-
century chapel. At No. 52 ancient gravestones. The fountain at No. 60 dates
from 1671. The house No. 9 is on the site of the Porte Marcel of bygone
days.
Rue Broca, in the vicinity of St-Médard, dating from the twelfth century,
when it was Rue de Lourcine, has many curious old houses. The houses of
Rue du Pôt-de-fer are all ancient, as are most of those in Rue St-Médard. At
No. 1 of Place de la Contre Scarpe close by, a modern place, an inscription
marks the site of the Cabaret de la “Pomme de Pin,” celebrated by the
eulogies of Ronsard and Rabelais.

CHAPTER XIX

RUE ST-JACQUES

P ASSING amid the ancient colleges and churches, streets and houses we
have been visiting, runs the old Rue St-Jacques. It begins at the banks of
the Seine, stretches through the whole arrondissement, to become on
leaving it a faubourg.
The line it follows was in a long-past age the Roman road from Lutetia
to Orléans—the Via Superior—la grande rue—of early Paris history. Along
its course in Roman times the Aqueduc d’Arcueil brought water from
Rungis to the Palace of the Thermes (see p. 138). It is from end to end a
long line of old-time buildings or vestiges of those swept away. The famous
couvent des Jacobins extended across the site of the Bibliothèque de l’École
de Droit and adjacent structures. At No. 172 stood the Porte St-Jacques in
Philippe-Auguste’s great wall.
We see a fine old door at No. 5, a house with two-storied cellars. At a
house on the site of No. 218 Jean de Meung wrote the Roman de la Rose.
The famous poem was published lower down in the same street.
The church St-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas stands on the high ground we reach
at No. 252, a seventeenth-century structure on the site of a chapel built in
the fourteenth century by the monks from Italy known as the Pontifici,
makers of bridges constructed to give pilgrims the means of crossing a mau
pas or mauvais pas, i.e. a dangerous or difficult passage in rivers or roads.
The beautiful woodwork within the church—that of the organ and pulpit—
was brought here from the ancient, demolished church St-Benoît (see p.
140). We notice several good pictures. The fine stained glass once here was
all smashed at the Revolution. The hôpital Cochin memorizes in the name
of its founder an eighteenth-century vicar there. The churchyard was where
Rue de l’Abbé-de-l’Épée now runs, known at one time as Ruelle du
Cimetière-St-Jacques.
No. 254 bis, the national Deaf and Dumb Institution, is the ancient
commanderie of the Frères hospitaliers de St-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas—the
Pontifici—given for the purpose in 1790, partly rebuilt in 1823. The statue
of Abbé de l’Épée, inventor of the alphabet for the deaf and dumb, in the

court is the work of a deaf and dumb sculptor. The trunk of the tree we see
near it is said to be that of an elm planted there by Sully three hundred years
ago. At No. 262 we see vestiges of a vacherie, once the farm St-Jacques. At
No. 261 we may turn into Rue des Feuillantines, where at No. 10 we see
vestiges of the convent that was at one time in part the abode of George
Sand, then of Mme Hugo, mother of the poet, and her children; later Jules
Sardou lived in the impasse, now merged in the rue. At No. 269 we find
some walls of the monastery founded by English Benedictines in 1640, to
which a few years later they added a chapel dedicated to St. Edmond. The
fabric is still the property of English bishops. It is used as a great music
school: “Maison de la Schola Cantorum.” The door seen between two fine
old pillars at No. 284 led in olden days to the Carmelite convent where
Louise de la Vallière took definite refuge and acted as “sacristan” till her
death; Rue du Val-de-Grâce runs where the convent stood.[D]
The military hospital Val-de-Grâce was founded as a convent early in the
seventeenth century. Anne d’Autriche installed there the impoverished
Benedictines of Val Parfond, or Profond, evacuated from their quarters hard
by owing to an inundation from the Bièvre. In their gratitude they changed
their name: the nuns of Val Profond became sisters of Val-de-Grâce. In
1645 Louis XIV, the child Anne d’Autriche had so ardently prayed for laid
the first stone of the chapel dome, built on the model of St. Peter’s at Rome.
The church is now used only for funerals and indispensable military
services. The dependency of Val-de-Grâce was built by Catherine de’
Medici, the catacombs lie below it and the surrounding houses.

CHAPTER XX

LE JARDIN DES PLANTES

I T was in the early years of the seventeenth century that the King’s
physician bought a piece of waste ground—a butte formed of the refuse
of centuries accumulated there—for the culture of the multitudinous herbs
and plants which made up the pharmacopia of the age. Thus was born the
“Jardin Royal de herbes médicinales” laid out in 1626. Chairs of botany,
pharmacy, surgery were instituted and endowed, and in 1650 the garden
was thrown open to the public. A century later Buffon was named
superintendent of the royal garden. He set himself to reorganize and
enlarge. The amphitheatre, the natural history galleries, the chemistry
laboratories, the fine lime-tree avenue are all due to him. Distinguished
naturalists succeeded one another as directors of the garden, and after the
death of Louis XVI a museum of natural history and a menagerie were set
up with what was left of the King’s collection at Versailles. Additions and
improvements were made in succeeding years till, after the outbreak of war
in 1870, the Jardin was bombarded by the Prussians, and during the siege its
live-stock largely drawn upon to feed the population of Paris. The garden
and its buildings have been added to frequently. The labyrinth is on the site
of the hillock bought by Guy de la Brosse, who first laid it out. A granite
statue marks the spot where he and two notable travellers were buried.
Surrounding streets record the names of great naturalists of different
epochs.
In Rue Geoffroy St-Hilaire, once Rue Jardin du Roi, No. 5, now the
Police Station, was built in 1760. At No. 30 a wheel once worked turned by
the water of the Bièvre, now a malodorous drain-stream hidden beneath the
pavement. No. 36 was Buffon’s home. Here he died in 1788. At No. 37
lived Daubenton. At No. 38 stood in olden days the great gate, the Porte-
Royale, of the Jardin du Roi, with to its left the hall, a narrow space at that
time, where the great surgeon Dionis described to a marvelling assembly of
students his wonderful discoveries (1672-73). That small cabinet was the
nucleus of the great anthropological museum of succeeding centuries.

In Rue Cuvier, in its early days Rue Derrière-les-Murs de Ste-Victoire,
describing accurately its situation, we see at No. 20 a modern fountain
(1840) on the site of one put there in 1671 and traces of the abbey St-Victor
in the courtyard. The pavilion “de l’Administration” of the Garden is the
ancient hôtel Jean Debray (1650), inhabited subsequently by several men of
note. At No. 47 Cuvier died in 1832. In the eighteenth-century fiacres, a
recently introduced manner of getting about, were to be hired at No. 45. The
eleventh-century Rue Linné shows many vestiges of the past. We see
Gothic arches of the vanished abbey at No. 4.
In Rue des Fossés St-Bernard, stretching along the line of Philippe-
Auguste’s wall, between the site of two great gates: Porte St-Victor, a spot
desecrated by the massacres of September, and Porte St-Bernard, we see
Halle-aux-Vins, where abbey buildings stood of yore. The Halle-aux-Cuirs,
in Rue Censier, is on the site of the famous orphanage “La Miséricorde,”
called vulgarly “les Cent Filles” or “les Cent Vierges.” The apprentice from
the Arts and Crafts Institution, who should choose one of these orphan
maidens for his wife, obtained as her dowry the privilege of becoming at
once a full member of the Corporation.
In Rue de la Clef we have at No. 56 the site of part of the notorious
prison Ste-Pélagie. No. 26 is still owned by the Savouré, whose ancestors
kept the school where Jerôme Bonaparte and many of his compeers were
educated. Rue du Fer-à-Moulin, dating from the twelfth century, a stretch of
blackened walls, has been known by many names. In the little Rue Scipion
leading out of it we see at No. 13 the hôtel built in the sixteenth century for
the Tuscan, Scipion Sardini, who came to France in the suite of Catherine
de’ Medici, a rich and rather scandalous financier; terra-cotta medallions
ornament its walls. It serves now as the bakehouse of the Paris hospitals. In
the square opposite we see the curious piece of statuary: “des Boulangers,”
by Charpentier.
Rue Monge, running from boulevard St-Germain to Avenue des
Gobelins, was cut through old streets of the district in 1859. A fountain
Louis XV brought here from its original site, Rue Childebert, was set up in
the square, and many other old-time relics: statues from the ancient hôtel de
Ville, débris from the Palais de l’Industrie, burnt down in 1897; a copy of
the statue of Voltaire by Houdin, etc.

Rue d’Arras, so named from a college once there, began as Rue des
Murs, referring to the walls of Philippe-Auguste. The concert hall we see
was not long ago Père Loyson’s church. L’École Communale, No. 19 Rue
des Boulangers, is on the site of part of the convent des “Filles Anglaises,”
which had existed there from 1644—razed in 1861.
Rue Rollin began in the sixteenth century as Rue des Moulins-à-vent. On
the site of the house at No. 2 Pascal died in 1662. No. 4, with its fine
staircase, its grille and ancient well in the courtyard, was the home of
Bernardine de St. Pierre, during the years he wrote his world-known Paul
and Virginie. Rollin lived and died (1741) at No. 8. Descartes lived at No.
14. When the street was longer and known as Rue Neuve-St-Etienne,
Manon Philipon, Madame Roland of later days, was a pupil in the annexe of
the English Augustine convent on a site crossed now by Rue Monge and
Rue de Navarre.
In Rue de Navarre we come to Les Arènes, the disinterred remains of the
Roman Arena. They were discovered here just before the war of 1870, then
quickly covered up to be in part restored to daylight in 1883. We see before
us the grey stones, huge blocks and graduated step-like seats where the
population of the city—Lutetians then—passed their hours of recreation
watching the conflicts of wild beasts. It is not, perhaps, the original arena
built here by the Romans, for that was attacked twice, first by the northern
invaders, then by the Christians, many of its stones used to build the city
walls. It was, however, soon restored ... evidently. In the course of
subsequent invasions, conquests, new settlements, constructions and the
lapse of years, the Roman theatre sank beneath the surface to be unearthed
in nineteenth-century days. Modern garden paths and a grand but
inharmonious entrance in Louis XIV style now surround this supremely
interesting vestige of a long-gone age. Children play where savage beasts
once fought. Women knit and sew, old men rest, young men and maidens
woo, where Roman soldiers and a primitive Gallic population once eagerly
gathered to watch fierce combats.[E]
Rue Lacépède: here at No. 1 stood till recently the Hôpital de la Pitié,
founded by Marie de’ Medici in 1613, now replaced by a modern building
in the boulevard de l’Hôpital. Its primary destination was a shelter for
beggars—a refuge—in order to free Paris from the swarms who “gained
their living” by soliciting alms in the streets. The beggars preferred their
liberty. By an edict of some years later, however, beggars were taken there

and closely shut up, safely guarded. They were called in consequence “les
Enfermés.” The hospital grew in extent and importance and was called
“Notre-Dame de la Pitié.” The convent Ste-Pélagie was organized in a part
of its buildings, in 1660, to become at the Revolution the notorious prison.
No. 7 is a handsome eighteenth-century hôtel. Rue Gracieuse has brought
down to our time the graceful name of a family who lived there in the
thirteenth century and some ancient houses. In Rue du Puits de l’Ermite
lived the sculptors Coysevox, Coustou, and the painter Bourdon. The
hospice for aged poor in Rue de l’Épée-de-Bois was formerly an asile
founded by Sœur Rosalie, known for her self-sacrificing work among the
cholera-stricken in 1832, and during the Revolution of 1848. The very name
Rue des Patriarches bids us look for vestiges of past ages. The patriarchs,
thus memorized, were two fourteenth-century ecclesiastics, one bishop of
Paris and Alexandria, the other of Jerusalem, who dwelt in a fine old hôtel,
the big courtyard of which has become a market-place, while the street
named after them and a curious impasse stretch across the site of the razed
mansion. The district was a centre of Calvinism during the religious
struggles. The bishop’s old house, “hôtel Chanac,” sheltered numerous
Protestants, and religious services were held there.
Rue de l’Arbalète carries us back to the days when archers had their
garden and training-ground here. Later an apothecary’s garden was laid out
where now we see the extensive modern buildings of the Institut
Agronomique. A pharmaceutical school was built in this old street and
medicinal herbs were cultivated from the end of the fifteenth and early
years of the sixteenth centuries. Remains of a Roman cemetery were found
some years ago beneath the paving-stones near No. 16.
In Rue Daubenton we find the presbytery and ancient side-entrance of
St-Médard, and in the old wall distinct traces of two great gates which led
to the churchyard. Traces of past time are seen also in Rue de la Pitié, where
at No. 3 Robespierre’s sister lived and, in 1834, died.
Rue Cardinal-Lemoine begins across the site of the college founded by
the Cardinal in 1302, suppressed at the Revolution, used subsequently as a
barracks, then razed. The wall of Philippe-Auguste passed on the site of No.
26. Beneath the house a curious leaden coffin was found in 1908. At No. 49
we see the handsome but dilapidated façade of the house of the painter
Lebrun, where also Watteau lived for a time. Here the Dames Anglaises had
their well-known convent from 1644 to 1859, when they moved to Neuilly.

At the Revolution the convent was confiscated, yet Mass was said daily in
the chapel through the Terror (see pp. 11, 28).
At No. 65 we see the Collège des Écossais, founded in 1325 by David,
bishop of Moray, to which a second foundation due to the bishop of
Glasgow, 1639, was added, transferred here from Rue des Armendiers, by
Robert Barclay in 1662. Suppressed in 1792, it was used as a prison under
the Terror but restored to the Scots when Revolution days were over. The
seventeenth-century chapel still stands and the heart of James II is in a
casket there. The college staircase, left untouched, is remarkably fine. Close
by, at the end of Rue Thouin, in what was formerly Place Fourcy, the
brothers Perrault, one the famous architect, the other yet more universally
known—the writer of fairy tales—lived and died. Rue de l’Estrapade recalls
the days when, on the place hard by, rebellious soldiers were punished by
being hoisted to the top of a pole, their hands tied behind their back, then let
fall to the ground. Old-time vestiges are seen all along the street. Rue
Clotilde crosses what were once the grounds of the abbey Ste-Geneviève.

CHAPTER XXI

THE LUXEMBOURG
ARRONDISSEMENT VI. (LUXEMBOURG)

T HE palace that gives its name to the arrondissement was founded by
Marie de’ Medici and built on the model of the Pitti palace at Florence
by Salomon de Brosse between the years 1615-20. The site chosen was
in the neighbourhood of the vast monastery and extensive grounds of the
Chartreux. The duc de Luxembourg had an hôtel there. It was sold to the
Queen and razed; but vainly was the new edifice on the spot called by its
builder “Palais Médicis.” The name of the razed mansion prevailed over
that of the Queen.
A garden was begun in 1613 on a space in the Abbey grounds where, in
a previous age, a Roman camp had stretched.

JARDIN ET PALAIS DU LUXEMBOURG

Marie left the palace to her second son, Gaston d’Orléans. It was the
abode of various royal personages till the outbreak of the Revolution. Then

it became a prison. Camille Desmoulins and many of his compeers were
shut up there. The Chartreux fled and their monastery was levelled with the
ground. The Terror over, the palace became successively Palais des
Directeurs, Sénat Conservateur, Chambre des Pairs and, in 1852, Sénat
Impérial. After Sedan it became the Sénat de la République. The gardens
were extended across the property of the Chartreux. They are beautiful
gardens. The Renaissance fountain is the work of Jacques de Brosse. The
statues we see on every side among the lawns and the flower-beds, in the
shady alleys, most of them the work of noted sculptors, show us famous
men and women of every period of French history from Ste-Bathilde and
Ste-Geneviève to our own day.
The Petit Luxembourg is also due to Marie de’ Medici, built a few years
after the completion of the larger palace. From the day of its inauguration
by Richelieu it knew many inhabitants of note: Barras, Buonaparte and
Joséphine, etc., sojourned there. It was used at one time as a senate house,
then as a Préfecture. We see in an adjacent wall a marble mètre—the
standard measure put there under the Directoire. Finally the mansion was
chosen as the official residence of the president of the Senate.
Rue Vaugirard, on which the chief entrance of both these palaces open, is
the longest street in Paris and one of the oldest. It is, like many another long
Paris street, made up of several thoroughfares once distinct. The first of
these, Rue du Val-Girad, led from the village named from its chief
landowner, an abbé of St-Germain-des-Prés, Gérard de Meul. In close
proximity to the Palace is the Odéon, the Second Théâtre-Français, once the
“Français” itself, built in 1782, on the site of the hôtel de Condé, burnt
down in 1799, rebuilt by Chalgrin, reopened in 1808 as théâtre de
l’Impératrice, badly burnt a few years later, restored as the théâtre Français,
then again restored in 1875. The place surrounding the theatre and the
streets opening out of it are rich in historic and literary associations. No. 1,
Café Voltaire, was a meeting-place of eighteenth-century men of letters of
every class and type. At No. 2 lived Camille Desmoulins and his Lucile.
There he was arrested. In Rue Rotrou, No. 4, now a well-known
bookseller’s shop, was once the famous Café Tabourey. André Chenier
lived in Rue Corneille. Rue Tournon was opened in 1540, across the site of
a horse-market bearing the realistic name Pré-Crotté, on land belonging to
the Chapter of St-Germain-des-Prés, and named after its abbé, Cardinal de
Tournon. At No. 2, hôtel Chatillon (seventeenth century), Balzac passed

three years, 1827-30. No. 4 dates from the days of Louis XIV as hôtel Jean
de Palaiseau, later hôtel Montmorency. Lamartine lived here in 1848. At
No. 5 lived and died the notorious devineresse Mlle Lenormand, “sybille de
l’Impératrice Joséphine.” Another prophetess, Mme Moreau, lived here in
the time of Napoléon III. No. 7, hôtel du Sénat et des Nations, sheltered
Gambetta for a time, also Alphonse Daudet. At No. 6, hôtel de Brancas
(1540), inhabited in its early years by the duchesse de Montpensier, rebuilt
under the Regency, we see a very fine staircase and frescoed boudoir. Pacha
lived for some years at No. 13. No. 8 dates from 1713, on the site of a more
recent hôtel. At No. 10, hôtel Concini, Louis XIII lived for a time to be near
his mother, Marie de’ Medici, at the Luxembourg. St. François de Sales
stayed here. It served as the hôtel des Ambassadeurs Extraordinaires (1630-
1748), was sequestered at the Revolution; then became a barracks as it is to-
day. At No. 19 the Scot, Admiral Jones, famous for his help in the American
War of Independence, died in 1791; his bones were taken to America in
1905. No. 33, the well-known restaurant Foyot, was in old days hôtel de
Tréville, where royalties sometimes dined incognito. At No. 19 we come to
an old curiosity shop surmounted by a barber’s pole, and on the doorpost
we read the words, with their delicate flavour of irony:

“Ici Monsieur Tussieu barbier,
Rase le Sénat,
Accommode la Sorbonne,
Frise l’Académie.”

When the recent war was on the patriotic barber posted up in French, in
Greek, in Latin, other words, the following:

“Bulgares de Malheur,
Turques, Austro-Hongrois, Boches,
Ne comptez sur Tussieu
Pour tondre vos caboches.”

He died a few months ago, leaving to his widow his shop full of valuable
antiquities.
Rue Garancière owes its euphonious name to a notable sixteenth-century
firm of dyers—la Maison Garance was on the site of the present publishing

house Plon. In the seventeenth century the Garance hôtel was rebuilt as a
mansion for the Breton bishop, René de Rieux. After the Revolution it was
for thirty years the Mairie of the district. The words “stationnement de nuit
pour huit tonneaux” on the wall at No. 9 refer to a vanished market
fountain. The Dental School at No. 5 was originally the home of
Népomacène Lemercier. Passing through Rue Palatine memorizing
Charlotte de Bavière, widow of Henri de Bourbon, who lived at one time at
the Luxembourg, we turn down Rue Servandoni, so named in recent times
in honour of the architect of the façade of the church St-Sulpice, who died
in a house opposite No. 1 (1766). Among the bas-reliefs at No. 14 is one of
Servandoni unrolling a plan of St-Sulpice. We see on every side some
interesting vestiges of the past. Rue Canivet and Rue Férou show many old
houses. Rue du Luxembourg is modern, built along what was once a shady
alley of the garden. The Café at No. 1, Rue Fleurus, was erewhile the
meeting-place of great artists: Corot, Murger and others of their time. Rue
Auguste Comte is another modern street along an old alley of the garden.
Rue d’Assas, across the garden at one point, runs through the whole of
this arrondissement over what were once the grounds of the two old
convents: the Carmes and Cherche-Midi; it shows a few ancient houses. No.
8 is eighteenth century. No. 19, l’Institut Catholique, is the ancient
Carmelite convent. George Sand lived in a house once on the site of No. 28,
and Foucault, a celebrated physician who made, besides, the notable proof
of the earth’s rotation by the movement of a pendulum, died here in 1868.
Littré the great lexicographer died at No. 44. Michelet at No. 76.
Turning again into Rue Vaugirard we find at No. 36, the house built for
the household staff of the Princesse Palatine, its kitchen communicating
with the Petit Luxembourg by an underground passage; at No. 19 remains
of the couvent des Dames Benedictines du Calvaire, founded 1619, and on
the site of the Orangery, the Musée du Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1818,
which grew out of the exhibition in 1750 of a hundred pictures in
possession of the King. Massenet lived and died at No. 48. No. 50, hôtel de
Trémouille, called in Revolutionary times hôtel de la Fraternité, where
Mme de Lafayette died in 1692. Nos. 52 and 54 are ancient, 56 was the
hôtel Kervessan (1700). We reach at No. 70 the old convent of the Carmes
Déchaussés.

CHAPTER XXII

LES CARMES

T HE tragic story of “les Carmes” has been repeatedly told. The convent
was founded in 1613 by Princesse de Conti and la Maréchale d’Ancre
for the Carmes Déchaussés, who hailed from Rome. The first stone of
their chapel here, dedicated to St. Joseph, was laid by Marie de’ Medici; its
dome was the first dome built in Paris; Italian masters painted frescoes on
its walls. The Order became very popular among Parisians who liked the
eau de Mélisse, which it was the nuns’ business, in the secular line, to make
and sell, and they were respected for their goodness to the poor. When the
horrors of the Revolution were filling the city with blood, the Carmes were
left unmolested, some even hidden away in secret corners of the convent
with the connivance of Revolutionary chiefs. Then priests who refused to
take the oath of allegiance were shut up there and to-day we see, in the old
crypt, the bones of more than a hundred of them, slain by a band led by a
revolutionist known as “Tape-dur”—strike-hard. A prison during the Terror,
Mme Tallien, Joséphine de Beauharnais, and more than seven hundred
others were shut up there, led forth thence, many of them, to execution.
These tragic scenes overpast, the convent was let to a manager of public
fêtes: its big hall became a ballroom, “le bal des Marronniers.” That
wonderful woman Camille de Soyecourt, Sœur Camille, who had
previously re-organized the convent, bought it back in 1797. The garden-
shed where the bodies of the murdered priests had lain was made into a
memorial-chapel, razed in 1867. Then the priests’ bones were carried to the
crypt where we now see them. Every year in the first week of September,
anniversary of the Massacre, the convent, the crypt and the ancient garden,
little changed from Revolution days, are thrown open to the public, where
besides the bones of the massacred priests many interesting tombs and
relics are reverently cared for. It was at the Institut Catholique in the old
Carmelite buildings that the principle of wireless telegraphy was
discovered, in 1890.
The ancient burial-ground of St-Sulpice lies beneath the buildings Nos.
100-102 of the long Rue Vaugirard. No. 104, the Salle Montalembert, is the

ancient convent of the Pères Maristes. At No. 85 we see an old-time
boundary-stone and bas-reliefs.

CHAPTER XXIII

ON ANCIENT ABBEY GROUND

N UMEROUS ancient streets and some modern ones, on time-honoured
ground, lead out of Rue Vaugirard. Rue Bonaparte, extending to the
banks of the Seine, was formed in 1852 of three old streets. Most of its
houses are ancient or show vestiges of past ages and have historic
associations. At No. 45 Gambetta dwelt in 1866. No. 36 was the home of
Auguste Comte; on the site of No. 35 was the kitchen of the great abbey St-
Germain-des-Prés, which stretched across the course of many streets in this
district (see p. 201). No. 20, l’hôtel du duc de Vendôme, son of Henri IV
and Gabrielle d’Estrées. No. 19, hôtel de Rohan-Rochefort, where the wife
of the unfortunate due d’Enghien, shot at Vincennes, used to receive her
exiled husband in secret when he came in disguise to Paris. No. 17 is noted
as the office till recent years of the Revue des Deux Mondes, first issued
there in 1829 as a magazine of travel!
No. 14, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, on the site of the convent des
Petits-Augustins, founded by Margaret de Valois in 1605, of which some
walls remain and to which in the nineteenth century were added the hôtels
de Conti and de Bouillon, the latter known as hôtel de Chimay. The nucleus
of the works of art here seen was a collection of sculptures and other
precious relics saved from buildings shattered or suppressed in the days of
the Revolution, reverently laid in what was called at first a dépôt des ruines
des Monuments. The word ruines was soon omitted and the dépôt became
the Musée des Monuments Français, under the able direction of Lenoir. But
ruins are still to be seen there, splendid and historic ruins—the façade of the
château d’Anet, built for Diane de Poitiers, and remains of many another
superb hôtel of bygone ages. A beautiful chapel, paintings by Delaroche,
and Ingres, statuary, mouldings of Grecian and Roman sculpture, are among
the treasures of the Beaux-Arts. Nos. 1 and 3, forming l’hôtel de
Chevandon, was inhabited at one time by vicomte de Beauharnais, the
Empress Joséphine’s first husband.

L’ABBAYE ST-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS

Rue des Beaux-Arts, opened a century ago, has ever been the habitation
of distinguished artists and men of letters. Rue Visconti, cut across the Petit
Pré-aux-Clercs, the Students’ Fields, in the sixteenth century, bore till the
middle of the nineteenth century the more characteristic name Rue des
Marais-St-Germain. The Visconti it memoralizes was the architect of
Napoléon’s tomb and of restoration work at the Louvre. In its early years it
was a resort of Huguenots, and known therefore as the “Petite Genève.” It is
very narrow and nearly every house is ancient; Racine died either at No. 13
or at 21. No. 17 was the printing-house founded by de Balzac, to whom it
brought ruin. No. 21, hôtel de Ranes.
Rue Jacob, lengthened in the nineteenth century by the Rue Colombier,
ancient Chemin-aux-Clercs, owes its name to a chapel built by Margaret de
Valois, la Reine Margot—dedicated to the Hebrew patriarch in fulfilment of
a vow when the Queen was kept in durance in Auvergne. The street has
always been the habitation of notable men of letters, artists, etc. Sterne lived
at No. 46. No. 47, Hôpital de la Charité, another of Marie de’ Medici’s
foundations, was built for the Frères de St-Jean-de-Dieu. The firm of
chemists at No. 48—Rouelle—dates from 1750, formerly on the opposite
side of the street. At No. 19 we see in the courtyard vestiges of the old
abbey infirmary. The abbey gardens stretched across the site of several
houses here. No. 26, hôtel Lefèvre d’Ormesson (1710). At No. 22 there is
an eighteenth-century structure in the court called “temple de l’Amitié.” At
No. 20 dwelt the great eighteenth-century actress, Adrienne Lecouvreur. In
Rue Furstemburg we find vestiges of the abbey stables and coach-house.

Rue de l’Abbaye, opened in the last year of the eighteenth century,
stretches across a line once in the heart of the famous abbey grounds. The
first church on the site of the fine old edifice we see there now, was built
under the direction of Germain, bishop of Paris, in the time of Childebert,
about the middle of the sixth century, dedicated to St-Vincent and known as
St-Vincent et Ste-Croix, on account of its crucifix form. Bishop Germain
added a monastery. In the ninth century came the devastating Normans. The
church and convent were destroyed to be rebuilt on so grand and extensive
a scale two centuries later, strongly fortified, surrounded by a moat, watch-
towers, etc.—a masterpiece of thirteenth-century architecture. In the
eighteenth century the abbey prison was taken over by the State, the Garde
Française lodged there. In September, 1792 Mme Roland, Charlotte Corday
and many another notable prisoner of those terrible days were shut up
within its walls. The fine library and beautiful refectory were burnt and
there, that fatal September, saw some three hundred victims of
Revolutionary fury put to death, the greater number slain on the spot where
Rue Buonaparte touches the place in front of the church. The prison stood
till 1857. The church is full within as without of intensely interesting
architectural and historic features: its tower is the most ancient church
tower of the city. In the little garden square we see the ruins of the lady-
chapel built by Pierre de Montereau, architect of the Ste-Chapelle. The
Gothic roof, the round-arched nave, the splendid chapel of the Sacré-Cœur,
once the church choir, with its pillars coloured deep red, the wonderful
capitals of the chancel, the old glass in the chapel Ste-Geneviève, the tombs
and the statues, and Flandrin’s glorious frescoes, all appeal to the lover of
the beautiful and the historic. Of the houses in the vicinity of the church
many are ancient, others are on the site of abbey buildings swept away. No.
3 Rue de l’Abbaye, the abbey palace, dates from 1586, built with a
subterranean passage by Cardinal Charles de Bourbon. The last abbot who
dwelt there was Casimir, King of Poland, whose tomb is in the church. In
modern times it has served as a studio and is now a dispensary. At No. 13
we see the last traces of the monastery with its thirteenth-century cloister.
At No. 15 Rue St-Benoît are the remains of an old tower; at No. 11 vestiges
of an ancient wall; at No. 2, an old house once the abode of Marc Orry, a
famous printer of the days of Henri IV. Through pipes down this old street
water once flowed from the Seine to the abbey, and it went by the name

Rue de l’Égout. The painter of the last portrait of Marie-Antoinette lived for
some time at No. 17.
Rue du Four, i.e. Oven Street, the site in olden days of the abbey
bakehouse, and one of the most important streets of the abbey precincts,
bearing in its early days the royal name Chaussée du Roi, has been almost
entirely rebuilt in modern times. Here and there we find traces of another
age. Robespierre lived here.
Rue du Vieux-Colombier, recalling by its name the abbey dove-cot, has
known among its inhabitants Boileau, Lesage, the husband of Mme
Récamier. Few ancient houses are left there now. We see bas-reliefs at No.
1.
Rue de Mézières is so called from the hôtel Mézières given in 1610 to
the Jesuits as their noviciat. No. 9 is ancient. Rue Madame, which it
crosses, existed under different names from the sixteenth century, part of it
as Rue du Gindre, a reference to the abbey bakehouse once near, for a
gindre is the baker’s chief man. The name of Madame was given in 1790 to
the part newly opened across the Luxembourg gardens by the new occupant
of the palace, the comte de Province, brother of Louis XVI, in honour of his
wife. That did not hinder the count from building in the same street a fine
mansion for his mistress, comtesse de Balbi, razed some years ago. Flandrin
lived at No. 54. Renan at No. 55. Rue Cassette shows us a series of past-
time houses, many of them associated with the memory of notable persons
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Alfred de Musset lived there.
No. 12 was in the hands of the Carmelites till the Revolution. No. 21
belonged to the Jesuits till their expulsion in 1672. In the garden of No. 24
the vicar of St-Sulpice lay hidden after escaping from the Carmes at the
time of the Massacre. Rue Honoré-Chevalier, in the days of Henri IV Rue
du Chevalier Honoré, shows in its name another link with the abbey
bakehouse, for it was that of the master-baker who cut the street across his
own property.
The church St-Sulpice, with its very characteristic façade, the work of
Servandoni, was begun in the middle of the seventeenth century on the site
of a thirteenth-century church dedicated to St. Pierre, but was not finished
till nearly a century later. Servandoni’s towers were disapproved of; one
was demolished and rebuilt by Chalgrin. The other remains as Servandoni
designed it. Entering the church we see its walls covered with frescoes and

paintings; they are all by celebrated artists. Those in the lady-chapel by Van
Loo, the rest by Delacroix and other masters of modern times. The high
altar is unusually large. The shells for holy water were a gift from the
Republic of Venice to François I. The pulpit with its carved figures was
given by Richelieu. In the Chapelle-des-Étudiants is an organ that belonged
to Marie-Antoinette for the use of her young son, and has been played by
Glück and Mozart. A sacrilegious fête was held in the church in Revolution
days and a great banquet given in honour of Napoléon. The grand organ is
very fine, its woodwork designed by Chalgrin. The services are noted for
the beauty of their music. The place dates from 1800, built on the site of the
ancient seminary “des Sulpiciens,” razed by Napoléon. The present
Séminaire, no longer a seminary—forfeited to the State in 1906—was built
in 1820-25. The immense fountain was put up there nearly half a century
later, an old smaller one taken away.
Almost parallel with Rue Bonaparte the old Rue de Seine stretches from
the banks of the river to Rue St-Sulpice. It dates in its most ancient part
from 1250 as the Pré-aux-Clercs road. No. 1 is a dependency of the
Institute. No. 6 is on the site of a palais built by la Reine Margot on leaving
l’hôtel de Sens, some traces of which are seen among the buildings on the
spot, and part of the Queen’s gardens. No. 10 was formerly the Art School
of Rosa Bonheur. At No. 12 are vestiges of l’hôtel de la Roche-Guyon and
Turenne (1620). Nos. 41, 42, 57, 56, 101 show interesting seventeenth-
century features. Rue Mazarine is another parallel street—a street of ancient
houses. No. 12 is notable as the site of the Jeu de Paume, a tennis-court,
where in 1643 Molière set up his Illustre théâtre. No. 30, hôtel des Pompes,
where died in 1723 the founder of the Paris Fire Brigade; a remarkable man
he ... an actor in Molière’s troup, the father of thirty-two children! On the
site of No. 42 stood once another tennis-court, which became the théâtre
Guénégaud, where the first attempts at Opera were made.
Rue de Nesle, till the middle of last century Rue d’Anjou-Dauphine,
stretches across the site of part of the famous hôtel de Nesle; a subterranean
passage formerly ran beneath it. The interesting house No. 8 is one of the
many said to be a palace of la Reine Blanche, the mother of St. Louis. There
were, however, as a matter of fact, many “Reines Blanches” in France in
olden times, for royal French widows wore white, not black for mourning.
Rue de Nevers (thirteenth century) was in past days closed at both ends
and called therefore Rue des Deux-Portes. In Rue Guénégaud we find at

No. 29 a tower of Philippe-Auguste’s wall. All its houses are ancient. At
No. 1 we see the remains of a famous théâtre des Marionnettes.
Rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, in a line with Rue Mazarine, erewhile Rue
des Fossés-St-Germain, is full of historic memories. The Café Procope at
No. 13, now a restaurant, was the first café opened in Paris (1689). Noted
men of every succeeding century drank, talked, made merry or aired their
grievances within its walls: modern paintings there record the features of
some of them. No. 14 was the theatre from which the street takes its name,
succeeded by the Odéon (see p. 184). Rue Grégoire-de-Tours shows us
several curious old houses. At No. 32 we see finely chiselled statues on the
façade. Rue de Buci, originally Rue de Bussy from the buis—box-bush—
once growing there, the ecclesiastical “Via Sancti Germani de Pratis,” later
Rue du Pilori, passed in ancient days through Philippe-Auguste’s wall by a
great gate with two towers opened for the purpose. For it was an all-
important thoroughfare. The carrefour whence it started was the busiest
spot of the whole district. Persons of ill-repute or evil conduct were chained
there; those condemned to death were hung there. Sedan chairs for the
peaceable were hired there. Thither Revolutionist volunteers flocked to be
enrolled in 1792, and there the first of the September massacres was
perpetrated. Most of the ancient buildings along its course have been
replaced by modern structures. The street has been in part widened; the site
of some old structures lately razed has not yet been built on.
Rue Dauphine, named in honour of the son of Henri IV, later Louis XIII,
dates from 1607. Most of the houses date from that century or the century
following. Rue Mazet, opening out of it at No. 49, was famed in past days
for the old inn and coaching station—“le Cheval Blanc.” It existed from
1612 to 1906. Near it was the restaurant Magny, where literary lions of the
early years of the nineteenth century—G. Sand, Flaubert, the Goncourts,
etc.—met and dined. Some old houses still stand there.

COUR DE ROHAN

Rue St-André-des-Arts, where in ancient days dwelt the makers and
vendors of “arcs,” i.e. bows, and along which the pious passed to pray at St-
André on abbey territory for those who had suffered death by burning, (les
Arsis) was in long-gone times a vine-bordered path reaching to the city
wall. It was known at one time as Rue St-Germain, and was a great
shoemaking street. It is rich in vestiges of the past. Almost every house has
interesting features. The modern Lycée Fénelon at No. 45, the first girls’
lycée in Paris, stands on the site of the ancient hôtel of the ducs d’Orléans.
No. 52, hôtel du Tillet-de-la-Bussière. Nos. 47-49, on the site of the ancient
mansion of the Kings of Navarre and of the Vieuville, of which some traces
are still seen. At No. 11, a house on the site of the place where stood the old
church, Gounod was born in 1818. Opening out of it is the Passage du
Commerce-St-André, cut in 1776, across the site of Philippe-Auguste’s

great wall of which, at No. 4, we find the base of a tower, and in the Cour
de Rohan, more correctly perhaps Rouen, a very perfect fragment of the
city rampart. The archbishops of Rouen had an hôtel here, and the vestiges
we see before us are those of a mansion built on its site by King Henri II for
Diane de Poitiers. Rue des Grands-Augustins, in part on the site of an
ancient Augustine convent, was, in the thirteenth century, Rue l’Abbé de St-
Denis. Many of its houses show interesting traces of the past. The reputed
restaurant Lapérouse at No. 1 is a Louis XV hôtel. At No. 5 and No. 7
remains of the ancient hôtel d’Hercule, noted for its mythological paintings
and tapestries, once the Paris abode of the princess of Savoie Carignan. At
No. 3 Rue Pont de Lodi, opening at No. 6, we see traces of the convent
refectory. Littré was born at No. 21 (1808). In 1841 Heine lived at No. 25.
Sardou in his youth at No. 26. Augustin Thierry lived for ten years in a
house near the quay.
Almost every house in Rue Christine, named after the second daughter
of Henri IV, dates from the seventeenth century.

CHAPTER XXIV

IN THE VICINITY OF PLACE ST-MICHEL

A N ancient place and part of the old Rue de l’Hirondelle, and an ancient
chapel stretched in bygone days where now we see the broad new Place
St-Michel. The colossal fountain we see there was put up in 1860,
replacing a seventeenth-century fountain on the ancient place, which lay a
little more to the south. Of the boulevard—the famous “Boule Miche”—we
will speak later (see p. 306).
Turning into Rue de l’Hirondelle, in the twelfth century Rue l’Arondale-
en-Laac, then Rue Herondalle, we see remains of the ancient Collège
d’Antin, founded in 1371, and an eighteenth-century house on the site of
the mansion of the bishop of Chartres previously there. Rue Gît-le-Cœur,
probably indicated in fourteenth-century days the dwelling-place of the
King’s cook ... Gille his name; cœur, a misspelling for queux, cook. At No.
5 we see remains of hôtel Séguier.
Rue Séguier was a thoroughfare, a country road in Childebert’s time; in
the fourteenth century it became a street with the name Pavée-St-André-
des-Arts. Every house has some interesting feature. The famous Hostellerie
St-François till the eighteenth century on the site of No. 3, was the starting-
point of the coaches for Normandy and Brittany. At No. 6 we see traces of
the hôtel de Nemours. The Frères Cordonniers de St-Crépin, founded in
1645 (Shoemakers’ Confraternity), had its quarters where we see the Nos. 9,
11, 13. J. de Ste-Beuve, the Jansenist, was born and in 1677 died at No. 17.
At No. 18 we see all that is left of a fourteenth-century hôtel de Nevers on
the site of an older hôtel. The burial-ground of the church St-André
stretched along part of Rue Suger: the presbytery was on the site of No. 13.
Every house in this narrow old street tells of past days. At No. 3 we find
traces of the chapel of the Collège de Boissy, founded in 1360 by a Canon
of Chartres for seven poor students. Another old-time college stood in Rue
de l’Éperon and till 1907, an ancient house, a dependency of the church St-
André-des-Arts. Rue Serpente, a winding road in its earliest days, a street
about the year 1200, was the site of the celebrated hôtel Serpente, and of the
firm of printers where Tallien was an employé. The very modern Rue

Danton, with its emphatically up-to-date structure in re-enforced concrete,
has swept away a host of ancient houses. The hôtel des Sociétés Savantes is
on the site of the hôtel de Thou, l’hôtel des États-de-Blois in the time of
Louis XV.
Rue Mignon, twelfth century, recalls yet another college founded in
1343 by a dignitary of Chartres of this name; ancient houses at Nos. 1 and
5.
The most interesting of these old streets is Rue Hautefeuille with its two
turrets, one at No. 5, the ancient hôtel of the Abbots of Fécamp, fourteenth
century, the other octagonal, at No. 21, on the corner of what was once part
of the Collège Damville of the same date: there in Roman times stood the
castle Altum Folium—Hautefeuille—of which remains were found in the
fourteenth century. This old street was no doubt a road leading to the
citadel.

RUE HAUTEFEUILLE

CHAPTER XXV

L’ODÉON

A N interesting corner of Old Paris lies on the north-east side of the
Odéon. Rue Racine, opening on the place before the theatre, runs
through the ancient territory of the Cordeliers. Vestiges of a Roman
cemetery were found in recent years beneath the soil at No. 28, and at No.
11 were unearthed traces of the city wall of Philippe-Auguste. George Sand
lived for a time at No. 3. Rue de l’École de Médecine was once in part Rue
des Cordeliers, in part Rue des Boucheries-St-Germain, a name telling its
own tale. No less than twenty-two butchers’ shops flourished here. At the
outbreak of the Revolution a butcher was president of the famous club des
Cordeliers established in the ancient convent chapel (1791-94). The
refectory, the church-like structure we see at No. 15, now an anatomy
museum, built by Anne of Bretagne in the fifteenth century, is all that
remains of the convent buildings dating in part from the early years of the
twelfth century, which covered a great part of this district from the days of
Louis IX. Many of these buildings were put to secular uses before the
outbreak of the Revolution. The cloister stood till 1877, made into a prison,
then was razed to make room for the École de Médecine built in part with
the ancient cloister stones. The chapel stood on what is now Place de
l’École-de-Médecine. The amphitheatre of the School of Surgery at No. 5,
an association founded by St. Louis, dates from the end of the seventeenth
century on the site of an older structure. Above the cellars at No. 4 stood in
olden days the College of Damville. The Faculté de Médecine at No. 12 is
on the site of the Collège-Royal de Bourgogne, founded in 1331. The first
stone of the present building was laid by Louis XVI. The edifice was
enlarged in later days, restored in 1900. The bas-relief on its frontal,
sculptured as a figure of Louis XV, was by order of the Commune
transformed in 1793 into the woman draped we see there now. Skulls of
famous persons, some noted criminals, may be seen at the Museum. Marat
lived and died in Rue des Cordeliers. There Charlotte Corday was seized by
the enraged mob. Traces of the ancient convent may be seen in the short
Rue Antoine-Dubois. Rue Dupuytren lies across what was the convent

graveyard. Nos. 7-9 were dependencies of the old convent. No. 7 was later a
free school of drawing directed by Rosa Bonheur. Rue Monsieur-le-Prince,
so named in 1806, because of the vicinity of the hôtel du Prince de Condé,
was in olden days Chemin des Fossés. We see there many characteristic
houses. Auguste Comte died at No. 10 in 1857.

CHAPTER XXVI

ROUND ABOUT THE CARREFOUR DE LA CROIX-
ROUGE

P ASSING to the western half of the arrondissement, we turn into the
modern Rue de Rennes, running south from Place St-Germain-des-Prés
along the lines of razed convent buildings or their vanished gardens. The
short Rue Gozlin opening out of it dates from the thirteenth century, its
present name recording that of a bishop of Paris who defended the city
against invading Normans in the ninth century. Two only of the houses we
see there now are ancient, Nos. 1 and 5. At No. 50 we see the seventeenth-
century entrance of the old Cour du Dragon, with its balcony and huge
piece of sculpture dating from 1735; the quaint houses of the alley, with its
gutter in the middle, were in past days the habitation of ironmongers. It
leads down into the old Rue du Dragon, which began as Rue du Sépulcre,
being then the property of the monks of St-Sépulcre. A fine hôtel stood once
at either end. At No. 76 we see the remains of a mansion, taken later for a
convent, where Bossuet sojourned. Nos. 147-127 are on the site of a Roman
cemetery.
Rue Cherche-Midi, once Chasse-Midi, takes its name from an ancient
sign-board illustrating the old French proverb: “Chercher midi à quatorze
heures,” i.e. to look for something wide of the mark. Many old-time houses
still stand along its course. It starts from the Carrefour de la Croix-Rouge,
where, before a cross in the centre of the Carrefour, criminals and political
offenders were put to death. The name is probably due to a sign-board
rather than to the alleged colour of this cross. In this quiet spot, as historians
have remarked, a flaring red cross would hardly have been in keeping with
the temper of its patrician inhabitants. The Revolutionists called it
Carrefour du Bonnet-Rouge. At No. 12 we see a fine grille. One of the most
interesting historically inhabited hôtels of the city stood till 1907 on the site
of No. 37, in olden times the dependency of a convent, latterly hôtel des
Conseils-de-Guerre, razed to make way for the brand-new boulevard
Raspail. The military prison opposite is on the site of a convent organized in
the house of an exiled Calvinist, razed in 1851. Nos. 85, 87, 89, eighteenth

century, belonged to a branch of the Montmorency—knew successive
inhabitants of historic fame and illustrious name. A fine fountain is seen in
the Cour des Vieilles-Tuileries at No. 86. Several old shorter streets lead out
of this long one. In Rue St-Romain, named after an old-time Prior of St-
Germain-des-Prés, we see the fine old hôtel de M. de Choiseul, now the
headquarters of the National Savings Bank. Rue St-Placide, seventeenth
century, recording the name of a celebrated Benedictine monk, shows some
ancient vestiges. Huysmans died at No. 31 in 1907. In Rue Dupin, once
Petite Rue du Bac, we see ancient houses at Nos. 19-12, in the latter a
carved wood Louis XIII staircase. Rue du Regard, another “Chemin Herbu”
of past days, records by its present name the existence of an old fountain
once here, now placed near the fountain Médici of the Luxembourg
gardens. The publishing house Didot at No. 3 is on the site of a handsome
ancient mansion once the home of the children of Mme de Montespan,
sacrificed to the boulevard Raspail in 1907. Nos. 5-7 date from the first
years of the eighteenth century. The doors of the Mont de Pitié are all that is
left of hôtel de la Guiche once on the site.
Rue de Sèvres, forming in the greater part of its course the boundary
between arrondissements VI and VII, running on into arrondissement XV,
was known familiarly in old days as Rue de la Maladrerie, on account of its
numerous hospitals. They are numerous still. At No. 11 and No. 13 we find
remains of the couvent des Prémontrés Réformés founded by Anne
d’Autriche, 1661. Rue Récamier was recently opened on the site of the
famous Abbaye-aux-Bois, where for thirty years Mme de Récamier lived
the “simple life,” courted none the less by a crowd of ardent admirers—the
tout Paris of that day. The Abbaye, as a convent, counted notable women
among its abbesses; at the Revolution it was suppressed and let out in flats
till its regrettable demolition in 1908. The Square Potain close by, now
known as Square du Bon Marché, is on the site of a leper-house which
dated from the reign of Philippe-Auguste. A convent and adjoining
buildings of ancient date were destroyed to allow boulevard Raspail to
pursue its course. An old house still stands at No. 26; vestiges at No. 31. At
No. 42 we see the Hospice des Incurables, founded in 1634 by Cardinal de
la Rochefoucauld and known since 1878 as l’Hospice Laennec. Here in
1819 died the woman Simon, the jailer of the little dauphin “Louis XVII,”
after a sojourn of twenty-five years. The minister Turgot and other persons
of note lie buried in the chapel. The Egyptian fountain dates from 1806. At

No. 84 we see very recently erected houses let out in flats on the site of the
couvent des Oiseaux, dating from the early years of the eighteenth century
—the prison du Bonnet Rouge during the Revolution, a convent school and
pension in 1818 till its suppression in 1906. The “Oiseaux”—birds—were
perhaps those of an aviary, or maybe those painted by Pigalle on the walls
of one of the rooms. The Lazarist convent at No. 95 was previously a
private mansion dating from the time of Louis XV. The chapel dates from
1827 and sheltered for some years the remains of St-Vincent-de-Paul. In the
eighteenth century, on the site of No. 125, wild beast fights took place. The
last numbers of the street are in arrondissement XV. There we see the
ancient Benedictine convent, suppressed in 1779—become l’Hôpital
Necker. The hospital at No. 149 began life in 1676 as a community of
“gentilshommes”; seventy years later it was the “Maison Royale de
l’Enfant-Jésus” under the patronage of Marie Leczinska, enlarged by the
gift of an adjoining mansion. Closed at the Revolution, it served for a time
as a coal-store, then became a National orphanage, and in 1802 the “Enfants
Malades”; its ancient chapel was replaced by the chapel we see under
Napoléon III.

CHAPTER XXVII

HÔTEL DES INVALIDES
ARRONDISSEMENT VII. (PALAIS-BOURBON)

I T was Henri IV, le bon Roi, who first planned the erection of a special
hôtel to shelter aged and wounded soldiers. Meanwhile they were lodged
in barracks in different parts of the city. The fine hôtel we know was built
by Louis XIV, opened in 1674, restored in after years by Napoléon I, and
again by Napoléon III. The greatest military names of France figure in the
list of its governors.
On July 14th, 1789, the Paris mob rushed to the Invalides for arms
wherewith to storm the Bastille. On the 30th of March, 1814, nearly fifteen
hundred flags and trophies were destroyed in a great bonfire made in the
court to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy Allies. But
the chapel is still hung with flags and trophies taken in wars long overpast
and three museums—le Musée Historique, le Musée d’Artillerie, le Musée
des Plans-en-relief—have been important features at les Invalides since
1905. The ancient refectory has become la Salle-des-Armures, decorated
with frescoes illustrative of the great battles of bygone days from the time
of Louis XIV onward. The big cannons—la batterie triomphale—we see
behind the moats are those captured in the Napoléonic wars. Now in these
poignant days of unparalleled warfare, immense cannons of the most up-to-
date construction, monstrous airships, broken zeppelins, are gathered in the
great courtyards. In the chapel St-Louis we see the tombs of distinguished
soldiers and memorials in honour of the heroes of old-time war-days. The
dome-church, separated from it by the immense stained-glass window, was
built as a special chapel for the King and Court, its dome decorated with
paintings by the greatest artists of the time. The sumptuous tomb of
Napoléon I, the work of Visconti, was placed there in the second half of the
nineteenth century.
The gravestone from St-Helena and other souvenirs were put in the
chapel St-Nicolas in 1910. Of late years no new pensioners were received,
veterans of war-days past were for long the sole inhabitants of the soldiers’

quarters—the only “invalides.” Now the institution is once more to be
peopled with a crowd of disabled heroes, victims of the terrible war.
Avenue de Tourville, planned when the hôtel des Invalides was built,
was not opened till the century following. Of the four avenues opening out
of it, Avenue de Ségur, Avenue de Villars, Avenue de Breteuil, opened in
1780, record the names of distinguished generals of Napoléon’s time, but
show us no historic structures. In Avenue de Lowenthal we see the façade of
l’École Militaire, a vast building reaching to Avenue de la Motte-Picquet. It
dates from 1752, the work of Gabriel, and was originally destined for the
military education of five hundred “young gentlemen.” Under the
Convention it was turned into a flour store. Restored as a school, the
“Enfants de Mars”—military students of all ranks—were admitted there.
Young Buonaparte, come from Corsica to study in Paris, spent a year here
and was confirmed in its chapel, now used for storing clothes. When that
young student had made himself Emperor, the Imperial Guard took up their
quarters here—to be followed after 1824 by the Royal Guard. Under
Napoléon III the building was considerably changed.
At No. 13 boulevard des Invalides we catch a glimpse of the former
couvent du Sacré-Cœur, the old hôtel Biron: its chief entrance is Rue de
Varennes (see p. 194). No. 41 was l’hôtel de Condé. No. 50 l’hôtel de
Richepanse. No. 52 l’hôtel de Masserano. No. 56 is the Institution
Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles, a modern structure, its foundation dating
from 1791, one of the last foundations of Louis XVI. The statue we see is
that of Valentin Haüy, its original organizer.
Boulevard de la Tour Maubourg is lined by fine hôtels, all modern, only
the names of their owners recalling days past. Avenue de la Motte-Picquet
is equally devoid of historic interest, save as regards l’École-Militaire (see
p. 191). But turning aside from these fine latter-day avenues, we find in the
vicinity of the Invalides several of the oldest historic streets of the Rive
Gauche.
Rue de Babylone existed under other names from the early years of the
fifteenth century. Its present designation is in memory of Bernard de Ste-
Thérèse, bishop of Babylone, who owned property there whereon, at No.
22, was built in 1663 the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères. At No. 20 we
see the statue of Notre-Dame de la Paix with the inscription: “l’Original de
cette image est un chef d’œuvre si parfait que le Tout-Puissant qui l’a fait

s’est renfermé dans son ouvrage.” At No. 21 live “sisters” of St-Vincent-de-
Paul, so active always in Christian work and service. No. 32 is the ancient
Petit hôtel Matignon. No. 33 is the property of the sisters of No. 21. At No.
49 we see the ancient barracks of les Gardes Françaises, so gallantly
defended by the Suisses in July, 1830.
In the short Rue Monsieur (the Monsieur of the day was the brother of
Louis XVI), we find at No. 12 the hôtel built for Mademoiselle de Bourbon-
Condé, aunt of the duc d’Enghien, abbesse de Remiremont, who lies buried
beneath the pavement of the Benedictine convent at No. 20. No. 5 shows us
remains of the hôtel of duc de Saint-Simon, the famous diarist-historian.
Passing up Rue Barbet de Jouy, cut in 1838 across the site of an ancient
mansion, we come to Rue de Varennes, a long line of splendid dwellings
dating from a past age.

CHAPTER XXVIII

OLD-TIME MANSIONS OF THE RIVE GAUCHE
ARRONDISSEMENT VII. PALAIS-BOURBON

T HE word Varennes is a corruption of Garennes: in English the Rue de
Varennes would be Warren Street, a name leading us back in thought to
the remote age when the district was wild, uncultivated land full of
rabbit-warrens. Another street joined to Rue de Varennes in 1850, and
losing thus its own name, made it the long street we enter. No. 77 is the
handsome mansion and park built early in the eighteenth century by Gabriel
for a parvenu wig-maker. Later it was l’hôtel de Maine, then hôtel Biron, to
become in 1807 the well-known convent of the Sacré-Cœur. From its
convent-days dates the chapel—now the Musée Rodin. Other dependencies
of the same date, built to house the nuns, were razed after their evacuation
in 1904, when educational congregations were suppressed. The State, in
possession of the domain, let it out for a time in logements, used it for a
brief period as a National School, then let the whole property to the great
sculptor, Rodin, who always had his eye on fine old buildings threatened
with degradation or destruction. “I could weep,” he once said to me, “when
I see fine historic walls ruthlessly razed to the ground.” The disaffected
chapel became his studio and he set about maturing the plan, faithfully
carried out after his death, of organizing there a national museum. He
offered the whole of his own works and all the precious works of art he had
collected to the State for this purpose. A clause in the treaty stipulates that
in the possible but unlikely event of the restitution of the chapel building,
after a lapse of years, to religious authorities, it be replaced as a museum by
a new structure in the grounds. No. 73 is hôtel de Broglie, 1775. No. 69
hôtel de Clermont, 1714. No. 80 is the Ministère du Commerce. No. 78 the
Ministère de l’Agriculture, built in 1712 as the habitation of an actrice. No.
65 began as l’hôtel de la Marquise de la Suze, 1787, to become l’hôtel
Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville. No. 72 l’hôtel de Dufour, 1700. No. 64 was
an eighteenth-century inn. No. 57, l’hôtel de Matignon, made over by the
duchesse de Galliera after her husband’s death to the Emperor of Austria,
became the Austrian Embassy—till 1914. Numerous have been the persons

of historic name and note who stayed or lived at this grand old mansion. It
was owned at one time by Talleyrand, whose home was next door at No. 55;
by the comte de Paris, who on the marriage of his daughter Amélie and Don
Carlo of Portugal, in 1886, gave there a fête so magnificent that it led to the
banishment of the Orléans and other princely families of France on the
ground of royalist propaganda. Nos. 62-60 are ancient. No. 58 l’hôtel
d’Auroy, 1750; l’hôtel Rochefoucauld in 1775. No. 56 l’hôtel de Gouffier,
1760. No. 55 l’hôtel d’Angennes. Nos. 52-52 bis l’hôtel de Guébriant. No.
47 l’hôtel de Jaucourt, 1788, later de Rochefoucauld-Dundeauville. No. 48
the hôtel de Charles Skelton. Monseigneur de Ségur was born here in 1820.
No. 45 is l’hôtel de Cossé-Brissac, 1765. No. 46 the petit hôtel de
Narbonne-Pelet. Nos. 43-41 l’hôtel d’Avrincourt. At No. 23 are vestiges of
l’hôtel St-Gelais, 1713. No. 21 is l’hôtel de Narbonne-Pelet. No. 22 l’hôtel
de Biron, 1775. No. 19 l’hôtel de Chanterac. In its passage here as
elsewhere Boulevard Raspail has swept away venerable buildings.
The Esplanade on the northern side of the hôtel des Invalides, once
Plaine-des-Prés-St-Germain, stretches between three long and old-world
streets—Rue de Grenelle, Rue St-Dominique, Rue de l’Université—all
crossing the 7th arrondissement in almost its entire extent.
Rue de Grenelle, in the fifteenth century Chemin de Garnelle, then
Chemin des Vaches, a country road, has near its higher end where we start
two ancient streets leading out of it, Rue de la Comète (1775), named to
record the passage of the famous comet of 1763, where at No. 19 we see a
curious old courtyard, and Rue de Fabert with an ancient one-storied house
at its corner. No. 127 hôtel de Charnac, abbé de Pompadour, was the palace
Mgr. Richard was forced to give up in 1906—now Ministère du Travail.
Nos. 140-138, a fine mansion built in 1724, inhabited till the eighteenth
century by noblemen of mark, is now hôtel de l’État-Major de l’Armée and
Service Géographique de l’Armée. At No. 115, formerly l’hôtel du Marquis
de Saumery, the actrice Adrienne Lecouvreur died and was secretly buried.
The short Rue de Martignac, opening at No. 130, showing no noteworthy
feature, was built in 1828 on the ancient grounds of the Carmelites and the
Dames de Bellechasse. No. 105 belonged to Berryer, the famous lawyer,
1766, then to Lamoignon de Basville. No. 122, l’hôtel d’Artagnan, to
Maréchal de Montesquieu. At No. 101 l’hôtel d’Argenson, 1700, where
Casimir Perier died of cholera in 1832; now Ministère de Commerce de
l’Industrie. No. 118 l’hôtel de Villars, etc., has very beautiful woodwork.

No. 116, the Mairie since 1865, an ancient hôtel transformed and enlarged
in modern times. No. 110 l’hôtel Rochechouart, built on land taken from the
nuns of Bellechasse, inhabited at one time by Marshal Lames, duc de
Montebello, is the Ministère de l’Instruction Publique. At No. 97 Saint
Simon wrote his diaries and in 1755 died here. No. 106, in 1755 Temple du
Panthémont, the abode of a community of nuns from the Benedictine abbey
near Beauvais, was sold in lots after the Revolution; its chapel was taken
for a Protestant church. No. 87, known in a past age as hôtel de
Grimberghe, has a fine staircase. No. 104 formed part of the Panthémont
convent. No. 85, l’hôtel d’Avaray 1718, abode, in 1727, of Horace Walpole
when ambassador. No. 83 hôtel de Bonneval, 1763. No. 81, Russian
Embassy, was built by Cotte in 1709 for the duchesse d’Estrées. No. 102
was built by Lisle Mansart in the first years of the eighteenth century. At
No. 90 we turn for an instant into Rue St-Simon to look at the Latin
inscriptions on Nos. 4-2, dating, however, only from 1881. No. 77, École
Libre, originally l’hôtel de la Motte-Houdancourt, was inhabited in recent
times by marquis de Gallifet. No. 75, seventeenth century, built by Cardinal
d’Estrées. No. 88 l’hôtel de Noailles. No. 73, Italian Embassy, built by
Legrand in 1775. At No. 71, annexed to the Italian Embassy, the duke of
Alba died in 1771.
The fine Fontaine des Quatre Saisons, dating from 1737, erected by
Bouchandon, was inaugurated by Turgot, Prévôt des Marchands in 1749.
Here, at No. 59, Alfred de Musset lived and wrote from 1824 to 1840. No.
36, “A la Petite Chaise,” dates from 1681; No. 25, hôtel de Hérissey, from
1747. No. 15 is on the site of an ancient hôtel Beauvais. No. 20 Petit hôtel
de Beauvais, 1687. The modern house and garage at Nos. 16-18 are on the
site of a house owned by a nephew of La Fontaine and which was inhabited
by the Beauharnais. At No. 11 we find vestiges of the hôtel of Pierre de
Beauvais, a fine mansion, where the Doge of Venise, come to Paris to make
obeisance to Louis XIV, stayed in 1686; a convent subsequently, then the
Mairie of the district till 1865, when the lengthening of Rue des Saints-
Pères swept it away.
Rue St-Dominique, like Rue de Grenelle in ancient days a country road
—“Chemin aux Vaches,” then “Chemin de la Justice”—grew into a
thoroughfare of fine hôtels, some still standing, others swept away by the
cutting of the modern boulevard St-Germain or incorporated in the newer
hôtels there. It is the district of the Gros Caillou, the great stone, which once

marked the bounds of the abbey grounds of St-Germain-des-Prés. The
fountain at No. 129, dating from the early years of the nineteenth century, is
by Beauvalet. The Hygia healing a warrior we see sculptured there reminds
us of the military hospital recently demolished. The church St-Pierre du
Gros-Caillou dates from 1738, on the site of a chapel built there in 1652. In
the court at No. 94 we find an old pavilion. A curious old house at No. 74,
an old courtyard at No. 66. At No. 81 an ancient inn had once the sign “Le
Canon ci-devant Royal.” No. 67 was the “Palais des Vaches laitières.” No.
32 l’hôtel Beaufort. No. 57 l’hôtel de Sagan, built in 1784 for the princesse
de Monaco, née Brignole-Salé, now in the hands of an antiquarian. No. 53
l’hôtel de la princesse de Kunsky, 1789. At No. 49 we find an eighteenth-
century hôtel in the court. The fine hôtel at No. 28, 1710, was at one time
the Nunciate. No. 47 l’hôtel de Seiguelay, where at the beginning of the
nineteenth century gas, newly invented, was first used. No. 45 hôtel
Comminges. No. 43 hôtel de Ravannes. No. 41 is ancient. At Nos. 22-20 we
see the name of the street ” ... Dominique,” the word saint suppressed in
Revolution days. No. 35 l’hôtel de Broglie. Nos. 16-14, built in 1730, now
the War Minister’s official dwelling (1730), in Napoléon’s time the Paris
home of his mother, “Madame Laetitia.” In the first of these two hôtels,
joined to make one, we see Louis XV woodwork decorations, “Empire”
decorations in the other. No. 33 l’hôtel Panouse.
The church Ste-Clotilde, 1846-56, is built on the site of a demolished
Carmelite convent. The fine bas-reliefs by Pradier and Duret are the best
work there. Nos. 12, 10, 8, Ministère de la Guerre since 1804, was once the
couvent des Filles de St-Joseph, founded 1640. No. 11, site of the Pavillon
de Bellechasse, the home of Mme de Genlis. Nos. 5-3 l’hôtel de Tavannes.
Gustave Doré died at No. 5, in 1883. No. 1, hôtel of duc de Mortemart, built
1695, where we see an oval court.
Rue Solférino, No. 1, the chancellerie de la Légion d’Honneur (see p.
205).
Rue de l’Université, so long and interesting a thoroughfare, recalls the
days when the Pré-aux-Clercs through which it was cut was the classic
promenade of Paris students. It was known in its early days as Rue de la
Petite-Seyne, then as Rue du Pré-aux-Clercs. The seventeenth century saw a
series of lawsuits between the landowners and the University, the latter
claiming certain rights and privileges there. The University was the losing
party, the only right conceded to Alma Mater was that of giving her name to

the old street. No. 182, an ancient garde-meuble and statuary dépôt, was in
recent days Rodin’s atelier. No. 137 was built about 1675 with the stones
left over at the building of les Invalides. No. 130, Ministère des Affaires
Étrangères, is modern. No. 128 the official dwelling of the président de la
Chambre. No. 126 Palais Bourbon (see p. 304). No. 108, Turgot died here
in 1781. No. 102 was the abode of the duc d’Harcourt in 1770. The side of
the Ministère de la Guerre we see at No. 73, a modern erection, is on the
site of several historic hôtels demolished to make way for it and for the new
boulevard. Lamartine lived at No. 88 in 1848, after living in 1843 at No. 80.
No. 78 was built by Harduin-Mansart in the seventeenth century. No. 72
was l’hôtel de Guise (1728). Mme Atkins (see p. 205) lived at l’hôtel
Mailly, in what is now Rue de Villersexel, in 1816. The remarkably fine
hôtel de Soyecourt at No. 51 dates from 1775. No. 43 l’hôtel de Noailles.
Alphonse Daudet died at No. 41 (1897). No. 35 was the home of Valdeck-
Rousseau. The Magasins du Petit-St-Thomas, built on the site of the ancient
hôtel de l’Université (seventeenth century), inhabited at one time by the duc
de Valentinois, by Henri d’Aguesseau, etc., have been razed to make way
for a big new bank. Montyon, the philanthropist, founder of the Virtue
prizes given yearly by the French Academy, died at No. 23 in the year 1820
(see p. 225). No. 15 built in 1685 for a notable Fermier-général. No. 13 was
in 1772 the site of the Venetian Embassy. At No. 24, in the court, we see a
fine old eighteenth-century hôtel built by Servandoni. The houses No. 18
and No. 20 were built upon the old gardens of la Reine Margot, which
stretched down here from her palace, Rue de Seine. From the Place du
Palais-Bourbon, due to Louis de Bourbon, prince de Condé, we see one side
of the Chambre des Députés, built as the Palais-Bourbon by a daughter of
Louis XIV (1722). It was enlarged later by the prince de Condé, confiscated
in 1780 and renamed Maison de la Révolution, almost entirely rebuilt under
Napoléon. Its Grecian peristyle dates from 1808. In 1816 a prince de Condé
was again in possession. The Government bought it back in 1827 and built
the present Salle des Séances. In Rue de Bourgogne, on the other side of the
place, we find several eighteenth-century hôtels. No. 48 was hôtel Fitz-
James. No. 50 has been the archbishop’s palace since 1907. Mgr. Richard
died there in 1908.
The Champ-de-Mars, wholly modern as we see it, surrounded by brand
new streets and avenues, stretches across ancient historic ground. Not yet so
named, the territory was a veritable champ de Mars more than a thousand

years ago when, in 888, the warrior bishop Eudes, at the head of his
Parisians, faced the Norman invaders there and forced them to retreat.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century the great space was enclosed as
the exercising-ground of the École Militaire. The Fête Nationale de la
Fédération was held there on 14th July, 1790, presided by Talleyrand; a year
later, 17th July, 1791, La Fayette-Bailly fired upon the mob that gathered
here, clamouring for the deposition of the King. At the corner where the
Avenue de la Bourdonnais now passes the guillotine was set up for the
execution of Bailly in 1793. On June 8th, 1794, the people from far and
near crowded here for the Fête de l’Être Suprême. In 1804 the Champ-de-
Mars was called for a time Champ-de-Mai. But it remained, nevertheless,
the site of military displays. Napoléon’s eagles and the new decoration, la
Légion d’Honneur, were first bestowed here, and when, in 1816, Louis
XVIII mounted the throne of France, it was on the Champ-de-Mars that
soldiers and civilians received once more the drapeau blanc.
Horse-races took place here. Here, so long ago as 1783, the first
primitive airship was sent up. Also, later, a giant balloon. The great
exhibition of 1798 and all succeeding great exhibitions, as well as many
smaller ones, were held on the Champ-de-Mars. The park we see was laid
out in 1908.

CHAPTER XXIX

ANCIENT STREETS OF THE FAUBOURG SAINT-
GERMAIN

T HE extensive district on the left bank of the Seine, through which was
cut in modern times the wide boulevard St-Germain, was in its remotest
days the Villa Sancti Germani, with its “prés-aux-clercs” a rural
expanse surrounding the abbey and quite distinct from the city of Paris,
without its bounds. The inhabitants of that privileged district were exempt
from Paris “rates and taxes,” to use our latter-day expression, and enjoyed
other legal immunities. They were subject only to the authority of the abbey
administration and were actively employed in agricultural and other rustic
occupations for the abbey benefit. The territory was a region of thatched-
roofed dwellings, barns and granaries. When at length certain grands
seigneurs chose the district for the erection of country mansions, these
newly built houses were soon forcibly abandoned, many of them destroyed,
in the course of the Hundred Years’ War. A century or more later more
mansions were built and the bourg St-Germain grew into the aristocratic
quarter it finally became after the erection of the Tuileries, Catherine de’
Medeci’s new palace, in the middle of the sixteenth century. The venerable
old Rue du Bac was made on the left bank of the Seine in a straight line
with the ford (bac) across the river in the year 1550, for the transport of
materials needed in the construction of the palace. The rough road along
which the carters came with their loads, stone from the southern quarries,
etc., grew into a fashionable street in the early years of the century
following, when, after due authorization of the abbé of St-Germain-des-
Prés, fine new hôtels were built in every direction across the Prè-aux-
Clercs, to be within easy distance of the Tuileries and the Court. Thus was
created, in the first years of the eighteenth century, the patrician Faubourg
St-Germain. The old houses in Rue du Bac which were nearest the river
were burnt by the Communards in 1871, when the Tuileries itself was
destroyed.
The headquarters of the Mousquetaires Gris was once on the site of the
houses Nos. 18-17. Many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses still

stand. At No. 37 we find an old and interesting court. No. 46, hôtel Bernard,
was successively inhabited by men of note, much of its ancient interior
decoration has been removed. No. 94 belonged till recently to the Frères
Chrétiens. No. 85 was once the royal monastery known as les Récollettes,
subsequently in turn a theatre, a dancing saloon, a concert hall. At No. 98
Pichegru is said to have passed his first night in Paris. Here the Chouans
held their secret meetings and Cadoudal lay in hiding. We see a fine door,
balcony and staircase at No. 97. No. 101 dates from the time of Louis XIV.
Nos. 120-118, hôtel de Clermont-Tonnerre; Chateaubriand died here in
1848. No. 128 is the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères, founded 1663 by
Bernard de Ste-Thérèse, bishop of Babylone. No. 136 hôtel de Crouseilhes.
No. 140 began as a maladrerie, was later the abode of the King’s falconer,
and was given in 1813 to the Order of St-Vincent-de-Paul. Mme Legras, St-
Vincent-de-Paul’s ardent fellow-worker, was buried in the chapel. The great
shops of the Bon Marché stretch where private mansions stood of yore.
Rue de Lille, formerly Rue de Bourbon, has many ancient houses. We
see in the wall of No. 14 an old sundial with inscriptions in Latin. At No. 26
we find vestiges of a chapel founded by Anne d’Autriche. No. 67, built in
1706 for President Duret, was annexed later to the hôtel of prince Monaco-
Valentinois. No. 79, hôtel de Launion, 1758, was the house of Charlotte
Walpole, who became Mrs. Atkins, the devoted friend of the Bourbons, and
spent a fortune in her efforts to save the Dauphin. She died here in 1836.
No. 64, built in 1786 for the prince de Salm-Kyrburg, was gained in a
lottery by a wig-maker’s assistant, in the first days of the First Empire, an
adventurer who bought the pretty palace of Bagatelle beyond Paris, was
arrested for forgery, then disappeared. Used as a club, then, in 1804, as the
palace of the Légion d’Honneur, it was burnt by the Communards in 1871,
rebuilt at the cost of the légionnaires in 1878. No. 78, built by Boffrand,
was the home of Eugène de Beauharnais; we see there the bedroom of
Queen Hortense. German Embassy before the war.
Rue de Verneuil is another seventeenth-century street built across the
Pré-aux-Clercs. Nos. 13-15 was first a famous eighteenth-century riding-
school, then the Académie Royale Dugier; later, till 1865, Mairie of the
arrondissement. The inn at No. 24 was the meeting-place of royalists in the
time of the Empire.
Rue de Beaume has several interesting hôtels, their old-time features
well preserved. In the seventeenth century Carnot’s ancestors lived between

the Nos. 17-25. At No. 10 we see remains of the headquarters of the
Mousquetaires Gris, which extended across the meeting-point of the four
streets: Beaume, Verneuil, Bac, Lille. No. 2 was l’hôtel Mailly-Nesle.
Rue des Saints-Pères marks the boundary-line between arrondissements
VI and VII, an old-world street of historic associations. It began at the close
of the thirteenth century as Rue aux Vaches; cows passed there in those
days to and from the farmyards of the abbey St-Germain-des-Prés. In the
sixteenth century it was known, like Rue de Sèvres into which it runs, as
Rue de la Maladrerie, to become Rue des Jacobins Réformés, finally Rue
St-Pierre from the chapel built there, a name corrupted to Saints-Pères. No.
2 l’hôtel de Tessé. No. 6 (1652) once the stables of Marie-Thérèse de
Savoie. No. 28 l’hôtel de Fleury (1768). The court of No. 30 covers the site
of an old Protestant graveyard. A few old houses remain in Rue Perronet
opening at No. 32, where once an abbey windmill worked. No. 39 Hôpital
de la Charité, an Order founded by Marie de’ Medici in 1602, its principal
entrance Rue Jacob. Dislodged from their original quarters in Rue de la
Petite-Seine, where Rue Bonaparte now runs, by Queen Margot, who
wanted the site for the new palace she built for herself on quitting l’hôtel de
Sens, the nuns settled here about the year 1608. At No. 40 we see
medallions over the door, one of Charlotte Corday, the other not, as
sometimes said, that of Marat but a Moor’s head. In the court we see other
medallions and mouldings made chiefly from the sculptures on the tomb of
François I at St-Denis. The hôtel de la Force, where dwelt Saint-Simon,
once stood close here. That and other ancient hôtels were razed to make
way for the boulevard St-Germain. No. 49, the chapel of the “frères de la
Charité” on the site of the ancient chapel St-Pierre of which the crypt still
remains, has been the medical Academy since 1881. The square adjoining it
is an old Protestant burial-ground. Nos. 50-52 are ancient. No. 54 is the
French Protestant library, Cuvier and Guizot were among its presidents. No.
56 was built in 1640 for la Maréchale de la Meilleraie. At No. 63
Châteaubriand lived from 1811 to 1814.

CHAPTER XXX

THE MADELEINE AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD
ARRONDISSEMENT VIII. (ÉLYSÉE)

T HE handsome church which forms so distinct a feature of this quarter of
the city was begun to be built in the year 1764 to replace an older
church, originally a convent chapel, in the district known as Ville
l’Evêque because the bishop of Paris had a country house—a villa—there.
The Revolution found the new church unfinished, and when Napoléon
was in power he decided to complete the structure as a temple of military
glory to be dedicated to the Grande Armée. Napoléon fell. The building was
restored to the ecclesiastical authorities and its construction as a church,
dedicated to Ste. Marie-Madeleine, completed during the years 1828-42.
Begun on the model of the Pantheon at Rome, the building was finished on
the plan of the Maison Carrée at Nismes. It is 108 mètres in length, 43 m.
broad. The fine Corinthian columns we see are forty-eight in number. The
great bronze doors are the largest church doors known. Their splendid bas-
reliefs are the work of Triquetti (1838). Specimens of every kind of marble
found in France have been used in the grand interior. In the wonderful
painting “l’Histoire de la France Chrétienne,” we see in the centre Pope
Pius VII and Napoléon in the act of making the Concordat, surrounded by
King Clovis, Charlemagne, St. Louis, Jeanne d’Arc, Henri IV, Sully, Louis
XIII, etc. The statues and other decorations are all modern, the work of the
most distinguished artists of the nineteenth century. The abbé Deguerry,
vicar in 1871, shot by the Communards, is buried there in the chapel Notre-
Dame de la Compassion.
The place surrounding the church dates from 1815. At No. 7 lived
Amédée Thierry (1820-29), Meilhac, and during fifty years Jules Simon
who died there in 1896. We see his statue before the house. Behind the
church we see the statue of Lavoisier, put to death at the Revolution. The
streets opening out of Place de la Madeleine are modern, cut across ancient
convent lands, and the old farm lands of les Mathurins. No. 5 Rue Tronchet
is said to have been at one time the home of Chopin. Rue de l’Arcade, of

yore “Chemin d’Argenteuil”—Argenteuil Road—got its name from an
arcade destroyed in the time of Napoléon III, which stretched across the
gardens of the convent of Ville l’Evêque, where the houses 15 and 18 now
stand. Several of the houses we see along the street date from the eighteenth
century, none are of special interest.
Rue Pasquier brings us to the Square Louis XVI and the chapelle
Expiatoire built on the graveyard of the Madeleine. In that graveyard, made
in 1659 upon the convent kitchen garden, were buried many of the most
noted men and women of the tragic latter years of the eighteenth century.
There were laid the numerous victims of the fire on the Place de la
Concorde, at that time Place Louis XVI, caused by fireworks at the
festivities after the wedding of Louis XVI. The thousand Swiss Guards who
died to defend the Tuileries, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Mme Roland,
Charlotte Corday and hundreds more of the guillotinés were buried there.
When, in 1794, the churchyard was disaffected and put up for sale, the
whole territory was bought by an ardent royalist and under Louis XVIII the
chapel we see was built; an altar in the crypt marks the spot where some of
the remains of the King and Queen were found.
Rue d’Anjou, opened in 1649, formerly Rue des Morfondus, has known
many illustrious inhabitants: Madame Récamier, the comtesse de Boigne,
etc. La Fayette died at No. 8 (1834). No. 22 dates from 1763. The Mairie
was originally the hôtel de Lorraine. Many of the ancient hôtels have been
replaced by modern erections.
In Rue de Surène, in olden days Suresnes Road, we see at No. 23 the
handsome hôtel de Lamarck-Arenberg, dating from 1775, and the petit hôtel
du Marquis de l’Aigle of about the same date.
Rue de la Ville l’Évêque dates from the seventeenth century, recalling by
its name the days when, from the thirteenth century onwards, the bishops of
Paris had a rural habitation, a villa and perhaps a farm in this then outlying
district. Around the villeta episcopi grew up a little township included
within the city bounds in the time of Louis XV. The ancient thirteenth-
century church, dedicated like its modern successor to Ste-Marie-
Madeleine, stood on the site of No. 11 of the modern boulevard
Malesherbes. The Benedictine convent close by, of later foundation, built
like the greater number of the most noted Paris convents in the early years
of the seventeenth century, was suppressed and razed at the Revolution.

Many noted persons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had their
residences in the Ville l’Evêque. Guizot died there in 1875. No. 16, l’hôtel
du Maréchal Suchet, is now an Institut. No. 20 the hôtel of Prince Arenberg.
No. 25-27 are ancient.
Rue Boissy d’Anglas, opened in the eighteenth century, bearing for long
three different names in the different parts of its course, records in its
present name that of a famous conventional (1756-1826). In the well-known
provision shop, Corcellet, Avenue de l’Opéra, we may see the portrait of the
famous Gourmet, who in pre-Revolution days lived at the fine mansion No.
1, now the Cercle artistique “l’Épatant,” and carried out there his luxurious
and ultra-refined taste in the matter of food and the manner of serving it.
Horses to whom a recherché cuisine could not be offered, had their oats
served to them in silver mangers. Sequestered at the Revolution, it still
remained the abode of a gourmet of repute; sold later to the State, it became
an Embassy, then a club. No. 12 dates from Louis XV and has been the
abode of several families of historic name. Prince de Beauvau lived there in
more modern days and baron Hausmann died there. Lulli died at No. 28
(1637). Curious old houses are seen in the Cité Berreyer and Cité du Retiro.
Rue Royale, in its earliest days Chemin des Remparts—Rampart Road—
for the third Porte St-Honoré in the city wall was at the point where it meets
the Rue du Faubourg, became a street—Rue Royale-des-Tuileries—in the
middle of the eighteenth century. In 1792 it became Rue de la Révolution,
then, from 1800 to 1814, Rue de la Concorde. Most of the houses we see
there date from the eighteenth century, built by the architect Gabriel, who
lived at No. 8. Mme de Staël lived for a time at No. 6. This leads us to Place
de la Concorde, built by Gabriel; it was opened in 1763 as Place Louis XV,
to become a hundred and thirty years later Place de la Révolution, with in
its centre a statue of Liberty replacing the overturned statue of the King. Its
name was changed several times during the years that followed, till in 1830
the name given by the Convention was restored for good. In olden days it
was surrounded by moats and had on one side a pont-tournant; the place
was the scene of national fêtes in times past as it is in our own times. It was
also not unfrequently the scene of tragedy and death. The guillotine was set
up there on January 21, 1793, for the execution of the King. Marie-
Antoinette, Charlotte Corday and many other notable victims of the
Revolution were beheaded there ... in the end, Robespierre himself. In 1814
the Allies of those days gathered there for the celebration of a grand Te-

Deum. The statues we see surrounding the vast place personify the great
towns of France—that of Strasbourg the most remarkable. The fine
“Chevaux de Marly” at the starting-point of the Champs-Elysées are the
work of Coustou, Mercury and la Renommée, at the entrance of the
Tuileries gardens, of Coysevox. Handsome buildings (eighteenth century)
flank the place on its northern side. The Ministère de la Marine was in pre-
Revolution days the garde meuble of the Kings of France. Splendid jewels,
including the famous diamond known as le Regent, were stolen thence in
1792. What is now the Automobile Club was for many years the official
residence of the papal Nuncio. L’hôtel Crillon, built as a private mansion,
was for a time the Spanish Embassy; most of the beautiful woodwork for
which it was noted has been sold and taken away.

CHAPTER XXXI

LES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES

T HIS wonderful avenue stretching through the whole length of the
arrondissement reached in olden days only to the rural district of
Chaillot, and was known as the Grande Allée-du-Roule, later as Avenue
des Tuileries. Colbert, Louis XIV’s great minister, first made it a tree-
planted avenue. The gardens bordering it on either side between Place de la
Concorde and Avenue d’Antin, were laid out by Le Nôtre, 1670, as Crown
land. Cafés, restaurants, toy-stalls, etc., were set up there from the first. The
Palais de Glace is on the site of a Panorama which existed till its destruction
by fire in 1855. The far-famed Café des Ambassadeurs, set up in the
eighteenth century, was rebuilt in 1841. The no less famous cirque de
l’Impératrice was razed in 1900.
The Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées was first laid out in 1670, but the
houses we see there now are all modern. Avenue d’Antin stretching on
either side of it, old only in the part leading from Cours-la-Reine, was
planted in 1723 by the duc d’Orléans. Marguerite Gauthier (la Dame aux
Camélias) lived at No. 9. At No. 3 Avenue Matignon Heine died in his room
on the fifth story (1856). Avenue Montaigne was known in 1731 as Allée
des Veuves. It remained an alley—Allée Montaigne—till 1852. The
thatched dwelling of Mme Tallien stood at its starting-point, near the Seine.
There her divorced and destitute husband was forced to accept a shelter at
the hands of his ex-wife, become princesse de Chimay; there the
Revolutionist died in 1820. We see only modern houses along the Avenue of
to-day. Rue Matignon was opened across the ancient Jardin d’hiver where
fine tropical plants erewhile had flourished. No. 12 was the Vénerie
Impériale.
Avenue des Champs-Élysées is bordered on both sides by modern
mansions. No. 25, hôtel de la Païve, of late years the Traveller’s Club,
during the war an ambulance, represents the style of the Second Empire.
Avenue Gabriel with its grand mansions was formed in 1818 on the Marais-
des-Gourdes—marshy land. The Rue Marbeuf was in the eighteenth century
Ruelle des Marais, then Rue des Gourdes. Its present name recalls the Louis

XV Folie Marbœuf once there. Few and far between are the ancient vestiges
to be found among the modern structures we see on every side around us
here. Rue Chaillot, in bygone days the chief street of the village of Chaillot,
was taken within the Paris bounds in 1860. It was a favourite street for
residence in the nineteenth century. Rue Bassano, entirely modern now,
existed in part as Ruelle des Jardins in the early years of the eighteenth
century. Rue Galilée was Chemin des Bouchers in 1790, then Rue du
Banquet.
So we come to la Place de l’Étoile, the high ground known in long-gone
times as “la Montagne du Roule.” Till far into the eighteenth century it was
without the city bounds and beyond the Avenue des Champs-Élysées which
ended at Rue de Chaillot, a tree-studded, unlevelled, grass-grown octagonal
stretch of land. Then it was made round and even, and became a favourite
and fashionable promenade, known as l’Étoile de Chaillot, or the Rond-
Point de Neuilly. The site had long been marked out for the erection of an
important monument when Napoléon decreed the construction there of the
Arc de Triomphe. The first stone of the arch was laid by Chalgrin in 1806,
the Emperor and his new wife, on their wedding-day passed beneath a
temporary Arc de Triomphe made of cloth, as the stone structure was not
yet finished. Of the statuary which decorate the arch, the most noted group
is the Départ, by Rude. The frieze shows the going forth to battle and the
return of Napoléon’s armies, with the names of his generals engraved
beneath.[F]

CHAPTER XXXII

FAUBOURG ST-HONORÉ

T URNING down Avenue Wagram, one of the twelve broad avenues, all
modern, branching from the Place de l’Étoile, we come to the Faubourg
St-Honoré, originally Chaussée du Roule. The village of Le Roule was
famed in the thirteenth century for its goose-market. The district became a
faubourg in 1722 and in 1787 was taken within the city bounds. It has
always been a favourite quarter among men of intellectual activity desiring
to live beyond the turbulence of the centre of Paris. Here and there we come
upon vestiges of bygone days. No. 222 is an old Dominican convent
disaffected in 1906. A foundry once stood at the corner of the Rue Balzac,
where public statues of kings and other royalties of old were in turn cast or
melted down. The house where Balzac died once stood close there too, up
against an ancient chapel—all long swept away. The walled garden remains
—bordering the street to which the name of the great novelist has been
given—a slab put up where we see, just above the wall, the top of a pillared
summer-house, which Balzac is said to have built. The hospital Beaujon
dates from 1784 but has no architectural or historical interest. The few
ancient houses we see at intervals in this upper part of the faubourg are
remains of the village du Roule. Several of more interesting aspect were
razed a few years ago. The military hospital was once the site of royal
stables. Mme de Genlis died at No. 170.
The church St-Philippe du Roule was built by Chalgrin in 1774 on the
site of the seventeenth-century hôtel du Bas-Roule. No. 107 was the
habitation of the King’s Pages under Louis XV. On the site of No. 81 comte
de Fersan had his stables in the time of Louis XVI. The Home Office
(Ministère de l’Intérieur) on Place Beauvau dates from the eighteenth
century and has been a private mansion, a municipal hôtel, a hotel in the
English sense of the word.
The Palais de l’Élysée, built in 1718, was bought in 1753 by Mme de
Pompadour. La Pompadour died at Versailles, but by her express wish her
body was taken to Paris and laid in this her Paris home before the funeral.
She bequeathed the hôtel to the comte de Province, but Louis XV used it for

State purposes. Then, become again a private residence, it was inhabited by
the duchesse de Bourbon, mother of the due d’Enghien. She let it later to
the tenant who made of it an Élysée, a pleasure-house, laid out a parc
anglais, gave sumptuous fêtes champêtres. Sequestered at the Revolution,
the mansion was sold subsequently to Murat and Caroline Buonaparte, then
became an imperial possession as l’Élysée-Napoléon. Napoléon gave it to
Joséphine at her divorce but she preferred Malmaison. There the Emperor
signed his second abdication and there, in 1815, the Duke of Wellington and
the Emperor of Russia made their abode. The next occupants were the duc
and duchesse de Berry. The duchesse left it after her husband’s death in
1820. It became l’Hôtellierie des Princes. In 1850 Napoléon as Prince-
President made a brief abode there before the coup d’état. The façade dates
from his reign as Napoléon III when, to cut it off from surrounding
buildings, he made the Rue de l’Élysée through its gardens. The Garde
Nationale took possession of it in 1871. It was saved from destruction under
the Commune by its conservateur, who placed counterfeited scellés. No.
41, hôtel Pontalba, built by Visconti on the site of an older hôtel, now
owned by one of the Rothschilds, has fine ancient woodwork, once at hôtel
St-Bernard, Rue du Bac. No. 39, the British Embassy, was built in 1720 for
the duc de Charost; given in 1803 to Pauline Buonaparte, princesse
Borghese, given over to the English in 1815. British Embassy since 1825.
Nos. 35, 33, 31, 29, 27 are all eighteenth-century hôtels. At No. 30 the Cité
de Retiro was in past days the great Cour des Coches, inhabited by the
“Fermier des carrosses de la Cour.” Nos. 24, 16 are ancient. No. 14 was the
Mairie till 1830.
The streets opening out of the Faubourg date mostly from the eighteenth
century and show here and there traces of a past age, but the greater number
of the houses standing along their course to-day are of modern construction.
Rue d’Aguesseau was cut in 1723 across the property of the Chancellor
whose name it records. The Embassy church there is on the site of the
ancient hôtel d’Armaille. No. 18 was at one time the Mairie of the 1st
arrondissement. Rue Montalivet, where at No. 6 we see the friendly front of
the British Consulate, was for some years Rue du Marché-d’Aguesseau.
Rue des Saussaies was in the seventeenth century a willow-tree bordered
road. Place des Saussaies is modern on the site of demolished eighteenth-
century hôtels. In Rue Cambacérés we see ancient hôtels at Nos. 14, 8, 3.

The first numbers in Rue Miromesnil are old and have interesting
decorations, Châteaubriand lived at No. 31 in 1804. Rue de Panthièvre was
Rue des Marais in the seventeenth century, then Chemin Vert. Its houses
were the habitation of many noted persons through the two centuries
following. Franklin is said to have lived at No. 26, also Lucien Buonaparte.
The barracks dates from 1780, one of those built for the Gardes Françaises,
who had previously been billeted in private houses. Fersen lived in Rue
Matignon; Gambetta at No. 12, Rue Montaigne (1874-78). The Colisée,
which gave its name to the street previously known as Chaussée des
Gourdes, was an immense hall used for festive gatherings from 1770 to
1780, when it was demolished. On part of the site it occupied, Rue Penthieu
was opened at the close of the eighteenth century and Rue de la Bôëtie into
which we now turn. That fair street was known in the different parts of its
course by no less than eleven different names before its present one, given
in 1879. Several eighteenth-century hôtels still stand here; others on the odd
number side were razed in recent years to widen the thoroughfare. No. 111
was inhabited for a time at the end of the eighteenth century by the then duc
de Richelieu. When Napoléon was in power, an Italian minister lived there
and gave splendid fêtes, at which the Emperor was a frequent guest. In
recent days its owner was the duc de Massa, grandson of Napoléon’s
famous minister of Justice. Carnot lived for a time at No. 122. Eugène Sue
at No. 55. Comtesse de la Valette at No. 44, a hôtel known for its extensive
grounds.
Rue de Berri, opened 1778, across the site of the royal nursery gardens,
went by several names before receiving that of the second son of Charles X,
assassinated in 1820. The Belgian Legation at No. 20 was built by the aunt
of Mme de Genlis and was in later times the home of princesse Mathilde
who died there in 1904. Rue Washington was opened in 1789; Rue Galilée
as chemin des Bouchers, then Rue du Banquet, in 1790. In Rue Daru, of the
same date, opened as Rue de la Croix du Roule, we see the Russian church
built in 1881, with its beautiful paintings and frescoes and rich Oriental
decorations.

CHAPTER XXXIII

PARC MONCEAU

W E have already referred to Avenue Wagram. Modern buildings stretch
along the whole course of the other eleven avenues branching from
Place de l’Étoile. Avenue Hoche leads us to Parc Monceau, laid out
on lands belonging in past days to the Manor of Clichy, sold to the prince
d’Orléans in 1778, arranged as a smart jardin anglais for Philippe-Égalité in
1785, the property of the nation in 1794, restored to the Orléans by Louis
XVIII, bought by the State in 1852, given to the city authorities in 1870.
The Renaissance arcade is a relic of the ancient hôtel de Ville, burnt down
in 1871. The oval bassin, called “la Naumachie,” with its Corinthian
columns, came from an old church at St-Denis, Notre-Dame de la Rotonde,
built as the burial-place of the Valois, razed in 1814. Avenue Friedland was
opened in 1719, across the site of a famous eighteenth-century public
garden and several demolished hôtels, and lengthened to its present extent
some fifty years later. Avenue Marceau was of yore Avenue Joséphine.
Rue de Monceau, opened in 1801, lies along the line of the old road to
the vanished village of Monceau or Musseau. Rue du Rocher, along the
course of a Roman road, has gone by different names in its different parts.
Its upper end, waste ground until well into the nineteenth century, at the
close of the eighteenth century was a Revolutionists’ meeting-place, and
there in the tragic months of 1794 many guillotinés were buried, among
them the two Robespierres. In later years a dancing saloon was set up on the
spot. It was a district of windmills. The Moulin de la Marmite, Moulin
Boute-à-Feu, Moulin-des-Prés, stood on the high ground above Gare St-
Lazare until a century ago. Few vestiges of the past remain. Rue de Laborde
was known in 1788 as Rue des Grésillons, i.e. Flour Street (grésillons, the
flour in its third stage of grinding). Then it became Chemin des Porcherons,
and the district was known as that of la Petite-Pologne, a reference to the
habitation there of the duc d’Anjou, who was King of Poland. In the
courtyard of No. 4 we find an ancient boundary-stone, once in Rue de
l’Arcade, where it marked the bounds of the city under Louis XV.

Rue de la Pépinière, its name and that of the barracks there so well
known of late to British soldiers, recording the site of the royal nursery
grounds of a past age, was marked out as early as 1555, but opened only in
1782. The barracks, first built in 1763 for the Gardes Françaises, was rebuilt
under Napoléon III. All other streets in the neighbourhood are modern.

CHAPTER XXXIV

IN THE VICINITY OF THE OPERA
ARRONDISSEMENT IX. (OPÉRA)

T HE Paris Opera-house was built between the years 1861-75 to replace
the structure in Rue le Peletier burnt to the ground in 1873. On its
ornate Renaissance façade we see, amid other statuary, the noted group
“La Danse,” the work of Carpeaux. Of the “Grands Boulevards,” by which
the Opera is surrounded, we shall speak later (see p. 297).
Most of the streets in its neighbourhood are modern, stretching across
the site of demolished buildings, important in their day, but of which few
traces now remain.
Rue des Mathurins lies across the grounds of the vanished convent, Ville
l’Évêque. Rue Tronchet runs where was once the Ferme des Mathurins (see
p. 224).
Rue Caumartin, opened 1779, records the name of the Prévôt des
Marchands of the day. It was a short street then, lengthened later by the old
adjoining streets Ste-Croix and Thiroux, the site erewhile of the famed
porcelaine factory of la Reine. (Marie-Antoinette). No. 1 dates from 1779
and was noted for its gardens arranged in Oriental style. No. 2, to-day the
Paris Sporting Club, dates from the same period. No. 2 bis and most of the
other houses have been restored or rebuilt. The butcher Legendre, who set
the phrygian cap on the head of Louis XVI, is said to have lived at No. 52.
No. 65 was built as a Capucine convent (1781-83). Sequestered at the
Revolution, it became a hospital, then a lycée, its name changed and
rechanged: Lycée Buonaparte, Collège Bourbon, Lycée Fontanes, finally
Lycée Condorcet, while the convent chapel, rebuilt, became the church St-
Louis d’Antin. Rue Vignon was, till 1881, Rue de la Ferme des Mathurins,
as an inscription on the walls of No. 1 reminds us. Rue de Provence, named
after the brother of Louis XVI, was opened in 1771, built over a drain
which went from Place de la République to the Seine near Pont de l’Alma.
No. 22 is an ancient house restored. Berlioz lived at No. 41. Meissonier at
No. 43. Nos. 45 to 65 are on the site of the mansion and grounds of the duc

d’Orléans which extended to Rue Taitbout. We see a fine old hôtel at No.
59. Cité d’Antin, opening at No. 61, was built in 1825, on the site of the
ancient hôtel Montesson. Liszt, the pianist, lived at No. 63. The Café du
Trèfle claims existence since the year 1555. The busy, bustling Rue de la
Chaussée d’Antin was an important roadway in the twelfth century, as
Chemin des Porcherons. The houses we see there are mostly of eighteenth-
century date, others occupy the site of ancient demolished buildings. Many
notable persons lived here. No. 1, where we see the Vaudeville theatre
(there since 1867), was of old the site of two historic mansions. No. 2, now
a fashionable restaurant, dates from 1792, built as Dépôt des Gardes
Françaises. Rossini lived there for one year—1857-58. Where Rue
Meyerbeer was opened in 1860 stood, in other days, the hôtel of Mme
d’Épinay, whose walls had sheltered Grimm, and for a time Mozart. A
neighbouring house was the home of Necker, where his daughter, Mme de
Staël, grew up and which became later the possession of Mme Récamier.
The graveyard of St-Roch stretched, till the end of the eighteenth century,
across the site of Nos. 20-22. No. 42 belonged to Mme Talma. There
Mirabeau died in 1791; his widow in 1800. Joséphine de Beauharnais, not
yet Empress, dwelt at No. 62. Gambetta at No. 55. No. 68, hôtel
Montfermeil, was rebuilt by Fesch, Napoléon’s uncle. Rue St-Lazare was,
before 1770, Rue des Porcherons, from the name of an important estate of
the district over which the abbesses of Montmartre had certain rights of
jurisdiction. Passage de Tivoli, at No. 96, recalls the first Tivoli with its
jardins anglais stretching far at this corner. Its owner’s head fell, severed by
the guillotine, and his folie became national property. Fêtes were given
there by the Revolutionist authorities till its restoration, in 1810, to heirs of
the man who had built it. Avenue du Coq records the existence in
fourteenth-century days of a Château du Coq, known also as Château des
Porcherons, the manor-house of the Porcherons’ estate. The Square de la
Trinité is on the site of a famous restaurant of past days, the well-known
“Magny,” which as a dancing-saloon—“La Grande Pinte”—was on the site
till 1851. The church is modern (1867). No. 56 is part of the hôtel
Bougainville where the great tragedienne, Mlle Mars, lived. At No. 23,
dating from the First Empire, we find a fine old staircase and in the court a
pump marked with the imperial eagle. Rue de Chateaudun is modern. The
brasserie at the corner of Rue Maubeuge stands on the site of the ancient
cemetery des Porcherons. Rue de la Victoire, in the seventeenth century

Ruellette-au-Marais-des-Porcherons, was renamed in 1792 Rue
Chantereine, referring to the very numerous frogs (rana = frog) which
filled the air of that then marshy district with their croaking. Buonaparte
lived there at one time, hence the name given in 1798, taken away in 1816,
restored by Thiers in 1833. By a curious coincidence, an Order of Nuns, “de
la Victoire,” so called to memorize a very much earlier victory—Bouvines
1214—owned property here. On the site of No. 60, now a modern house let
out in flats, stood in olden days the chief entrance to l’hôtel de la Victoire, a
remarkably handsome structure built in 1770, sold and razed in 1857—alas!
At the end of the court at No. 58 we see the ancient hôtel d’Argenson, its
salon kept undisturbed from the days when great politicians of the past met
and made decisive resolutions there. The Bains Chantereine at No. 46 has
been théâtre Olymphique, théâtre des Victoires Nationales, théâtre des
Troubadours, and was for a few days in 1804 l’Opéra Comique; No. 45,
with its busts and bas-reliefs, dates from 1840. Rue Taitbout, begun in 1773,
lengthened by the union of adjoining streets, records the name of an
eighteenth-century municipal functionary. Isabey, Ambroise Thomas and
Manuel Gracia lived in this old street, and at No. 1, now a smart café, two
noted Englishmen, the Marquis of Hertford and Lord Seymour, lived at
different periods. No. 2 was once the famous restaurant Tortoni. No. 30, as
a private hôtel, sheltered Talleyrand and Mme Grand. We see interesting
vestiges at No. 44. The Square d’Orléans is the ancient Cité des Trois
Frères, in past days a nest of artists and men of letters: Dumas, George
Sand, Lablache, etc.

CHAPTER XXXV

ON THE WAY TO MONTMARTRE

R UE DE CLICHY was once upon a time the Roman road between Paris
and Rouen, taking in its way the village Cligiacum. For long in later
days it was known as Rue du Coq, when the old château stood near its
line. It was in a house of Rue de Clichy, inhabited by the Englishman
Crawford, that Marie-Antoinette and her children had a meal on the way to
Varennes. The three successive “Tivoli” were partly on the site of No. 27, in
this old street. There too was the “Club de Clichy,” whose members
opposed the government of the Directoire. The whole district leading up to
the heights of Montmartre was then, as now, a quarter of popular places of
amusement, the habitation of artistes of varying degree, but we find here
few old-time vestiges. Where Rue Nouvelle was opened in 1879 the prison
de Clichy, a debtor’s prison, had previously stood. No. 81 is the four-footed
animals’ hospital founded in 1811. Zola died at No. 21 Rue de Bruxelles.
Heine lived from 1848-57 at No. 50 Rue Amsterdam. Rue Blanche was Rue
de la Croix-Blanche in the seventeenth century. Berlioz lived at No. 43.
Roman remains were found beneath Nos. 16-18. Rue Pigalle has been
known by six or seven different names, at one time that of Rue du Champ-
de-Repos, on account of the proximity of the cemetery St-Roch. No. 12
belonged to Scribe, who died there (1861). No. 67 is an ancient station for
post-horses. Place Pigalle was in past days Place de la Barrière de
Montmartre. The fountain is on the site of the ancient custom-house. Puvis
de Chavannes and Henner had their studios at No. 11, now a restaurant. Rue
de la Rochechouart made across abbey lands, the lower part dating from
1672, records the name of an abbess of Montmartre. Gounod lived at No.
17 in 1867. Halévy in 1841. The Musée Gustave Moreau at No. 14 was the
great artist’s own hôtel, bequeathed with its valuable collection to the State
at his death in 1898. Marshal Ney lived at No. 12. In Rue de la Tour des
Dames a windmill tower, the property of the nuns of Montmartre, stood
undisturbed from the fifteenth century to the early part of the nineteenth.
The modern mansion at No. 3 (1822) is on land belonging in olden days to
the Grimaldi. Talma died in 1826 at No. 9. Rue la Bruyère has always been

inhabited by distinguished artists and literary men. Berlioz lived for a time
at No. 45. Rue Henner, named after the artist who died at No. 5 Rue la
Bruyère, is the old Rue Léonie. We see an ancient and interesting house at
No. 13. No. 12 hôtel des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, a society
founded in 1791 by Beaumarchais.
Rue de Douai reminds us through its whole length of noted literary men
and artists of the nineteenth century. Halévy and also notable artists have
lived at No. 69. Ivan Tourgueneff at No. 50. Francisque Sarcey at No. 59.
Jules Moriac died at No. 32 (1882). Gustave Doré and also Halévy lived for
a time at No. 22. Claretie at No. 10. Edmond About owned No. 6.
The old Rue Victor-Massé was for long Rue de Laval in memory of the
last abbess of Montmartre. At No. 9, the abode of an antiquarian, we see
remarkably good modern statuary on the Renaissance frontage. No. 12 till
late years was l’hôtel de Chat Noir, the first of the artistic montmartrois
cabarets due to M. Salis (1881). At No. 26 we turn into Avenue Frochot,
where Alexandre Dumas, père, lived, where at No. 1 the musical composer
Victor Massé died (1884), and of which almost every house is, or once was,
the abode of artists. Passing down Rue Henri-Monnier, formerly Rue Breda,
which with Place Breda was, during the first half of the nineteenth century,
a quarter forbidden to respectable women, we come to Rue Notre-Dame de
Lorette. It dates from the same period as the church built there (1823-37),
and wherein we see excellent nineteenth-century frescoes and paintings.
This street, like most of those around it, has been inhabited by men of
distinction in art or letters: Isabey, Daubigny, etc. Mignet lived there in
1849. Rue St-Georges dates from the early years of the eighteenth century.
Place St-Georges was opened a century later on land belonging to the
Dosne family. Mme Dosne and her son-in-law lived at No. 27. The house
was burnt down in 1871, rebuilt by the State, given to l’Institut by Mlle
Dosne in 1905, and organized as a public library of contemporary history.
Nos. 15-13, now the Illustration office, date from 1788. Auber died at No.
22 (1871). The hôtel at No. 2 was owned by Barras and inhabited at one
time by Mme Tallien.
The three busy streets, Rue Laffitte, Rue le Peletier, Rue Drouot, start
from boulevard des Italiens, cross streets we have already looked into, and
are connected with others of scant historic interest.

Rue Laffitte, so named in 1830 in memory of the great financier who
laid the foundation of his wealthy future when an impecunious lad, by
stooping, under the eye of the commercial magnate waiting to interview
him, to pick up a pin that lay in his path. Laffitte died Regent of the Banque
de France. So popular was he that when after 1830 he found himself forced
to sell his handsome mansion No. 19—l’hôtel de la Borde—a national
subscription was got up enabling him to buy it back. Offenbach lived at No.
11. At No. 12 we find an interesting old court. The great art lover and
collector, the Marquis of Hertford, lived at No. 2, the old hôtel d’Aubeterre.
No. 1, once known as la Maison Dorée, now a post office, was the old hôtel
Stainville inhabited by the Communist Cerutti who, in his time, gave his
name to the street. Mme Tallien also lived there. For some years before
1909 it was the much frequented Taverne Laffitte.
In Rue Le Peletier, the Opera-house burnt down in 1783, was from the
early years of the nineteenth century on the site of two old mansions: l’hôtel
de Choiseul and l’hôtel de Grammont. On the site of No. 2, Orsini tried to
assassinate Napoléon III. At No. 22 we see a Protestant church built in the
time of Napoléon I.
Rue Drouot, the Salle des Ventes, the great Paris “Auction-rooms” at No.
9, built in 1851, is on the site of the ancient hôtel Pinon de Quincy,
subsequently a Mairie. The present Mairie of the arrondissement at No. 6
dates from 1750. In the Revolutionary year 1792 it was the War Office, then
the Salon des Étrangers where masked balls were given: les bals des
Victimes. No. 2 the Gaulois office, almost wholly rebuilt at the end of the
eighteenth century and again in 1811, was originally a fine mansion built in
1717, the home of Le Tellier, later of the duc de Talleyrand, and later still
the first Paris Jockey Club (1836-57). The famous dancer Taglioni also
lived here at one time.
Rue Grange-Batelière was a farm—la grange bataillée—with fortified
towers, owned in the twelfth century by the nuns of Ste-Opportune. At No.
10 we see the handsome hôtel with fine staircase and statues, built in 1785
for a gallant captain of the Gardes Françaises. There in the days of
Napoléon III was the Cercle Romantique, where Victor Hugo, A. de Musset
and other literary celebrities were wont to meet.

CHAPTER XXXVI

ON THE SLOPES OF THE BUTTE

T HE Rue du Faubourg Montmartre is one of the most ancient of Paris
roadways, for it led, from the earliest days of French history, to the hill-
top where St-Denis and his two companions had been put to death. Only
once has the ancient name been changed—at the Revolution, when it was
for a time Faubourg Marat. We see here a few old-time houses. The bathing
establishment at No. 4 was a private hôtel in the days of Louis XV. Scribe
lived at No. 7. The ancient cemetery chapelle, St-Jean-Porte-Latine, stood
from 1780-1836 on the site of No. 60.
Rue des Martyrs, named in memory of the Christian missionaries who
passed there to their death, so called in its whole length only since 1868,
has ever been the habitation of artists. We see few interesting vestiges.
From 1872 it has been a market street. Costermongers’ carts line it from end
to end several days a week. The restaurant de la Biche at No. 37 claims to
date from 1662. The once-famous restaurant du Faisan Doré was at No. 7.
The short streets opening out of this long one date for the most part from
the early years of the nineteenth century and form, with the longer ones of
the district, the Paris artists’ quarter.
Rue de la Tour d’Auvergne records the name of an abbess of
Montmartre. Victor Hugo lived at No. 41 at the time of the coup d’état, fled
thence to exile in England. The school at No. 31 is on the site of gardens
once hired for the children of the duc d’Orléans, the pupils of Mme de
Genlis, to play in, then owned by Alphonse Karr. We see at No. 14 a
charming statue “Le joueur de flute.”
Rue Rochechouart records the name of another abbess. At No. 7, now a
printing house, abbé Loyson gave his lectures. Rue Cadet, formerly Rue de
la Voirie, records the name of a family of gardeners, owners of the Clos
Cadet, from the time of Charles IX. Nos. 9, 16, 24 are eighteenth-century
structures. Rue Richer was known in the earlier years of the eighteenth
century as Rue de l’Égout. Augustin Thierry lived here for two years (1831-
33). No. 18 was the office of the modern revolutionary paper La Lanterne.
Marshal Ney lived at the hôtel numbered 13. The Folies Bergères at No. 32

was built in 1865 on the site of the hôtel of comte Talleyrand-Périgord. In
Rue Saulnier, recording the name of another famous family of gardeners,
we see at No. 21 the house once inhabited by Rouget de Lisle, composer of
the “Marseillaise.” Rue Bergère was in seventeenth-century days an
impasse. Casimir Delavigne lived at No. 5. Scribe in his youth at No. 7, in
later life at a hôtel on the site of No. 20, which was in eighteenth-century
days the home of M. d’Étiolles, the husband of La Pompadour. The
Comptoir d’Escompte at No. 14 was built in 1848, on the site of several old
hôtels, notably hôtel St-Georges, the home of the marquis de Mirabeau,
father of the orator.
Rue du Faubourg Poissonière, its odd numbers in the 9th its even ones in
the 10th arrondissement, shows us many interesting old houses and we find
quaint old streets leading out of it. It dates as a thoroughfare from the
middle of the seventeenth century, named then Chaussée de la Nouvelle
France. Later it was Rue Ste-Anne, from an ancient chapel in the vicinity,
yielding finally in the matter of name to the all-important fish-market to
which it led—the poissonnerie des Halles. In the court at No. 2 we find a
Pavillon Louis XVI. The crimson walls of the Matin office was in past days
the private hôtel where colonel de la Bedoyère was arrested (1815). We see
interesting old houses at Nos. 9-13. No. 15, in old days hôtel des Menus
Plaisirs du Roi, was with two adjoining houses taken at the end of the
eighteenth century for the Conservatoire de Musique, an institution founded
(1784) by the marquis de Breteuil, as the École Royale de Chant et de
Déclamation, with the special aim of training artistes for the court theatre.
Closed at the Revolution, it was reopened in calmer days and, under the
direction of Cherubini, became world-famed. Ambroise Thomas died there
in 1895. In 1911 the Conservatoire was moved away to modern quarters in
Rue de Madrid and the old building razed.
The balcony on the garden side at No. 19, an eighteenth-century house
with many interesting vestiges, is formed of a fifteenth-century gravestone.
Cherubini lived at No. 25. The church St-Eugène which we see in Rue
Cecile, its interior entirely of cast iron, was so named by Napoléon III’s
express wish as a souvenir of his wedding. The fine hôtel at No. 30 was the
home of Marshal Ney. Nos. 32, 42, 42 bis, 52 and 56 where Corot died in
1875, the little vaulted Rue Ambroise-Thomas, opening at No. 57, the fine
house at No. 58, and Nos. 65 and 80, all show us characteristic old-time
features. At No. 82 we see an infantry barracks, once known as la Nouvelle

France, a Caserne des Gardes Françaises. Its canteen is said to be the old
bedroom of “sergeant Bernadotte,” destined to become King of Sweden.
Here Hoche, too, was sergeant. The bathing establishment of Rue de
Montholon, opening out of the faubourg at No. 89, was the home of Méhul,
author of le Chant du Départ; he died here in 1817. The street records the
family name of the General who went with Napoléon to St. Helena. Another
abbess of Montmartre is memorized by Rue Bellefond, a seventeenth-
century street opening at No. 107. The first Paris gasworks was set up on
the site of No. 129. At No. 138 we see a wooden house, in Gothic style,
beautifully made, owned and lived in by a carpenter who plies his trade
there. Avenue Trudaine is modern (1821), named in memory of a Prévôt des
Marchands of the seventeenth and early years of the eighteenth century. The
Collège Rollin, at No. 12, is on the site of the ancient Montmartre
slaughterhouses. The painter Alfred Stevens died at No. 17 in 1906.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THREE ANCIENT FAUBOURGS
ARRONDISSEMENT X. (ENTREPÔT)

T HE chief thoroughfares of historic interest in this arrondissement are the
two ancient streets which stretch through its whole length: Rue du
Faubourg St-Denis and Rue du Faubourg St-Martin, and the odd-
number side of Rue du Faubourg du Temple.
Rue du Faubourg St-Denis, the ancient road to the abbey St-Denis,
known in earlier days in part as Faubourg St-Lazare, then as Faubourg-de-
Gloire, has still many characteristic old-time buildings. The Passage du
Bois-de-Boulogne was the starting-place for the St-Denis coaches. At No.
14 we find an interesting old court; over Nos. 21-44 and at 33 of the little
Rue d’Enghein old signs; No. 48 was the Fiacre office in the time of the
Directoire, then the famous commercial firm Laffitte and Caillard. Where
we see the Cour des Petites-Écuries, the courtesan Ninon de Lenclos had a
country house. Félix Faure, Président of the French Republic from 1895 to
1899, was born at No. 65 in 1841. The old house No. 71 formed part of the
convent des Filles Dieu. The houses Nos. 99 to 105 were dependencies of
St-Lazare, now the Paris Prison for Women, which we come to at No. 107,
originally a leper-house, founded in the thirteenth century by the
hospitaliers de St-Lazare. It was an extensive foundation, possessing the
right of administering justice and had its own prison and gallows. The
Lazarists united with the priests of the Mission organized by St-Vincent-de-
Paul, and in their day the area covered by the cow-houses, the stables, the
various buildings sheltering or storing whatever was needed for the
missioners, stretched from the Faubourg St-Denis to the Rues de Paradis, de
Dunkerque and du Faubourg Poissonnière. At one time, when leprosy had
ceased to be rife in Paris, the hospital was used as a prison for erring sons of
good family. In 1793 it became one of the numerous revolutionary prisons;
André Chenier, Marie Louise de Montmorency-Laval, the last abbess of
Montmartre, were among the suspects shut up there; and the Rue du
Faubourg St-Denis was renamed Rue Franciade. St-Lazare was specially
obnoxious to Revolutionists, for there the Kings of France had been wont to

make a brief stay on each State entry into the city, and there, on their last
journey out of it, they had halted in their coffin, on the way to St-Denis. The
remains of an ancient crypt were discovered in 1898 below the pavement.
Rue de l’Échiquier was opened in 1772, cut through convent lands.
Stretching behind No. 43, till far into the nineteenth century, was the
graveyard of the parish Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle. No. 48 was the
well-known dancing-hall, Pavillon de l’Échiquier, before and under the
Directoire. Rue du Paradis, in the seventeenth century Rue St-Lazare, is
noted for its pottery shops. At No. 58 Corot, the great landscape painter
who lived hard by, had his studio. The capitulation of Paris in 1814 was
signed at No. 51, the abode of the duc de Raguse. Leading out of Rue de
Chabrol at No. 7 we find the old-world Passage de la Ferme-St-Lazare and
a courtyard, relics of the Lazarists farm. Rue d’Hauteville, so called from
the title of a Prévôt des Marchands, comte d’Hauteville, was known in
earlier times as Rue la Michodière, his family name. In the court at No. 58
we come upon a hôtel which was the abode of Bourrienne, Napoléon’s
secretary; its rooms are an interesting example of the style of the period.
The pillared pavilion at No. 6 bis, Passage Violet, dates only from 1840.
Rue de Strasbourg, where the courtyard of the Gare de l’Est now
stretches, was the site in olden days of one of the great Paris fairs, the Foire
St-Laurent, held annually, lasting two months, a privilege of the Lazarist
monks. It was at this fair that the first café-concerts were opened. The
Comédie-Italienne, too, first played there. Rue de la Fidélité, on the eastern
side of the Faubourg St-Denis, records the name given to the church St-
Laurent in Revolution days; it lies across the site of the couvent des Filles-
de-la-Charité founded by St-Vincent-de-Paul and Louise de Marillac, of
which we find some traces at No. 9.
The northern end of Rue du Faubourg St-Martin was long known as Rue
du Faubourg St-Laurent; zealously stamping out all names recording saints,
the Revolutionists called this long thoroughfare Faubourg du Nord. We find
ancient houses, vestiges of past ages, at every step, and the modern
structures seen at intervals are on sites of historic interest. The baker’s shop
at No. 44, “A l’Industrie,” claims to have existed from the year 1679. No.
59 is the site of the first Old Catholic church, founded in 1831 by abbé
Chatel. The Mairie at No. 76 covers the site of an ancient barracks, and of a
bridge which once spanned the brook Ménilmontant. An ancient arch was
found beneath the soil in 1896. Rue des Marais, which opens at No. 86,

dates from the seventeenth century. Here till 1860 stood the dwelling of the
famous public headsman Sanson and of his descendants, painted red! At
No. 119 we see the chevet of the church St-Laurent, the only ancient part of
the church as we know it. In the little Rue Sibour, opening at No. 121,
recording the name of the archbishop of Paris who died in 1857, we find an
ancient house, now a bathing establishment. No. 160 covers land once the
graveyard of les Récollets. The short Rue Chaudron records the name of a
fountain once there. The bulky fountains higher up are modern (1849), built
by public subscription.
Rue du Château d’Eau was formed of two old streets: Rue Neuve St-
Nicolas-St-Martin and Rue Neuve St-Jean, joined in 1851 and named after
a fountain formerly in the centre of the what is now Place de la République.
At No. 39 we see the house said to be the smallest in the city—its breadth
one mètre. In the walls of the tobacconist’s shop at No. 55, “la Carotte
Percée,” we see holes made by the bullets of the Communards in 1871. At
No. 6 of the modern Rue Pierre-Bullet, now a gimp factory, we find a house
of remarkable interest, beautifully decorated by its builder and owner, the
artist Gonthière, who had invented the process of dead-gilding. Ruin fell on
the unhappy artist. His house was seized in 1781 and he died in great
poverty in 1813.
Crossing the whole northern length of the arrondissement is the busy
commercial Rue Lafayette, its one point of interest for us the church St-
Vincent-de-Paul, built in the form of a Roman basilica between the years
1824-44, on the site of a Lazariste structure known as the Belvédère. Within
we see fine statuary; and glorious frescoes, the work of Flandrin, cover the
walls on every side. None of the streets in the vicinity of the church show
points of historic interest.
Rue Louis-Blanc, existing in its upper part in the eighteenth century
under another name, prolonged in the nineteenth, has one tragically historic
spot, that where it meets Rue Grange-aux-Belles. On that spot from the year
1230, or thereabouts, to 1761, on land owned by comte Fulcon or Faulcon,
stood the famous gibet de Montfaucon. It was of prodigious size, a great
square frame with pillars and iron-chains, sixteen pendus could hang there
at one time. The most noted criminals, real or supposed, many bearing the
noblest names of France, were hung there, left to swing for days in public
view—the noblesse from the Court and the peuple from the sordid streets
around crowding together to see the sight. The ghastly remains fell into a pit

beneath the gibet and so found burial. Later a more orderly place of
interment was arranged on that hill-top. The church of St-Georges now
stands on the site.
Rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, so well known nowadays as the seat at No.
33 of the C.G.T.—the Conféderation du Travail, where all Labour questions
are discussed, and where in these days of great strikes, the Paris Opera on
strike gave gala performances, was originally Rue de la Grange-aux-Pelles,
a pelle or pellée being a standard measure of wood. The finance minister
Clavière, Roland’s associate, lived here and the authorities borrowed from
him the green wooden cart which bore Louis XVI to the scaffold. The
painter Abel de Payol lived at No. 13 (1822). A Protestant cemetery once
stretched across the land in the centre of the street down to Rue des Écluses
St-Martin. There, in 1905, were found the remains of the famous corsaire
Paul Jones, transported in solemn state to America shortly afterwards.
Turning into Rue Bichat we come to the Hôpital St-Louis, founded by
Henri IV. The King had been one of many sufferers from an epidemic
which had raged in Paris in the year 1606. On his recovery the bon Roi
commanded the building of a hospital to be called by the name of the saint-
king, Louis IX, who had died of the plague some three hundred years
before. The quaint old edifice with red-tiled roofs, old-world windows, fine
archways surrounding a court bright with flowers and shaded by venerable
trees, carries us back in mind to the age of the bon Roi to whom the hospital
was due. No. 21 was the hospital farm. In Rue Alibert, erewhile an impasse,
we see one or two ancient houses, at the corner a pavilion of the time of
Henri IV, the property of the hospital. Rue St-Maur runs on into the 11th
arrondissement, a street formed in the nineteenth century by three
seventeenth-century roads, one of which was Rue Maur or des Morts. We
notice old houses and ancient vestiges here and there.
Rue du Faubourg du Temple marks the boundary between
arrondissement X and XI, an ancient thoroughfare climbing to the heights
of Belleville with many old houses and courts, mostly squalid, and some
curious old signs. On the site of No. 18 Astley’s circus was set up in 1780.
The Rue de la Fontaine au Roi (seventeenth century), in 1792 Rue
Fontaine-Nationale, shows us at No. 13 a house with porcelaine decorations
set up here in 1773. Beneath the pavement of Rue Pierre-Levée a druidical
stone was unearthed in 1782. Rue de Malte refers by its name to the
Knights Templar of Malta, across whose land it was cut. We see an ancient

cabaret at No. 57. Rue Darboy records the name of the archbishop of Paris,
shot by the Communards in 1871; Rue Deguerry that of the vicar of the
Madeleine who shared his fate. The church of St-Joseph is quite modern,
1860, despite its blackened walls. Avenue Parmentier running up into the
10th arrondissement is entirely modern, recording the name of the man who
made the potato known to France.
Rue des Trois-Bornes shows us several old-time houses and at No. 39 a
characteristic old court. We find some characteristic vestiges also in Rue
d’Angoulême. In Rue St-Ambroise we see the handsome modern church
built on the site of the ancient church des Annociades. The monastery of the
Annociades was sold in lots, and became in part by turns a barracks, a
military hospital, a hospital for incurables, and was razed to the ground in
1864. At Musée Carnavalet we may see bas-reliefs taken from the fountain
once on the space before the church. Rue Popincourt, which gives its name
to the arrondissement, records the existence in past days of a sire Jean de
Popincourt whose manor-house was here, and a sixteenth-century village,
which became later part of Faubourg St-Antoine. Rue du Chemin-Vert dates
from 1650, but has few interesting features. Parmentier died at No. 68 in
1813.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

IN THE PARIS “EAST END”

W E are now in the vicinity of the largest and most important of the Paris
cemeteries—Père Lachaise. But it lies in the 20th arrondissement. The
streets of this 10th arrondissement leading east approach its boundary
walls—its gates. Rue de la Roquette comes to it from the vicinity of the
Bastille. La Roquette was a country house built in the sixteenth century, a
favourite resort of the princes of the Valois line. Then, towards the end of
the seventeenth century, the house was given over to the nuns Hospitalières
of Place-Royale. The convent, suppressed at the Revolution, became State
property and in 1837 was used as the prison for criminals condemned to
death. The guillotine was set up on the five stones we see at the entrance to
Rue Croix-Faubin. The prisoners called the spot l’Abbaye des Cinq Pierres.
It was there that Monseigneur Darboy and abbé Deguerry were put to death
in 1871. On the day following fifty-two prisoners, chiefly monks and Paris
Guards, were led from that prison to the heights of Belleville and shot in
Rue Haxo. Read à ce propos Coppée’s striking drama Le Pater. La
Roquette is now a prison for youthful offenders, a sort of House of
Correction.
Lower down the street we find here and there an ancient house or an old
sign. The fountain at No. 70 is modern (1846). The curious old Cour du
Cantal at No. 22 is inhabited mostly by Auvergnats. Rue de Charonne,
another street stretching through the whole length of the arrondissement, in
olden days the Charonne road, starts from the Rue du Faubourg St-Antoine,
where at No. 1 we see a fountain dating from 1710. Along its whole length
we find vestiges of bygone times. It is a district of ironmongers and workers
in iron and workman’s tools. A district, too, of popular dancing saloons. At
No. 51 we see l’hôtel de Mortagne, built in 1711, where Vaucanson first
exhibited his collection of mechanical instruments. Bequeathed to the State,
that collection was the nucleus of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers:
Arts and Crafts Institution (see p. 64). Here the great mechanic died in
1782. No. 97, once a Benedictine convent, was subsequently a private
mansion, then a factory, then in part a Protestant chapel. The École

Maternelle at No. 99 was in past days a priory of “Bon Secours”
(seventeenth century). No. 98 is on the site of a convent razed in 1906.
There are remains of another convent at Nos. 100, 102. No. 161 was the
famous “Maison de Santé,” owned by Robespierre’s friend Dr. Belhomme,
to which he added the adjoining hôtel of the marquis de Chabanais. There,
during the Terror, he received prisoners as “paying guests.” His prices were
enormous and on a rising scale ... the guests who could not pay at the
required rate were turned adrift on the road to the guillotine. These walls
sheltered the duchesse d’Orléans, the mother of Louis-Philippe, protected
by her faithful friend known as comte de Folmon, in reality the deputé
Rouzet, and many other notable persons of those troubled years. On the left
side of the door we see the figures 1726, relic of an ancient system of
numbering. The Flemish church de la Sainte Famille at 181 is modern
(1862).
Crossing Rue de Charonne in its earlier course, we come upon the
sixteenth-century Rue Basfroi, a corruption of beffroi, referring to the belfry
of the ancient church Ste-Marguerite in Rue St-Bernard. Ste-Marguerite,
founded in 1624 as a convent chapel, rebuilt almost entirely in 1712,
enlarged later, is interesting as the burial-place of the Dauphin, or his
substitute, in 1745, and as possessing a much-prized relic, the body of St.
Ovide, in whose honour the great annual fair was held on Place Vendôme. A
tiny cross up against the church wall marks the grave where the son of
Louis XVI was supposed to have been laid, but where on exhumation some
years ago the bones of an older boy were found. We see some other ancient
tombs up against the walls of what remains of that old churchyard, and on
the wall of the apse of the church two very remarkable bas-reliefs, the work
of an old-time abbé, M. Goy, a clever sculptor, to whom are due also many
of the statues in the park at Versailles. Within the church we see several
striking statues and a remarkable “Chapelle des Morts,” its walls entirely
frescoed in grisaille but in great need of restoration. From the end of Rue
Chancy, where at No. 22 we see an old carved wood balcony, we get an
interesting view of this historic old church.
Rue de Montreuil, leading to the village of the name, shows us many old
houses, one at No. 52 with statuettes and in the courtyard an ancient well,
and at No. 31, remains of the Folie Titon, within its walls a fine staircase
and ceiling, the latter damaged of late owing to a fire.

CHAPTER XXXIX

ON TRAGIC GROUND

R UE DU FAUBOURG ST-ANTOINE forms the boundary between the
arrondissements XI and XII. From end to end it shows us historic
vestiges. It has played from earliest times an all-important part in
French history, leading, when without the city walls, to Paris and the
Bastille from the fortress of Vincennes and lands beyond, while from the
time of its incorporation with Paris, popular political demonstrations
unfailingly had their mise en scène in the Rue du Faubourg St-Antoine. In
the seventeenth century it was a country road in its upper part, the Chaussée
St-Antoine, and led to the fine Abbaye St-Antoine-des-Champs; the lower
part was the “Chemin de Vincennes.” Along this road, between Picpus and
the Bastille, the Frondeurs played their war-games. Turenne’s army fired
from the heights of Charonne, while the Queen-Mother, her son, Louis XIII,
and Mazarin watched from Père-la-Chaise. At No. 8 lived the regicide
Pépin, Fieschis’ accomplice. The sign, the “Pascal Lamb,” at No. 18 dates
from the eighteenth century. We see ancient signs all along the street. The
Square Trousseau at No. 118 is on the site of the first “Hospice des Enfants
Trouvés,” built in 1674 on abbey land. In 1792 it became the “Hôpital des
Enfants de la Patrie.” The head of princesse de Lamballe was buried in the
chapel graveyard there. What is supposed to be her skull was dug up here in
1904. In 1839 the hospital was made an annexe of the hôtel-Dieu, in 1880 it
was Hôpital Trousseau, then in the first years of this twentieth century razed
to the ground. At No. 184 the hospital St-Antoine retains some vestiges of
the royal abbey that stood there in long-gone days. Founded in 1198, it was
like all the big abbeys of the age a small town in itself, surrounded by high
fortified walls. At the Revolution it was sequestrated, the church
demolished. Till the early years of the nineteenth century, one of the most
popular of Paris fairs was held on the site of the old abbey, la Foire aux
pains d’épices, which had its origin in an Easter week market held within
the abbey precincts. The house No. 186 is on the site of the little chapel St-
Pierre, razed in 1797, where of old kings of France lay in state after their
death. Two daughters of Charles V were buried there. The fountain and

butcher’s shop opposite the hospital date from the time of Louis XV, built
by the nuns of the abbey and called la Petite Halle. The nuns alone had the
right to sell meat to the population of the district in those old days. Almost
every house and courtyard and passage along the whole course of this
ancient thoroughfare dates, as we see, from days long past. In the courts at
Nos. 245 and 253 we find old wells.
So we reach Place de la Nation, of yore Place du Trône, styled in
Revolution days Place du Trône Renversé, and the guillotine set up there
“en permanence”: there 1340 persons fell beneath its knife, 54 in one tragic
day. The two pavilions on the eastern side of the place were the custom-
houses of pre-Revolution days. The monument in the centre is modern
(1899). Of the streets and avenues leading from the place, that of supreme
interest is the old Rue Picpus, a curious name explained by some
etymologists as a corruption of Pique-Pusse, and referring to a sixteenth-
century monk of the neighbourhood who succeeded in curing a number of
people of an epidemic which studded their arms with spots like flea-bites
and who was called henceforth “le Père Pique-Pusse.” In previous days the
upper part of the road—it was a road then, not yet a street—had been
known as Chemin de la Croix-Rouge. Nos. 4 and 6 are the remains of an
eighteenth-century pavilion, a maison de santé—house of detention—where
in 1786 St. Just was shut up for petty thefts committed in his own family.
No. 10, a present-day maison de santé, is on the site of a hunting-lodge of
Henri IV. At No. 35 we see the Oratoire de Picpus, where is the statuette of
Notre-Dame, de la Paix, once on the door of the Capucine convent, Rue St-
Honoré; and here, behind the convent garden, we find the cimetière Picpus
and the railed pit where the bodies of the 1340 persons beheaded on the
Place du Trône Renversé were cast in 1793, André Chenier among the
number. Their burial-place was unknown until some years later, when a
poor woman, the daughter of a servant of the duc de Brissac, who, stealthily
watching from afar, had seen her father and her brother fall on the scaffold,
pointed it out. The site was bought, walled in, an iron cross set up over it.
Soon adjoining land was bought and the relatives of many of those who lay
in the pit were brought to be in death near to the members of their family
cut off from them in life by the Revolutionist axe. We see their tombs in the
carefully kept cemetery to which, from time to time, descendants of the
different families come to be laid in their last long sleep. In the corner
closest up against the walls surrounding the pit we see the Stars and Stripes

of the United States, the “star-spangled banner” keeping guard over the
grave of La Fayette. The nuns of the convent have charge of this
pathetically interesting cemetery. At No. 42 we see more convent walls
stretching to Rue de Reuilly, now enclosing a carriage factory. At No. 61 the
doors of yet another, put later to various secular uses. No. 76 is the Jewish
hospital, founded by Rothschild in 1852. No. 73 is the Hospice des
Vieillards, worked by the Petites Sœurs des Pauvres. On the wall at No. 88
we come upon an edict of Louis XV with the date 1727.
Running parallel with Rue Picpus is Rue de Reuilly, in long-gone days a
country road leading to the Château at Romiliacum, the summer habitation
of the early Merovingian kings. We see an ancient house at No. 12 and No.
11 was the historic brasserie owned by Santerre, commander-in-chief of the
Paris Garde Nationale, its walls supposed to date from 1620. Santerre
bought it in 1772. After the storming of the Bastille, two prisoners found
within its walls, both mad, one aged, the other a noted criminal, were
sheltered there: there the keys and chains of the broken fortress were
deposited. The barracks at No. 20 are on the site of ruins of the old
Merovingian castle. The church, modern, of St-Eloi at No. 36 has no
historic interest save that of its name, and no architectural beauty.
Rue de Charenton is another ancient street. It runs through the whole of
the arrondissement from Place de la Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes. From
1800-15 it went by the name Rue de Marengo, for through a gate on its
course, at the barrier of the village of Charenton and along its line,
Napoléon re-entered Paris after his Italian campaigns. In its upper part it
was known in olden days as Vallée de Fécamp. Through the house at No. 2,
with the sign “A la Tour d’Argent,” Monseigneur Affre got on to the
barricades in 1848, to be shot down by the mob a few moments later. No.
10 dates from the sixteenth century. The inn at No. 12 is ancient. At No. 26
we see the chapel of the Blind Hospital, the “Quinze-Vingts,” formerly the
parish church of the district. The Quinze-Vingts was founded by St. Louis
for three hundred gentilshommes, i.e. men of gentle birth, on their return
from the crusades; their quarters were till 1780 on land owned by the monks
of the Cloître St-Honoré. Then this fine old hôtel and grounds, built in 1699
for the Mousquetaires Noirs, were bought for them. In the chapel crypt the
tombstone of the first archbishop of Paris, Mgr de Gondi, was found a few
years ago, and bits of broken sixteenth-century sculpture of excellent
workmanship. The little Rue Moreau, which opens at No. 40, was known in

the seventeenth century as Rue des Filles Anglaises, for English nuns had a
convent where now we see the Passage du Chêne-Vert. We find
characteristic old houses in Rue d’Aligre and an interesting old place of the
same name, in Revolutionary days a hay and straw market. The short streets
and passages of this neighbourhood date, with scarce an exception, from the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Rue de la Brèche-aux-loups recalls
the age when, in wintry weather, hungry wolves came within the sight of
the city. The statuette of Ste-Marguerite and the inscription of No. 277 date
from 1745. Passage de la Grande Pinte at No. 295 records the days when
drinking booths were a distinctive feature of the district. We see vestiges of
an ancient cloister at No. 306, and at No. 312 an old farmyard.

CHAPTER XL

LES GOBELINS
ARRONDISSEMENT XIII. (GOBELINS)

T HE brothers Gobelin, Jehan and Philibert, famous dyers of the day,
established their great factory on the banks of the Bièvre about the year
1443. Jehan had a fine private mansion in the vicinity of his dye-works
known as Le Cygne. At a little distance, on higher ground, was another
hôtel known as la Folie Gobelin. The rich scarlet dye the brothers turned out
was greatly prized; their business prospered, grew into a huge concern. But
in the first year of the seventeenth century a Flemish firm of upholsterers
came to Paris and established themselves on the banks of the tributary of
the Seine, entirely replacing the Gobelins’ works. This in its turn yielded to
another firm, but the name remained unchanged. A few years later the firm
and all the buildings connected therewith were taken over by the State, and
in 1667, by the initiative of the minister Colbert, were organized as the
royal factory “des meubles de la Couronne.” On the ancient walls behind
the modern façade we see two inscriptions referring to the founders of the
world-famed factory. This hinder part of the vast building is of special
interest to the lover of old-world vestiges. The central structure, two wings
and the ancient chapel of the original building, still stand, and around on
every side we see quaint old houses in tortuous streets, courtyards of past
centuries, where twentieth-century work goes on apace, picturesque corners
densely inhabited by a busy population. For this is also the great tanning
district of the city. Curious old-world sights meet us as we wind in and out
among these streets and passages which have stood unchanged for several
hundred years. The artistic work of the great factory was from the first
given into the hands of men of noted ability, beginning in 1667 with
Charles le Brun; and from the first it was regarded as an institution of
special interest and importance. Visitors of mark, royal and other, lay and
ecclesiastical, were taken to see it. The Pope, when in Paris in 1805, did not
fail to visit “les Gobelins.” In 1826 the great Paris soap-works were
removed from Chaillot and set up here in connection with the dye-works.
The fine old building was set fire to by the Communards in 1871—much of

it burnt to the ground, many priceless pieces of tapestry destroyed. At No.
17 Rue des Gobelins, in its earlier days Rue de la Bièvre, crossed by the
stream so carefully hidden beneath its surface now, we see the old castel de
la Reine Blanche. It dates from the sixteenth century, on the site of a more
ancient castel, where tradition says the “bals des ardents” were given,
notably that of the year 1392 when the accident took place which turned
King Charles VI into a madman. But the “Reine Blanche,” for whom it was
first built, was probably not the mother of St. Louis, but the widow of
Philippe de Valois, who died in 1398. In the sixteenth century relatives of
the brothers Gobelin lived there. Then it was the head office of the great
factory. Revolutionists met there in 1790 to organize the attack of June
20th. In Napoléon’s time it was a brewery, now it is a tannery.

CASTEL DE LA REINE BLANCHE

Rue Croulebarbe, once on the banks of the Bièvre, has an old-world,
village-like aspect. The buildings bordering the broad Avenue des Gobelins
are devoid of interest, but beneath several of them important Roman
remains have been found, and besides the old streets running into the
avenue in the immediate vicinity of the Gobelins Factory, we find at
intervals other old streets and passages with many interesting vestiges; at
No. 37, the Cour des Rames. The city gate St-Marcel stood in past days
across the avenue where the house No. 45 now stands. In Rue Le Brun we
see the remains of the hôtel where, in the early years of the eighteenth
century, dwelt Jean Julienne, the master of the Gobelins. Rue du Banquier
shows many curious old-time houses.
In Rue de la Glacière on the western side of the arrondissement, so
named in long-gone days from an ice-house furnished from the Bièvre, and
in the short streets leading out of it, we find old houses here and there. Rue
de la Tannerie was until quite modern times Rue des Anglaises from the
couvent des Filles Anglaises, founded at Cambrai, established here in 1664
—the chief duty of the nuns being to offer prayers for the conversion of
England to Romanism! Disturbed at the Revolution, they returned to their
own land and the convent became a prison under the Terror. At No. 28 of
this old street we see vestiges of the chapel cloisters.
Covering a large area in the east of this arrondissement is the hospice
known as La Salpétrière. In long-past days a powder magazine stood on the
site: traces of that old arsenal may still be seen in the hospital wash-house.
The foundation of the hospice dates from Louis XIII, as a house for the
reception of beggars. The present structure, the work of the architect Vau,
was built in the seventeenth century, destined for the destitute and the mad.
The fine chapel was built a few years later. At the close of the century a
woman’s prison was added, whither went many of the Convulsionists of St.
Médard (see p. 150). Mme Lamotte concerned in the affaire du collier was
shut up here. And in a scene of the well-known operette Manon Lescaut is
shown within its walls. In September, 1792, the Revolutionary mob broke
into the prison, slew the criminals, opened the doors to the light women
shut up there. We see before us the “Cour des Massacres.” Then in 1883 la
Salpétrière was organized as the “Hospice de la Vieillesse-Femmes.” There
are five thousand beds. In 1908 the new hospital de la Pitié was built in its
grounds.

LA SALPÉTRIÈRE

CHAPTER XLI

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF PORT-ROYAL
ARRONDISSEMENT XIV. (OBSERVATOIRE)

T HE boundary-line between arrondissements XIII and XIV is Rue de la
Santé, the name of the great Paris prison which stands there. It brings us
to the vicinity of the Paris Observatory and of the Hôpital Cochin. The
prison is a modern structure on a site known as la Charbonnerie, because of
coal-mines once there. The Observatory, built over ancient quarries, was
founded by Louis XIV’s minister Colbert, in 1667. A spiral staircase of six
hundred steps leads down to the cellars that erewhile were mines. It was
enlarged in 1730 and again in 1810, and the cupolas were added at a later
date. A stretch of Rue du Faubourg St-Jacques borders its eastern side, and
there on the opposite side we see l’Hôpital Cochin, founded in 1780 by the
then vicar of St-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, whose name it bears—enlarged in
recent years. At No. 34 of Rue du Faubourg St-Jacques we turn into the
seventeenth-century Rue Cassini, so named in 1790 to memorize the
seventeenth-century organizer of the Observatory. Here Balzac lived in
1829 in a house no longer standing. The great painter J. P. Laurens has an
hôtel here. We find a Louis XVI monument in a court at No. 10.
Subterranean passages, made and used in a past age by smugglers, have
been discovered beneath the pavement of this old street.
Rue Denfert-Rochereau has its first numbers in arrondissement V. This
was the “Via Infera,” the Lower Road of the Romans. The name Enfer,
given later, is said to refer, not to the place of torment, but to the hellish
noise persistently made in a hôtel there built by a son of Hugues Capet, the
hôtel Vauvert, hence the French expression, “envoyer les gens au diable
vert”—vert shortened from Vauvert, i.e. send them off—far away—to the
devil! Enfer became d’Enfert, to which in 1878 was added the name of the
general who defended Belfort in 1870: not exactly a happy combination!
Many persons of note have dwelt in this old street. No. 25 (arrondissement
V) is an ancient Carmelite convent, built, tradition says, on the site of a
pagan temple: an oratory-chapel dedicated to St. Michael covered part of
the site in early Christian days and a public cemetery. An ancient crypt still

exists. It was in the convent here that Louise de la Vallière came to work till
her death, in 1710. That first convent and church were razed in 1797. The
Carmelites built a smaller one on the ancient grounds in 1802, and rebuilt
their chapel in 1899. It did not serve them long. They were banished from
France in 1901. The chapel, crypt and some vestiges of the ancient convent
are before us here. Modern streets—Rue Val de Grâce opened in 1881, Rue
Nicole in 1864—run where the rest of the vast convent walls once rose. No.
57 is on the site of an ancient Roman burial-ground of which important
traces were found in 1896. No. 68, ancient convent of the Visitation. No. 72
built in 1650 as an Oratorian convent, a maternity hospital under the
Empire, now a children’s hospice. No. 71, couvent du Bon Pasteur—House
of Mercy—founded in the time of Louis XVI, bought by the Paris
Municipality in 1891, its chapel burnt by the Communards in 1871, rebuilt
by the authorities of the Charity, worked now by Sisters of St. Thomas de
Villeneuve. Within its walls we see interesting old-time features and
beneath are the walls of reservoirs dating from the days when water was
brought here from the heights of Rungis. No. 75, ancient Eudiste convent
and chapel; Châteaubriand once dwelt at No. 88 and with his wife founded
at No. 92 the Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse, named after the duchesse
d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI, a home for poverty-stricken
gentlepeople, transformed subsequently into an asylum for aged priests.
Mme de Châteaubriand lies buried there beneath the high altar of the
chapel.
Avenue d’Orléans, in olden days Route Nationale de Paris à Orléans,
dating from the eighteenth century, and smaller streets connected with it,
show us many old houses, while in the Villa Adrienne, opening at No. 17,
we find a number of modern houses—pavilions—each bearing the name of
a celebrity of past time. Rue de la Voie-Verte was so named from the
market-gardens erewhile stretching here. Rue de la Tombe-Issoire runs
across the site of an ancient burial-ground where was an immense tomb,
said to have been made for the body of a giant: Isore or Isïre, who,
according to the legend, attacked Paris at the head of a body of Sarazins in
the time of Charlemagne. Here and there along this street, as in the short
streets leading out of it, we come upon interesting vestiges of the past,
notably in Rue Hallé, opening at No. 42. The pretty Parc Souris is quite
modern. We find old houses in Avenue du Chatillon, an eighteenth-century
thoroughfare. Rue des Plantes leads us to Place de Montrouge, in the

thirteenth century the centre of a village so named either after an old-time
squire, lord of the manor, Guis de Rouge, or because the soil is of red
sandstone. The squire, maybe, gained his surname from the soil on which
he built his château, while the village took its name from the squire. Rue
Didot, once known as Rue des Terriers-aux-Lapins, memorizes the great
printing-house founded in 1713. Rue de Vanves, leading to what was in
olden days the village of the name, crosses Rue du Château at the point
where in the eighteenth century the duc de Maine had a hunting-lodge. In
Avenue du Maine we see ancient houses at intervals. Rue du Moulin-Vert
recalls the existence of one of the numerous windmills on the land around
the city in former days. Rue de la Gaité (eighteenth century) has ever been
true to its name or the name true to the locality—one of dancing saloons
and other popular amusements. The Cinema des Mille Colonnes was in pre-
cinema days the “Bal des Mille Colonnes,” opened in 1833. Passing on up
Avenue du Maine we come to arrondissement XV.

CHAPTER XLII

IN THE SOUTH-WEST
ARRONDISSEMENT XV. (VAUGIRARD)

R UE VAUGIRARD, originally Val Girard, which we enter here, on its
course from arrondissement VI (see p. 164), is the longest street in
Paris, a union of several streets under one name, extending on beyond
the city bounds. At No. 115 we find an ancient house recently restored by a
man of artistic mind; at No. 144, ancient buildings connected with the old
hospital l’Enfant-Jésus, its façade giving on Rue de Sèvres. At intervals all
along the street, and in the short streets opening out of it, we come upon
old-time houses, none, however, of special interest. In this section of its
course Rue de la Procession, opening at No. 247, dates from the close of the
fourteenth century, a reminiscence of the days when ecclesiastical
processions passed along its line to the church. Rue Cambronne, named
after the veteran of Waterloo, dates from the first Empire and shows us at
Nos. 98, 104, 117, houses of the time when it was Rue de l’École—i.e.
l’École Militaire.
The modern church St-Lambert in Rue Gerbert replaces the ancient
church of Vaugirard in Rue Dombasle, once Rue des Vignes, the centre of a
vine-growing district, where till recent years stood the old orphanage of St-
Vincent-de-Paul. Rue de la Croix-Nivert, traced in the early years of the
eighteenth century, records the existence of one of the crosses to be found
in old days at different points within and without the bounds of the city. In
Rue du Hameau, important Roman remains were found a few years ago. In
Rue Lecourbe, known in the seventeenth century as le Grand Chemin de
Bretagne, in the nineteenth century for some years as Rue de Sèvres, like
the old street it starts from at Square Pasteur, prehistoric remains were
found in 1903. Rue Blomet, the old Meudon road, was in past days the
habitation of gardeners, several old gardeners’ cottages still stand there. The
district known as Grenelle, a village beyond the Paris bounds till 1860, has
few vestiges of interest. The first stone of its church, St-Jean Baptiste, was
laid by the duchesse d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI. The long
modern Rue de la Convention is known beyond its immediate vicinity

chiefly for the Hôpital Boucicaut built by the founder and late owner of the
Bon Marché.
Avenue Suffren, bounding this arrondissement on its even-number side,
dates from 1770. Rue Desaix was once le Chemin de l’Orme de Grenelle.
Rue de la Fédération memorizes the Fête de la Fédération held on the
Champ de Mars in 1790. The oldest street of the district is Rue Dupleix, a
road in the fifteenth century and known in the sixteenth century as Sentier
de la Justice or Chemin du Gibet, a name which explains itself. Then it
became Rue Neuve. The Château de Grenelle stood in old days on the site
of the barracks on Place Dupleix, used in the Revolution as a powder
factory; there in 1794 a terrific explosion took place, killing twelve hundred
persons. Where the Grande Roue turns, on the ground now bright with
flower-beds and grassy lawns, duels were fought erewhile. This is the
quarter of new streets, brand-new avenues.
Crossing the Seine at this point we find ourselves in arrondissement
XVI, for to its area south of the Étoile and surrounding avenues, were added
in 1860 the suburban villages of Passy and Auteuil.

CHAPTER XLIII

IN NEWER PARIS
ARRONDISSEMENT XVI. (PASSY)

W E have left far behind us now Old Paris, the Paris of the Kings of
France, of the upheaval of Revolution days. The 16th arrondissement,
save in the remotest corners of Passy and Auteuil, suburban villages
still in some respects, is the arrondissement of the “Nineteenth Century and
After.” Round about the Étoile the Napoléonic stamp is very evident. It is
the district of the French Empire, First and Second. The Arc de Triomphe
was Napoléon’s conception. The broad thoroughfare stretching as Avenue
des Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde, as Avenue de la Grande
Armée to the boundary of Neuilly, was planned by Napoléon I, as were also
the other eleven surrounding avenues. The erections of his day and
following years were well designed, well built, solid, systematical,
mathematically correct, excellent work as constructions—spacious, airy,
hygienic, but devoid of architectural poetry. The buildings of the Second
Empire were a little less well designed, less well built and yet more
symmetrical, with a very marked utilitarian stamp and a marked lack of
artistic inspiration. Those of a later date, with the exception of some few
edifices on ancient models, are, alas! for the most part, utilitarian only—
supremely utilitarian. Paris dwelling-houses of to-day are, save for a fine
hôtel here and there, “maisons de rapport,” where rapport is plainly their
all-prevailing raison d’être. The new houses are one like the other, so like
as to render new streets devoid of landmarks: “Où sont les jours d’Antan,”
when each street, each house had its distinctive feature? Only in the Paris of
generations past.
Of Napoléon’s avenues seven, if we include the odd-number side of
Avenue des Champs-Élysées and of the Grande Armée, are in this
arrondissement. The beautiful Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne is due to
Napoléon III, opened in 1854, as Avenue de l’Impératrice. Handsome
mansions line it on both sides. One spot remained as it had been before the
erection of all these fine hôtels until recent years—a rude cottage-dwelling
stood there, owned by a coal merchant who refused to sell the territory at

any price. Francs by the million were offered for the site—in vain. But it
went at last. In 1909 a private mansion worthy of its neighbour edifices was
built on the site.
Avenue Victor-Hugo began in 1826 as Avenue Charles X. From the short
Rue du Dôme, on high ground opening out of it, we see in the distance the
dôme of the Invalides. To No. 117 the first crêche opened in or near Paris, at
Chaillot (1844), was removed some years ago. Gambetta lived for several
years and died at No. 57, in another adjoining street, Rue St-Didier. At No.
124 of the Avenue we see a bust of Victor-Hugo, who died in 1885 in the
house this one replaces. Place Victor-Hugo began in 1830 as Rond-Point de
Charles X. The figure of the poet set up in 1902 is by Barrias. The church
St-Honoré d’Eylau dates from 1852. It was pillaged by the Fédérés in 1871.
Lamartine passed the last year of his life in a simple chalet near the square
named after him; his statue there dates from 1886.
General Boulanger lived at No. 3 Rue Yvon de Villarceau, opening out
of Rue Copernic. Rue Dosne is along the site of the extensive grounds left
by Thiers. At No. 46 Rond-Point Bugeaud we see the foundation Thiers, a
handsome hôtel bequeathed by the widow of the statesman as an institution
for the benefit of young students of special aptitude in science, philosophy,
history.
Avenue d’Eylau, planned to be Place du Prince Impérial, possessed till
recently, in a courtyard at No. 11, three bells supposed to be those of the
ancient Bastille clock.
Avenue Malakoff, began in 1826 as Avenue St-Denis. At No. 66 we see
the chapel of ease of St-Honoré d’Eylau, of original style and known as the
Cité Paroissiale St-Honoré.
Avenue Kléber began in 1804 as Avenue du Roi de Rome. Beneath the
pavement at No. 79 there is a circular flight of steps built in 1786, to go
down to the Passy quarries.
Rue Galilée, opening out of it at No. 55, began as Rue des Chemin de
Versailles. Rue Belloy was formed in 1886 on the site of the ancient
Chaillot reservoirs.
Avenue d’Iéna lies along the line of the ancient Rue des Batailles de
Chaillot, where, in 1593, without the city bounds, Henri IV and Gabrielle
d’Estrées had a house. Rue Auguste-Vaquerie is the former Rue des
Bassins. The Anglican church there dedicated to St-George dates from 1888

and is, like the French churches, always open—a friendly English church—
with beautiful decorations and furnishings. The short Rue Keppler dates
from 1772 and was at one time Rue Ste-Geneviève. Rue Georges-Bizet lies
along the line of an ancient Ruelle des Tourniquets, a name reminiscent of
country lanes and stiles; in its lower part it was of yore Rue des
Blanchisseuses, where clean linen hung out freely to dry. The Greek church
there, with its beautiful Iconostase and paintings by Charles Lemaire, is
modern (1895). Rue de Lubeck began as a tortuous seventeenth-century
road, crossing the grounds of the ancient convent of the Visitation.
The statue of Washington in the centre of Place d’Iéna, the scene of so
many momentous gatherings, was given by the women of the United States
“en mémoire de l’amitié et de l’aide fraternelle donnée par la France à
leurs frères pendant la lutte pour l’indépendance.” The Musée Guinet on
the site of the hippodrome of earlier years, an oriental museum, was opened
in 1888. Rue Boissière, in the eighteenth century in part Rue de la Croix-
Boissière, reminds us of the wooden crosses to which in olden days the
branches of box which replace palm were fixed on Palm Sunday. Along Rue
de Longchamp, then a country lane, seventeenth and eighteenth-century
Parisians passed in pilgrimage to Longchamp Abbey, while at an old farm
on the Rond-Point, swept away of late years, ramblers of note, Boileau and
La Fontaine among the number, stopped to drink milk fresh and pure. The
name of the Bouquet de Longchamp recalls the days when green trees
clustered there. Rue Lauriston, a thoroughfare in the eighteenth century,
was long known as Chemin du Bel-air.
Rue de Chaillot, which leads us to Avenue Marceau, was the High Street
of the village known in the eleventh century by the Roman name
Colloelum. It was Crown property, and Louis XI gave it to Philippe de
Commines. In 1659 the district became a Paris faubourg and in 1787 was
included within the city bounds. There on the high land now the site of the
Trocadéro palace and gardens, the Château de Chaillot, its name changed
later to Grammont, was built by Catherine de’ Medici. Henriette, widow of
Charles I of England, back in her own land of France, made it into a
convent (1651). Its first Superior was Mlle de Lafayette; its walls sheltered
many women of note and rank, Louise de la Vallière is said to have fled
thither twice, to be twice regained by the King. The chapel was on the site
of the pond in the Trocadéro gardens. There the hearts of the Catholic
Stuarts were taken for preservation. Suppressed at the Revolution, the

convent was subsequently razed to the ground by Napoléon, who planned
the erection of a palace there for his son the “Roi de Rome.” The old street
has still several old houses easily recognized: Nos. 5, 9, 19, etc. The church,
on the site of an eleventh-century chapel, dates from the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, with a nineteenth-century chapel and presbytery.
Avenue du Trocadéro, since 4th July, 1918, Avenue Wilson, was
inaugurated as Avenue de l’Empereur, (Napoléon III). The palace, now a
museum and concert-hall, was built on the crest of ancient quarries, for the
Exhibition of 1878, and the Place du Roi de Rome, in previous days Place
Ste-Marie, became Place du Trocadéro. The Musée Galliera, a museum of
industrial art, was built in 1895 by the duchess whose maiden name
Brignole is recorded in the short street opened across her property in 1879.
She had planned filling it with her magnificent collection of pictures, but
changed the destination of her legacy when France laicised her schools.
Avenue Henri-Martin began, like Avenue du Trocadéro, as Avenue de
l’Empereur (1858). The old tour we see at No. 86 Rue de le Tour is said to
have formed part of the Manor of Philippe-le-Bel. It was once a prison, then
served as a windmill tower, and the street, erewhile Chemin des Moines,
Monk’s Road, became Rue du Moulin de la Tour. Few other vestiges of the
past remain along its course. We see old houses at Nos. 1, 66, 68. Rue
Vineuse, crossing it, recalls the days when convent vineyards stretched
there. It is, like Rue Franklin, once Rue Neuve des Minimes, of eighteenth-
century date. Franklin’s statue was set up there in 1906, for his centenary.
We see an old-time house at No. 1 Rue Franklin, and at No. 8 the home of
Clemenceau, the capable Prime Minister of France of the late war. The
cemetery above the reservoir was opened in 1803.

CHAPTER XLIV

TOWARDS THE WESTERN BOUNDARY

R UE DE PASSY, the ancient Grande Rue, the village High Street before
the district was included within the Paris boundary-line, dates from
fifteenth-century days, when it was a fief, owned by Jeanne de Paillard,
known as La Dame de Passy; it reverted to the Crown under Louis XI, and
was bestowed on successive nobles. At the carrefour—the cross roads—
where the tramcars now stop for Rue de la Tour, stood the seignorial
gallows. The seignorial habitation, a château with extensive grounds, was
built in 1678; in 1826 the whole domain was sold and cut up. The district
was known far and wide in past days on account of its mineral springs. Here
and there along the street we see an ancient house still standing. The narrow
impasse at No. 24 is ancient. The nineteenth-century poet Gustave Nadaud
died at No. 63 in 1893. No. 84, now razed, showed, until a few years ago,
an interesting Louis XV façade in the courtyard, once a dependency of the
Château de la Muette. Rue de la Pompe, named from the pump which
supplied the Château de la Muette with water, a country road in the
eighteenth century, shows few vestiges of the past. No. 53 is part of an old
Carmelite convent.
Chaussée de la Muette is a nineteenth-century prolongation of Rue de
Passy. The château from which it takes its name was originally a hunting-
lodge, stags and birds were carefully enclosed here during the time of
moulting (la mue, hence the name) in the days of Charles IX. Margaret de
Valois, the notorious Reine Margot, was its first regular inhabitant. She
gave the mansion to King Louis XIII when he came of age in 1615. It was
rebuilt by the Regent in 1716 and became the favourite abode of his
daughter the duchesse de Berri. There she died three years later. It was the
home of Louis XV during his minority. Mme de Pompadour lived there and
had the doors beautifully painted. It was again rebuilt in 1764, Marie-
Antoinette and the Dauphin, soon to be Louis XVI, spent the first months of
their married life there. It was from the Park de la Muette that the first
balloon was sent up in 1783. The property was cut up in 1791, and in 1820
bought by Sebastien Érard of pianoforte fame, and once more rebuilt. Thus

it came by the spindle-side to the comte de Franqueville; a big slice has
been cut off in recent years for the making of a new street named after its
present owner.[G]

RUE DES EAUX, PASSY

Avenue du Ranelagh records the existence, in the latter years of the
eighteenth century, of the fashionable dancing hall and grounds opened here
in imitation of the Rotonde built in London by Lord Ranelagh. Marie-
Antoinette was among the great ladies who danced there. The hall was
closed at the Revolution but was reopened and again the vogue under the
Directoire and until 1830, when it became a public dancing saloon. It was
demolished in 1858, the lawns were left to form a promenade. The statue of
La Fontaine dates from 1891. Rue du Ranelagh is wholly modern. Rue
Raynouard crossing it dates from the seventeenth century, when it was the
Grande Rue, later the Haute Rue of the quarter, to become later still Rue
Basse. Florian, the charming fable-writer, was wont to stay at No. 75. We
see a fine old hôtel at No. 69, and an old-world street, Rue Guillou, close
by. Rue des Vignes opening at No. 72 reminds us of the vineyards once on
these sunny slopes. No. 66 was the site of the hôtel Valentinois, where
Franklin lived for several years and where he put up the first lightning

conductor in France. No. 51 is ancient, and No. 47 is known as la Maison
de Balzac. In a pavilion in the garden sloping to the Seine he lived from
1842-48, lived and wrote, wrote incessantly there as elsewhere and always.
There, carefully preserved, may be seen the chair he sat in, the table he
wrote at, the pen he used, and a hundred other personal relics. Lectures
about the great novelist and subjects connected with his life and work are
given there from time to time. We see ancient houses on to the end of this
quaint street. Marie-Antoinette stayed from time to time at No. 42 to be
within easy reach of her confessor, the Vicar of Passy; so tradition says. The
second story of this house sheltered Béranger, 1833-35. The man of letters
who gave his name to the street died at No. 36, in 1836. At No. 21, the
warrior, la Tour d’Auvergne, passed the years 1776-1800. Jean Jacques
Rousseau stayed with friends here and wrote his “Devin du Village.”
Mineral waters, such as made the springs of Passy renowned in bygone
days, still bubble up in this fine park. The modern erection, No. 19, is on the
site of the ancient hôtel Lauzun, where the duc de Saint-Simon used to stay,
and where the first steps were taken for the marriage of Napoléon III. At
No. 11 we turn for an instant into the quaint old Rue des Eaux, strikingly
reminiscent of a past age, when the tonifying waters of Passy were drunk in
a pavilion on the site of No. 20. Rue de l’Annonciation began in the early
years of the eighteenth century as Rue des Moulins. Here we see the church
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, built as a chapel of ease for Auteuil by the Lord of
Passy in 1660, to become a parish church, a few years later. It was restored
and enlarged at subsequent dates. The ancient Passy cemetery lay across
Rue Lekain. Rue de Boulainvilliers stretches through what were once the
grounds of the Passy Château. Rue des Bauches, opening out of it, still
narrow and quaint, was in olden days a lane through the Bauches, a word
signifying a marshy tract or used to designate hut-like dwellings on waste,
perhaps marshy land. Passy had within its bounds the Hautes Bauches, and
the Basses Bauches. We of the 16th arrondissement know the street
nowadays more especially as that of the tax-paying office.
Rue de l’Assomption marking the boundary between Passy and Auteuil
began as Rue des Tombereaux. The convent of the Assomption is a modern
building (1858), in an ancient park. The old château there, so secluded on
its tree-surrounded site as to go by the name of l’Invisible, rebuilt in 1782,
was for a time the home of Talleyrand, later of the actress Rachel, of Thiers,
the statesman, of the comtesse de Montijo, mother of the Empress Eugénie;

the nuns came here from Rue de Chaillot in 1855. No. 88 is an old convent-
chapel used as chapel of ease for Passy.
In Avenue de Mozart we see modern structures only, but old-time streets
open out of it at intervals. It was in a house in Rue Bois-le-Vent, near the
château de la Muette, that André Chenier was arrested in 1794. Behind No.
13, of Rue Davioud we find traces of an old farmyard and a well. Rue de la
Cure refers by its name to the iron springs once there. Rue de Ribéra is the
ancient Rue de la Croix. Rue de la Source, was in old days Sente des
Vignes. Benedictine nuns from St-Maur settled there in 1899 to be banished
or laicized a few years later. Rue Raffet dates from the eighteenth century as
Rue de la Grande Fontaine. Rue du Docteur Blanche, named to memorize
the organizer of the well-known private asylum in the hôtel once the
dwelling of princesse de Lamballe, is the ancient Fontis Road. Rue Poussin,
and the short streets connected with it, all date from the middle of the
nineteenth century, opened by the railway company of the Ceinture line in
the vicinity of their station at Auteuil. Rue des Perchamps, once Pares
Campi, crosses the site of the ancient cemetery of the district. In Rue la
Fontaine, in olden days known for its fountain of pure water, we find here
and there an eighteenth-century building among the garden-surrounded
houses. In Rue Théophile Gautier, a tennis-court and tall houses let in flats
cover the ground where till 1908 stood the Château de Choiseul-Praslin, in
its latter years, till 1904, a convent of Dominican nuns. Rue de Remusat
runs along the course of the ancient Grande Rue; Rue Félicien-David was
the first street flooded in the great inundation of 1910.[H] The street became
a river three mètres deep. Rue Wilhem, of so commonplace an aspect to-
day, dates from the eighteenth century, when it was Sentier des Arches, then
Rue Ste-Geneviève. Place d’Auteuil, until 1867 Place d’Aguesseau, is on
the site of the churchyard of past days. The monument we see there was set
up to the memory of D’Aguesseau and his wife by command of Louis XV,
in 1753. This is the highest point in the district, altus locus—the origin,
maybe, of the name Auteuil, unless the name refers rather to the Druidical
altars erected on a clearing here in the days when the forest of Rouvray,
spreading over the whole of what is now the Bois de Boulogne, sheltered
the venerable pagan priests. A church was first built on the spot in the early
years of the fourteenth century. At the Revolution the church was profaned,
the tombs violated. The present edifice dates from the latter years of the
nineteenth century; its tower, in the form of a pontifical tiara, is an exact

copy of the ancient tower. Rue d’Auteuil was in fifteenth-century days the
single village street, la Grande Rue; the house at No. 2 is said to be on the
site of Molière’s country dwelling, but there is no authentic record of the
exact site of the house at Auteuil, near the church, where the great dramatist
so often went for rest and country air. Auteuil was the retreat for quiet and
recuperation of the most noted men of letters and of art of the eighteenth
century: Racine, Boileau, etc. No. 59 is on the site of the house, burnt to the
ground in 1871, wherein Victor Noir was shot dead by Prince Pierre
Napoléon. Where at the upper end of the street we see now houses of
commonplace aspect and small shops, stood until the middle of the
nineteenth century the Château du Coq, inhabited by Louis XV in his
childhood, and surrounded later by a horticulturist’s garden.
Avenue de Versailles, in the south of the arrondissement, shows us along
its line, and in the short streets leading out of it, many old-time vestiges.
The Auteuil cemetery in Rue Chardon-Lagache dates from 1800. The house
of retreat, Ste-Perine, transferred here from Chaillot in 1850, is on land
once part of the estate of the abbots of the old monastery Ste-Geneviève,
away on the high ground across the Seine at the other end of the city. Rue
Molitor has at No. 18 a group of modern houses named Villa Boileau,
property once owned by the poet. Boileau’s Auteuil house was on the site of
No. 26, in the quaint picturesque old Rue Boileau, where his gardener’s
cottage still stands. Rue de Musset, opening out of the street at No. 67,
reminds us that the friend of George Sand dwelt here with his parents in the
early years of the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER XLV

LES TERNES
ARRONDISSEMENT XVII. (BATIGNOLLES-MONCEAU)

A NUMBER of small dwellings lying without the city bounds to the
north, in the commune of Clichy, were known in the fifteenth century
as “les Batignolles,” i.e. the little buildings. Separated from Clichy in
the nineteenth century, the district of les Batignolles was joined to
Monceau. New streets were built, old erections swept away: Avenue de
Clichy, in part the Grande Rue of the district, was first planted with trees in
1705. At intervals along its course, and in the short streets connected with
it, we find eighteenth-century houses, none of special interest. At No. 3, the
Taverne de Paris is decorated with paintings by modern artists. A famous
restaurant, dating from 1793, stood till 1906 at No. 7. At No. 52 of Rue
Balagny, opening out of the Avenue, we see the sign “Aux travailleurs,” and
on the façade, words to the effect that the house was built during the war
years 1870-71. At No. 154 of the Avenue, we find the quiet leafy Cité des
Fleurs. Rue des Dames was a road leading to the abbey “des dames de
Montmartre” in the seventeenth century. Rue de Lévis was in long-gone
ages a road leading to what was then the village of Monceaux, its name
derived perhaps from the Latin Muxcellum, a mossy place, more probably
from Monticellum, a mound, or from Mons calvas, the bald or bare mount.
The Château de Monceaux was on the site of Place Lévis. The official
palace of the Papal Nuncio was in Rue Legendre, No. 11 bis. The modern
church St-Charles we see here, built in 1907, was previously a Barnabite
chapel. Rue Léon-Cosnard dates from the seventeenth century, when it was
Rue du Bac d’Asnières. In the old Rue des Moines we find one of the few
French protestant churches of Paris.
Avenue de Villiers, leading of old to the village of Villiers, now
incorporated with Levallois-Perret, was, from its formation in 1858 to the
year 1873, Avenue de Neuilly. Puvis de Chavannes died at No. 89, in 1898.
Avenue de Wagram in its course from the Arc de Triomphe to Place des
Ternes dates from the Revolution year 1789, known then as Avenue de
l’Étoile. Avenue MacMahon began as Avenue du Prince Jerôme. Avenue

des Ternes is the ancient route de St-Germain, subsequently known as the
old Reuilly Road—Reuilly is half-way to St-Germain—later as Rue de la
Montagne du Bon-Air, to become on the eve of its début as an Avenue,
route des Ternes, the chief road of the terra externa, the territory beyond the
city bounds on that side. The village Les Ternes was taken within the Paris
boundary line in 1860. The barrière du Roule was surrounded in the past by
a circular road, now Place des Ternes. We find important vestiges of the fine
Château des Ternes in the neighbourhood of Rue Bayen, Rue Guersant and
Rue Demours. The church St-Ferdinand built in 1844-47 was named in
memory of the duc d’Orléans, killed near the spot.

CHAPTER XLVI

ON THE BUTTE
ARRONDISSEMENT XVIII. (BUTTE MONTMARTRE)

W E are on supremely interesting ground here, ground at once sacred,
historic and characteristic of the mundane life of the city above which
it stands. At or near its summit, St-Denis and his two companions
were put to death in the early days of Christianity. On the hill-side most
memorable happenings have been lived through. In the old streets and
houses up and down its slopes poets and artists have ever dwelt, worked
and played, and in its theatres, its music-halls, cabarets, etc., Parisians of all
classes have sought amusement—good and evil. In past days Paris
depended on Montmartre for its daily bread, for the flour that made it was
ground by the innumerable windmills of the Butte. The sails of many of
those windmills worked far into the reign of Napoléon III, who did not
admire their aspect and even had a scheme for levelling the Butte! So it is
said. Reaching the arrondissement by the Rue des Martyrs, which begins, as
we know, in arrondissement IX, we come upon two buildings side by side
of very opposite uses: the Comédie Mondaine, formerly the famous
Brasserie des Martyrs and Divan Japonais, and the Asile Nationale de la
Providence, an institution founded in 1804 as a retreat for aged and fallen
gentlepeople.
The hôtel at No. 79 is on the site of the Château d’hiver, where the
Revolutionists of Montmartre had their club. No. 88 was the dancing-saloon
known as the Bossu. No. 76 that of the Marronniers. Rue Antoinette shows
us points of interest of another nature. At No. 9, in the couvent des Dames
Auxiliatrices du Purgatoire, we see the very spot on which there is reason to
believe St. Denis and his companions suffered martyrdom. An ancient crypt
is there, unearthed in the year 1611, to which we are led down rough steps,
beneath a chapel built on the site in 1887; we see a rude altar and above it
words in Latin to the effect that St-Denis had invoked the name of the Holy
Trinity on that spot. The crypt is no doubt a vestige of the chapel built on
the site by Ste-Geneviève. It was in this chapel, not as is sometimes asserted
higher up the Butte, that Ignatius Loyola and his six companions, on August

15, 1574, made the solemn vow which resulted in the institution of the
Order of the Jesuits. The chapel was under the jurisdiction of the “Dames de
Montmartre,” and after the great fire at the abbey the nuns sought refuge in
the old chapel here, made it a priory. Several persons of note were buried
there. At the Revolution it was knocked to pieces and remained a ruin until
rebuilt by the abbé Rebours in 1887.
Leaving this interesting spot and passing through Rue Tardieu, we reach
Place St-Pierre, formerly known as Place Piemontési, and go on through
Rue Foyatier to the ancient Rue St-Eleuthère, once in part of its length Rue
du Pressoire, a name recalling the abbey winepress on the site of the
reservoir we see there now. Thus we come to Rue Mont-Cenis, the ancient
Chaussée St-Denis, and in part of its course, Rue de la Procession, referring
to the religious processions of those bygone days. And here we see before
us the most ancient of Paris churches, St-Pierre de Montmartre. It dates
from the first years of the ninth century, built on the site of an earlier chapel
or several successive chapels, the first one erected over the ruins of a pagan
temple. Four black marble pillars from the ruins of that temple were used
for the Christian church: we see them there to-day, two at the west door,
two in the chancel. We see there, too, ancient tombstones, one that of
Adelaide de Savoie, foundress of the abbey, for the Choir des Dames was
the abbey chapel, and there the abbesses were buried. The old church was
threatened with destruction after the desecration of 1871, when it was used
as a munition dépôt. Happily it has been saved and in recent years restored.
The façade is eighteenth-century work, quite uninteresting as we see, but
the view of the east end from without, the apse, the old tower and the
simply severe Gothic interior, are strikingly characteristic. The cross we see
in front of the church was brought here from an old cemetery near. The
garden adjoining, with the Calvaire set up there in 1833, was in ancient
days the nun’s graveyard. The cemetery on the northern side dates from the
time of the Merovingian kings.

ST-PIERRE DE MONTMARTRE

Leaving the most ancient of Paris churches we come to the most
remarkable among the modern churches of Paris and of France—l’Église du
Vœu National, commonly known as the Sacré-Cœur. It is an impressively
historic structure for it was built after the disasters of 1870-71, by “La
France humiliée et repentante,” a votive church erected by national
subscription. To make its foundations sure on the summit of the Butte,
chosen as being the site of the martyrdom of St-Denis, patron saint of the
city, the hill was probed to its base, almost to the level of the Seine, and a
gigantic foundation of hard rock-like stone built upwards. The huge edifice
rests upon a vast crypt, with chapels and passages throughout its entire
extent. It has taken more than forty years to build; the north tower was
finished just before the outbreak of the war, now advancing to a triumphal
end, for which grand services of thanksgiving will ere long be held in this
church built after defeat. The interior is still uncompleted. Looking at it
from close at hand, the immense Byzantine structure with its numerous
domes, seems to us æsthetically somewhat unsatisfying, but from a distance
dominating Paris, seen as it often is through a feathery haze, or with the sun
shining on it, the vast white edifice makes an imposing effect. Its great bell,
la Savoyarde, given by the diocese of Chambéry, weighs more than 26,000
kilogrammes, and its sound reaches many miles.

VIEUX MONTMARTRE, RUE ST-VINCENT
(Maison de Henri IV)

RUE MONT-CENIS
(Chapelle de la Trinité)

Rue Chevalier de la Barre, bordering the church on the north, was
formerly in part of its length Rue des Rosiers, in part Rue de la Fontenelle,
referring to a spring in the vicinity. In a wall of the Abri St-Joseph at No.
26, we see the bullet-holes made by the Communards who shot there two
French Generals in March, 1871. Going up Rue Mont-Cenis we see
interesting old houses at every step. No. 22 was the home of the musician
Berlioz and his English wife Constance Smithson. Crossing this long street
from east to west at this point, the winding hill-side Rue St-Vincent with its
ancient walls, its trees, its grassy roadway, makes us feel very far removed
from the city lying in the plain below. At No. 40 is the little cemetery St-
Vincent. Returning to Rue Mont-Cenis we find at No. 53 a girls’ college
amid vestiges of the ancient, famous porcelaine factory, the factory of
“Monsieur” under the patronage of the comte de Provence, brother of Louis
XV. The tower we see there was that of the windmill which ground the
silex. At No. 61 we come upon a farm dating from 1782, la Vacherie de la
Tourelle. At No. 67 an old inn once the Chapelle de la Trinité (sixteenth
century).

VIEUX MONTMARTRE
(Cabaret du Lapin-Agile)

Returning to the vicinity of St-Pierre and the Sacré-Cœur, we find
numerous short streets, generally narrow and tortuous, which retain their
old-world aspect. Rue St-Eleuthère is one of the most ancient. Rue St-
Rustique formerly Rue des Dames, Rue Ravignan once Rue du Vieux-
Chemin, Rue Cortot, Rue Norvins, Rue des Saules, are all seventeenth-

century thoroughfares. Rue Norvins was Rue des Moulins in bygone days.
No. 23 was a far-famed folie, then, in 1820, the celebrated Dr. Blanche
founded there his first asylum for the insane, many of whom he cured. At
No. 9 we come to an old house and alley, the impasse Trainée, a name
recalling the days when Montmartre was, in wintry weather, a wolf-haunted
district: a trainée is a wolf-trap. The inn at No. 6 was in the past a resort of
singers in search of an engagement: the impecunious could bring food to eat
there. On the Place du Tertre two trees of liberty were planted in 1848,
felled in 1871. No. 3 is the site of the first Mairie of Montmartre. Passing
along Rue du Calvaire we come to the rustic Place du Calvaire, erewhile
Place Ste-Marie.
A very chief interest at Montmartre is the view. It is best obtained from
the Belvedere built by baron de Vaux at No. 39 Rue Gabrielle, and from the
Moulin de la Galette reached through Rue des Trois-Frères. Rue de la Mire
was in olden days Petite Rue des Moulins. The steps we see are said to have
been put there for the passage of cattle.
The cellars of the house at No. 7, Rue la Vieuville are vestiges of the
ancient abbey. Place des Abbesses was erewhile Rue de l’Abbaye. On the
ancient place we find the most modern and most modern-style church in
Paris, St-Jean l’Evangeliste, built of concrete. The Passage des Abbesses
leads by an old flight of steps to Rue des Trois-Frères, a modern street. Rue
Lepic, for some years after its formation Rue de l’Empereur (Napoléon III),
was renamed in memory of the General who defended the district in 1814.
Numerous old streets are connected with it. Avenue des Tilleuls recalls the
days when lime-trees flourished there, the lime-trees memorized in
Alphonse Karr’s novel Sous les Tilleuls. In the Square where it ends is an
eighteenth-century house where François Coppée dwelt as a boy. The
severely wall-enclosed hôtel at No. 72 was the home of the artist Ziem.
Close here is the entrance to the Moulin de la Galette. At the top of the
house No. 100 there is an astronomical observatory set up under Napoléon
III. The Rue Girardon, a rural pathway in the seventeenth century, was
known later as Rue des Brouillards, the point no doubt from which the city
lying below was to be seen fog-enveloped, as is not unfrequently the case.
The old house No. 13 goes by the name le Château des Brouillards. In the
impasse at No. 5 stood in ancient days the Fontaine St-Denis. Its waters
were of great repute, assuring, it was said, in women who drank them, the
virtue of conjugal fidelity. And here through the short street Rue des Deux-

Frères we reach the historic Moulin de la Galette. It dates from the twelfth
century and has seen tragic days. Its owners defended it with frantic
courage in 1814, whereupon one of them, taken by the attacking Cosaques,
was roped to the whirling wheel. It was again assailed in 1871. The
property was owned by the same family from the year 1640, a private
property, a farm, a country inn, where dancing often went on as a mere
private pastime till, in 1833, its landlord, an expert in the art of dancing,
decided to turn his talent to pecuniary account and opened there the famous
public dancing-hall. Rue Caulaincourt, erewhile quaint and rural, has lost of
late years almost all its old-time characteristics. Rue Lamarck has become
quite modern in its aspect. Rue Marcadet was known in the seventeenth
century as Rue des Bœufs—Ox Street. At No. 71 we find a fine
seventeenth-century hôtel, now a girls’ school, hôtel Labat, and another
good old house, also a girls’ school, at No. 75; at No. 91 yet another. The
modern structures at No. 101 are on the site of the ancient manor-house of
Clignancourt. The turret at No. 103 is probably the relic of an old windmill.
Rue de la Fontaine du But records the name of a drinking fountain,
demolished some forty years ago, said to have been set up there by the
Romans. Tradition has it the word but was once buc, and referred to the
Roman rite of the sacrifice of a buck to Mercury. According to another
legend, “but,” i.e. aim, referred to the English archers who when in France
made that spot their practising-ground. Rue du Ruisseau owes its name to
the stream of water which flowed through it on the demolition of the
ancient fountain. The seventeenth-century Rue de Maistre, bordering the
northern cemetery, is the ancient Chemin des Dames. Rue Eugène-Carrière,
opening out of it, was till quite recently Rue des Grandes Carrières,
memorizing the big quarries whence from time immemorial has been
obtained the white stone, so marked a feature of Paris buildings, and the
world-famed plaster of Paris.

MOULIN DE LA GALETTE

Rue Damrémont is modern; in the little Rue des Cloys opening out of it
at No. 102 we see vestiges of a curious old cité of wooden dwellings. Rue
Neuve de la Chardonnière recalls the days when it was a thistle-grown road.
Rue du Poteau reminds us of the gallows of the St-Ouen road. The Avenue
de Clichy and the Avenue St-Ouen which form the boundary of the
arrondissement, both date back as important roads to the seventeenth
century. Along them we find here and there traces of ancient buildings,
none of special interest. To the east of the boulevards Ornano and Barbes,
which run through the arrondissement from north to south, we find
numerous ancient streets, mostly short. The street of chief importance is
Rue des Poissonniers, its lower end merged in boulevard Barbes. We see
several unimportant old houses along its course. The impasse du Cimetière
and the schools we see there are on the site of an old graveyard. In Rue
Affre, bearing the name of the archbishop of Paris slain on the barricades in
1848 (see p. 250), we find the modern church St-Bernard, of pure fifteenth-
century Gothic as to style, but far inferior in workmanship to the Gothic

structures of ages past. Rue de la Chapelle, known in Napoléon’s time as
Faubourg de la Gloire, began as the Calais Road, then became the Grande
Rue de la Chapelle. La Chapelle is a spot of remarkable historic memories.
It began as the Village des Roses—in days when roses, wild and cultivated,
grew in abundance in what is now a Paris slum. Then the population,
remembering that Ste-Geneviève had stopped to rest and pray in the church
on her way to St-Denis, called their village La Chapelle-Ste-Geneviève.
Later it was named la Chapelle-St-Denis. To the church at la Chapelle went
Jeanne d’Arc in the fateful year 1425. We find ancient houses all along the
course of this old thoroughfare, and at No. 96 the church dedicated to St-
Denis, built by Maurice de Sully, the chancel of that thirteenth-century
structure still intact, after going through two disastrous fires and suffering
damage in times of war. It has been enlarged in recent years. The statue of
Jeanne d’Arc there dates from the reign of Louis XVI.
A popular fair, la Foire de Lendit, instituted by Dagobert, was held
during centuries at the extreme end of the ancient thoroughfare. No. 122,
built, tradition tells us, by Henri IV and given to his minister Sully, became
in the seventeenth century the Cabaret de la Rose Blanche. At No. 1 Rue
Boucry we see an ancient chapel now used as a public hall.

CHAPTER XLVII

AMONG THE COALYARDS AND THE MEAT-MARKETS
ARRONDISSEMENT XIX. (BUTTES-CHAUMONT)

I N this essentially workaday district we see many houses old and quaint,
but without architectural beauty or special historic interest. Round the
park des Buttes-Chaumont, a large expanse of greenswards and shady
alleys, dull, squalid streets branch out amid coal-yards and factories.
Beneath the park are the ancient quarries which erewhile gave so much
white stone and plaster of Paris to the city builders. The name Chaumont is
derived, perhaps, from mons calvus, mont chauve, i.e. bald mountain. In
Rue de Flandres, formerly Grande Rue de la Villette, we see a Jewish
cemetery. Nos. 61 to 65 are on the site where the well-known institution
Ste-Perine, come hither from Compiègne, was first established in Paris as a
convent community in the seventeenth century, removed to Chaillot in
1742, then to Auteuil, its present site. We find ancient houses, some old
signs, along the course of this old street, and at No. 152 an interesting door,
pavilion and bas-relief.
Rue de Belleville marks the bounds of the arrondissement. Along its
course and in the adjacent streets we see many vestiges of the past. Rue des
Bois shows us some fine old gardens as yet undisturbed. In Rue de l’Orme,
Elm Road, opening out of it, we find the remains of an ancient park. Rue
Pré-St-Gervais was a country road till 1837. From the top of the steps in the
picturesque Rue des Lilas we have a fine view across the neighbouring
banlieue. In the grounds of No. 40 we come upon three benches formed of
gravestones. Rue Compans was in the eighteenth century and onwards Rue
St-Denis. The church of St-Jean-Baptiste, quite modern, is of excellent style
and workmanship. The lower end of Rue de Belleville leads us into
arrondissement XX.

CHAPTER XLVIII

PÈRE-LACHAISE
ARRONDISSEMENT XX. (MÉNILMONTANT)

T HE lower end of the long Rue de Belleville, its odd-number side in
arrondissement XIX, went in olden days by the name Rue des Courtilles
—Inn Street. Inns, cabarets, popular places of amusement stood door by
door all along its course. Here, as in arrondissement XIX, we find on every
side old houses and vestiges of the past, but of no particular interest beyond
the quaintness of their aspect. Rue Pelleport began in the eighteenth century
as an avenue encircling the park of Ménilmontant. In the grounds
surrounding the reservoirs we come upon a tomb, a modern gravestone,
covering the remains of a municipal functionary whose dying wish was to
be buried on his own estate.
Rue Haxo, crossing Rue Belleville at No. 278 and running up into
arrondissement XIX, is of tragic memory. Opening out of it at No. 85 we
see the Villa des Otages. There the Commune sat in 1871, there the fate of
the hostages was decided; there on the 26th May, 1871, fifty-two of those
unhappy prisoners were slain. The Jesuits owned the property till its sale a
few years ago. They bought and carried away the grilles and whatever else
was transportable from the cells where the victims had been shut up.
Rue Ménilmontant, running parallel to Rue de Belleville, dates from the
seventeenth century, when it was a country road leading to the thirteenth-
century hamlet Mesnil Mantems, later Mesnil Montant. The land there
belonged in great part to the abbey St-Antoine and to the priory of Ste-
Croix de la Bretonnerie; a château de Ménilmontant was built, under Louis
XIV, where in the wide-stretching grounds we see the reservoirs. At Nos.
155 and 157 we see old pavilions surrounded by gardens. The eighteenth-
century house, No. 145, was in the nineteenth century taken by a society
calling itself the St-Simoniens—some forty men who had decided to live
together and have all things in common. They did not remain together long.
No. 119 is the school directed by the Sœurs St-Vincent de Paul. At No. 101
we look down Rue des Cascades which till the middle of last century was a

country lane: leading out of it is the old Rue de Savies, recording the
ancient name of the district—Savies, i.e. montagne sauvage—wild
mountain—a name changed later to Portronville (rather a mouthful), then to
its euphonious present name Belleville. At its summit is an ancient fountain
set there in long-past ages for the use of the monks of St-Martin of Cluny,
and for the Knights-Templar; another may be seen in the grounds of No. 17.
On the Place de Ménilmontant we see the well-built modern church
Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix, on its northern side the old Rue and passage
Eupatoria. The quaint Rue de la Mare, a country road in the seventeenth
century, and Rue des Couronnes have interesting old passages running into
them.
Passing down Rue des Pyrénées, connected on either side with short old-
time streets and passages, we come to the Square Gambetta, often called
Square Père-Lachaise, and the immense Paris cemetery, the great point of
interest of the 20th arrondissement. The site was known in long-past days as
the Champ de l’Evêque—the bishop’s field. It was presently put to a very
unecclesiastical use, for a rich grocer bought the land and built thereon a
folie, i.e. an extravagant mansion. In the seventeenth century the Jesuits
bought the property and named it Mont-Louis. Louis XIV paid a visit to the
Jesuits there and subsequently bought the estate and gave it to his confessor,
Père Lachaise. When Père Lachaise died the Jesuits regained the property,
held it till the Revolution, when it was seized by the State and became the
possession of the Municipality. Passing along the avenues and alleys of this
vast, silent city on the hill-side, we see tombs of every possible description
and style, wonderful monuments and mortuary chapels, some very
beautiful, others ...! and a huge crematorium. Men and women of many
nations and of many varying creeds are gathered there. Seen on the eve of
All Saints’ Day or the day following, when fresh flowers are on every
grave, lamps burning in almost every tombstone chapel, the relatives and
the friends of the dead crowding in reverent attitude along its paths, the
scene is singularly impressive.
On its north-east boundary we find the tragic Mur des Fédérés, the wall
against which the insurgents were shot after the Commune in 1871. Blood-
red scarves, blood-red wreaths mark the graves there, and we see the names
of many who had no graves on that spot chalked up against that tragic wall.

LE MUR DES FÉDÉRÉS

On the south side of the cemetery, running eastward, we turn into the old
Rue de Bagnolet, the road leading to the village of the name. Old houses
line this street and the streets adjoining it, and half-way up its incline on the
little Place St-Blaise we see the ancient church St-Germain de Charonne,
dating from the eleventh century. An inscription on a wall within tells us
Germain, the busy bishop of Auxerre, first met Geneviève of Nanterre here,
and tradition says the future patron saint of Paris took her vows on the spot.
There was an oratory on the site in the fifth century or little later. The
eleventh-century edifice was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, but we still see
some of the blackened walls of the earlier structure. The chevet, i.e. the
chancel-end, was destroyed in the wars of the Fronde. We see, distinctly
traced, the space it occupied bounded by the Mur des Sœurs, against which
in long-gone days were no doubt stalls for the nuns of a neighbouring
convent. Some ancient tombstones, too, are there, once within the chancel.
Mounting the broad steps we enter the old church to find curious old pillars,
ancient inscriptions, coats of arms, and in one chapel a little good old glass.
Making our way to the little cemetery of Charonne behind, we find in its
centre a grass-grown space once the fosse commune of the pits into which
the guillotinés were flung in Revolution days. Beyond, near the boundary
wall, we see a railed-in tomb, surmounted by the figure of a man in Louis
XVIII costume—Bègue, Robespierre’s private secretary. The Revolution
over, his chief dead, the man whose hand had prepared for signature so

many tragic documents withdrew to the rural district of Charonne, beyond
the Paris bounds, led a secluded, peaceful life, cultivated his bit of land and
set about preparing for his exit from this earth by designing his own tomb.
He sat for the bronze statue we see here, and had the iron railing made to
show all the implements of Revolutionary torture with which he was
familiar, the wheel that worked the guillotine, the tenailles, etc....!
Higher up towards Bagnolet we come to a vestige of the ancient
Château, a pavilion Louis XV, forming part of the modern Hospice
Debrousse.

CHAPTER XLIX

BOULEVARDS—QUAYS—BRIDGES
THE BOULEVARDS

T HE Paris boulevards are one of the most characteristic features of the
city. The word boulevard recalls the days when Paris was fortified,
surrounded by ramparts, and the city boulevards stretch for the most
part along the lines of ancient boundary walls, boundaries then, now lines in
many instances cutting through the very heart of the Paris we know.
The Grands Boulevards run from the Place de la Madeleine to the Place
de la Bastille—gay and smart and modern, in the first kilometres of their
course; less smart, busier, more commercial, with more abundant vestiges
of bygone days as they stretch out beyond the boulevard des Italiens.
The boulevard de la Madeleine follows the line of the ancient boundary
wall of Louis XIII, razed during the first years of the eighteenth century. Its
upper part on the even-number side was one side of an old thoroughfare
reaching as far as Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin, known in its early years as
Rue Basse du Rempart. The latter part stretching to Rue Caumartin is of
recent date. The old Rue Basse des Remparts was bordered by handsome
hôtels, the dwellings of notable persons of the day: vestiges of several of
them were until recent years still seen in boulevard des Capucines—Nos. 16
to 22 razed when the new street Rue Édouard VII was cut. In the reception-
room of a seventeenth-century house that stood at the corner of the
boulevard and the Rue des Capucines known as the Colonnade, Buonaparte
first met Joséphine.
Boulevard des Italiens gained its name from the Italian theatre there in
1783. This name was changed more than once in subsequent years. After
the Revolution, when the Royalists who had taken refuge beyond the
German Rhine returned to Paris and held meetings on this boulevard, it was
nicknamed “Le Petit Coblentz.” No. 33 (eighteenth century) is the Pavillon
de Hanovre, forming part in past times of the hôtel d’Antin, which had been
owned in its later days by Richelieu, then was divided into several
dwellings, and in the time of the Merveilleuses one of these sub-divisions of

the fine old mansion became a dancing saloon, bal Richelieu, and the
meeting-place of the Incroyables. Rue du Helder, which we see opening at
No. 36, was in those days a cul-de-sac, i.e. a blind alley. The bank there
(No. 7) was erewhile the famous cabaret “le Lion d’Or,” and at No. 2
Cavaignac was arrested when Napoléon made his coup d’état. No. 22 of the
boulevard was the far-famed “Tortoni.” No. 20, rebuilt in 1839, now a post
office, is the ancient hôtel Stainville, later Maison Dorée. No. 16, till a year
or two ago Café Riche, dating from 1791. No. 15, hôtel de Lévis, was once
the Jockey Club. On the site of No. 13 stood till recent years the famous
Café Anglais. At No. 11 was the club “Salon des Italiens” in the time of
Louis XVI, subsequently the restaurant Nicolle and Café du Grand Balcon,
its first story commonly known as Salon des Princes. At No. 9 Grétry lived
from 1795 till his death, which happened at Montmorency in 1813. No. 1
Café Cardinal founded by Dangest (eighteenth century).
Boulevard Montmartre dates from the seventeenth century, lined in
olden days on both sides by handsome private mansions; we see it now a
thoroughly commercial thoroughfare, one of the busiest in the city. A
modern journalist called its carrefour—the point where it meets the Rue du
Faubourg Montmartre—“carrefour des écrasés.” From the house, now a
newspaper office, at No. 22 an underground passage ran in past days to the
Café Cardinal opposite, leading to an orangery. On the site of No. 23 stood
the gambling-house Frascati, built on the site of the old hôtel Taillepied.
The Café Véron at No. 13 dates from 1818, opened through the gardens of
the hôtel Montmorency-Luxembourg. Passage Jouffroy at No. 10 was cut,
in 1846, across the site of an ancient building known as the Maison des
Grands Artistes. The théâtre des Variétés, at No. 7, first set up at the Palais-
Royal in 1770 by “la Montansier,” was built here in 1807 on the grounds of
the hôtel Montmorency-Luxembourg. No. 1 is the site of the Café de la
Porte Montmartre, founded by Louis XV, a meeting-place of Parisians
hailing from Orléans, nicknamed Guépins.
Boulevard Poissonnières (seventeenth century) begins where hung till
recent years an ancient sign at No. 1—“Aux limites de la Ville de Paris”—
recording the inscription once on the old wall there. Most of the houses are
those originally built along the boulevard, and many old streets run into it
on either side. At No. 9 we see Rue St-Fiacre, dating from 1630, when it
was Rue du Figuier, a street closed at each end by gates till about 1800. The
restaurant Duval at No. 10 of the boulevard was an eighteenth-century

mansion. No. 14 is known as Maison du Pont-de-Fer. No. 19, now l’École
Pratique du Commerce, was till a few years ago the home of an old lady
who, left a widow after one happy year of married life, shut herself up in
the house she owned, refused to let any of its six large flats, and died there
in utter solitude at the age of ninety. No. 23, designed by Soufflot le
Romain in 1775 as a private mansion, became later the dépôt of the famous
Aubusson tapistry.
Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, named from the church Notre-Dame de
Bonne-Nouvelle in Rue de la Lune, dates from the seventeenth century (see
p. 59). No. 21 was built after the Revolution with the stones of the old
demolished church St-Paul (see p. 12). No. 11, in 1793, with some of the
stones of the Bastille. The theatre, le Gymnase, which we see at No. 38,
erected in 1820 on the grounds of a mansion, a barracks and a bit of an old
graveyard, was known during some years as the théâtre de Madame la
duchesse de Berri, who had taken it under her patronage. Its façade was
rebuilt in 1887.
The church just off the boulevard was first built in 1624 on the site of the
old chapel Ste-Barbe, and named by Anne d’Autriche, perhaps in gratitude
for the good news of the prospect of the birth of a son (Louis XIV) after
twenty-three years of childless married life, or, as has been said, on account
of a piece of good news communicated to the Queen when passing by the
spot. The edifice was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, the tower alone
remaining untouched. Within it we find an old painting of Anne d’Autriche
and Henriette of England.
Boulevard St-Denis (eighteenth century). The fine Porte St-Denis shows
in bas-relief, the victories of Louis XIV in Germany and in Holland. It has
been restored three times since its first erection in 1673. The Revolutions of
1830 and 1848 began around this grand old Porte. Paving-stones were
hurled from its summit. At No. 19 we see a statue of St-Denis.
Boulevard St-Martin (seventeenth century). Its course was marked out,
its trees planted a few years earlier than that of boulevard St-Denis. On its
handsome blackened Porte, built in 1674-75, we read the words: “A Louis-
le-Grand pour avoir pris deux fois Besançon et vaincu les Armées
allemandes, espagnoles et hollandaises.” Like Porte St-Denis, it has been
three times restored. The Allies passed beneath it on entering Paris in 1814.
The first théâtre de la Porte St-Martin was built in the short period of

seventy-five days to replace, with the least delay possible, the Opera-house
near the Palais-Royal, burnt down in 1781. It was the Opera until 1793. The
structure we see was erected in 1873, after the disastrous conflagration
caused by the Communards two years previously. We see theatres and
concert-halls along the whole course of the boulevard. The Ambigu at No. 2
dating from 1828 was founded sixty years earlier as a marionnette show on
the site of the present Folies Dramatiques. This part of the boulevard was
formerly on a steep incline, with steps up to the théâtre Porte St-Martin. Its
ground was levelled in 1850. The novelist Paul de Kock lived at No 8. No.
17 was the abode of the great painter Meissonnier. The théâtre de la
Renaissance is modern (1872), built on the site of the famous restaurant
Deffieux which had flourished there for 133 years. It was for several years
Sarah Bernhardt’s theatre.
Boulevard du Temple, its trees first planted in the year 1668 when it was
a road stretching right across the area now known as Place de la
République, was at that particular point a centre of places of amusement of
every description—theatres, music-halls, marionnette-shows. All were
closed, razed to the ground, to make way for the grand new place laid out
there in 1862. Of the old walls within which Parisians had for long years
previously found so much distraction and merriment, vestiges remain only
at Nos. 48, 46, 44, 42 of the boulevard. No. 42 is on the site of the house
where Fieschi’s infernal machine was placed in 1835. The restaurant at No.
29 is on the site of the once widely known Café du Jardin Turc. The théâtre
Dejazet records the name of the famous actrice. The two short streets, Rue
de Crussol and Rue du Grand Prieuré, were cut across the grounds of the
Grand Prieuré de France in the latter years of the eighteenth century.
Boulevard Filles-du-Calvaire, named from the ancient convent, dates
only from 1870. The streets connected with it are older. Rue des Filles-du-
Calvaire was a thoroughfare in the last years of the seventeenth century, and
at No. 13 we find traces of the ancient convent. Rue Froissard and Rue des
Commines, memorizing the two old French chroniclers, were opened in
1804 right across the site of the convent and its grounds. Rue St-Sébastien
dates back to the early years of the seventeenth century, and we see there
many interesting old houses. No. 19, with its Gothic vaulting, is probably
the hôtel d’Ormesson de Noyseau, a distinguished nobleman, guillotined at
the Revolution. Rue du Pont-aux-Choux, made in the sixteenth century

across market gardens, got its name from an old bridge which spanned a
drain there.
Boulevard Beaumarchais began in 1670 as boulevard St-Antoine. No.
113, a sixteenth-century structure, was known till 1850 as the Château. The
words we see engraved on its walls—“A la Petite Chaise”—refer to a tragic
incident. The head of the princesse de Lamballe, carried by the
Revolutionists on a pike, was plunged into a pail of water set on a low chair
placed up against this wall to clear it of the dribbling blood. No. 99, its big
doors brought here from the Temple palace, is the hôtel de Cagliostro, the
famous sorcerer.
Rue des Arquebusiers, opening at No. 91, dates from 1720, when it was
Rue du Harlay-au-Marais. Santerre lived here for a time. No. 2 stands on
the site of the house where Beaumarchais died in 1790.
Boulevard Henri IV is modern (1866), cut across the site of two old
convents. Rue Castex leads out of it where stood once the convent des
Filles de Ste-Marie; its chapel, now a Protestant church, is entered at No. 5.
The Caserne des Célestins was built in 1892 on the site of part of the large
and celebrated convent of the Célestins, an Order founded in 1244 by the
priest who became Pope Celestin V. The Carmelites who at first were
established here, greatly disturbed by inundations from the Seine who
overflowed her banks in those long-past ages, even as she does to-day,
quitted their quarters on this site. The Célestins who came to Paris in 1352
and took over these abandoned dwellings were protected and enriched by
Charles V, inhabiting the Palais St-Pol close by. The Order was suppressed
in 1778, before the Revolution suppressed all Orders—for the time; and in
1785 the convent here was taken for the first deaf and dumb institution
organized by abbé de l’Épée. The convent chapel with its numerous royal
tombs, the bodies of some royal personages, the hearts of others, was razed
in 1849. Some vestiges of the convent walls remained standing till 1904.
Where the boulevard meets the Quai des Célestins, we see now a circular
group of worn, ivy-grown stones; an inscription tells us these old stones
once formed part of the Tour de la Liberté of the demolished Bastille. They
were unearthed in making the Paris Metropolitan Railway a few years ago.
The birds make the remnant of that old tower of liberty their own to-day
and passers-by stop regularly to feed them.

Crossing the Seine we come to the boulevard St-Germain, beginning at
boulevard Sully in arrondissement V, stretching right through
arrondissement VI and ending at the Quai d’Orsay near the Chambre des
Députés in arrondissement VII. Though in name so historic and running
across interesting ground, the boulevard is of modern formation. It has
swept away a whole district of ancient streets. The Nos. 61 to 49 are
ancient, all that remains of Rue des Noyers erewhile there. At No. 67 Alfred
de Musset was born (1810). The théâtre de Cluny is on the site of part of the
vanished couvent des Mathurins. The firm Hachette stands where was once
a Jews’ cemetery. No. 160 was the restaurant now razed where Thackeray,
when a young student at the Beaux-Arts, took his meals. A sign-board he
painted long hung there. We see some old houses of the ancient Rue des
Boucheries between Nos. 162 and 148. At No. 166 we turn for an instant
into Rue de l’Échaudé, dating from the fourteenth century, when it was a
chemin along the abbey moat, a street of ancient houses. The word échaudé,
a confectioner’s term used for a certain kind of three-cornered cake,
signifies in topographical language a triangle formed by the junction of
three streets. The pavement-stones before Nos. 137 to 135 cover the site of
the ancient abbey prison. Rue des Ciseaux bordered in olden days the
Collège des Écossais. The statue of Diderot at No. 170 was set up on his
centenary as close as could be to the house he dwelt in, in Rue de l’Égout.
The hôtel Taranne records the name of the thirteenth-century street of which
some vestiges remain on the odd-number side of the boulevard between No.
175 and Place St-Germain-des-Prés, where Saint-Simon lived and wrote.
The little grassy square round the house at No. 186 was originally a leper’s
burial-ground, then, from 1576 to 1604, a Protestant cemetery. Looking into
the Rue St-Thomas-d’Aquin, once passage des Jacobins, we see the church
which began early in the years of the eighteenth century as a Jacobin
convent. At the Revolution it was made into a Temple of Peace! The
frescoes of the ceiling are by Lemoine.
The modern boulevard Raspail opening at No. 103 brought about the
destruction of several ancient streets; where the boulevard St-Germain
meets Rue St-Dominique three or four fine old mansions were razed to the
ground and that old street, previously extending to Rue des Saints-Pères, cut
short here. A fine eighteenth-century hôtel stood till 1861 on the site of the
Bureaux du Ministère des Travaux Publics at No. 244. The minister’s
official residence at No. 246, dating from 1722, is on the site of one still

older, at one time the abode of the dowager duchess of Orleans. That
portion of the Ministère de la Guerre which we see along this boulevard is a
modern construction. We see modern structures also at Nos. 280, 282, 284,
all on the site of fine old hôtels demolished at the making of the boulevard.
At some points of boulevard Raspail, stretching from boulevard St-Germain
to beyond the cemetery Montparnasse, we come upon vestiges of the
ancient streets demolished to make way for it; here and there an old house,
a fine doorway, and at No. 112 a lusty tree, its trunk protruding through the
garden wall, said to be the tree beneath whose shade Victor Hugo sat and
pondered or maybe wrote several of his best-known works, while living in
an old house close by.
Starting now from the Place de la République, we pass up the busy
modern boulevard Magenta without finding any point of special interest.
The Cité du Wauxhall at No. 6 was opened in 1840 on the grounds of a
more ancient Wauxhall. The big hospital Lariboisière in the adjoining Rue
Ambroise-Parée was built from 1839 to 1848, on the clos St-Lazare and
named at first Hôpital Louis-Philippe. Its present name is in memory of the
countesse la Riboisière, who gave three million francs for the hospital. The
boulevards Barbes and Ornano run on from boulevard Magenta to the
district of Montmartre. They are of nineteenth-century formation and
without historic interest. No. 10, boulevard Barbes, was once the dancing
saloon “du Grand Turc.”
The bustling boulevard de Strasbourg which boulevard Magenta crosses,
a continuation of the no less bustling boulevard Sébastopol, both great
commercial thoroughfares, was formed in the middle of the nineteenth
century across the lines of many ancient streets and courts. Ancient streets
ran also where we now have the broad boulevard du Palais on l’Ile de la
Cité, crossing the spot on the erewhile Place du Palais where of yore
criminals were set out for public view and marked with a red-hot iron.
The buildings we see there on the odd-number side opposite the Palais
de Justice: the Tribunal du Commerce, the Préfecture de Police, the
Firemen’s barracks, are all of nineteenth-century erection. So we come to
the boulevard St-Michel, the far-famed “Boule-Miche” of the Latin Quarter,
forming the boundary-line between arrondissements V and VI. As a
boulevard it is not of ancient date. It began at its northernly end in 1855 as
boulevard Sébastopol, Rive Gauche. Soon it was prolonged and renamed to
memorize the ancient chapel erewhile in one of the streets it had swept

away. Place St-Michel from which it starts has to-day a modern aspect.
Almost all traces of the ancient Place du Pont St-Michel, as it was in
bygone days, have vanished. The huge fountain we see and cannot admire,
though perhaps we ought to, replaces the fountain of 1684. The arched
entrance to the narrow street Rue de l’Hirondelle, once Irondelle, as an old
inscription tells us, which began in 1179 as Rue de l’Arondale-en-Laas, and
the glimpse at a little distance of the entrance to ancient streets on the
boulevard St-Germain side, give the only old-world touch to the place. The
high blackened walls we see in this Rue de l’Hirondelle are the remains of
the ancient collège d’Autun founded in 1341. At No. 20, on the site of the
ancient hôtel of the bishops of Chartres, is an eighteenth-century hôtel. No.
38 of the boulevard is on the site of the house belonging to the Cordeliers,
whose monastery was near by, where the royal library was kept from the
days of Louis XIII to 1666. The Lycée St-Louis, founded in 1280 as the
college d’Harcourt, covers the site of several ancient structures. A fragment
—the only one known—of the boundary wall of Henri II, is within the
college grounds, and beneath them the remains of a Roman theatre were
found in 1861, and more remains in 1908. Where the boulevard meets Rue
Monsieur-le-Prince, the city wall and a gate of Philippe-Auguste passed in
olden days. And that was the site of the ancient place. No. 60, the École des
Mines founded in 1783, and housed at the Mint, at that time an hôtel Rue de
l’Université, then transferred to Montiers in Savoie, finally settled here in
1815 in the hôtel Vendôme built in 1707 for the Chartreux, let in 1714 to the
duchesse de Vendôme, who died there soon afterwards. This fine old
structure still forms the central part of the Mining School. At No. 62 we see
the Geological Map offices. In the court of No. 64 we find a house built by
the Chartreux, inhabited in past days by the marquis de Ségur, and in later
times by Leconte de Lisle. The railway station Gare de Sceaux at No. 66
covers the site of the once well-known Café Rouge. In the old Rue Royer-
Collard opening at No. 71, in the sixteenth century Rue St-Dominique
d’Enfer, we see several quaint old houses. Roman pots were found some
years ago beneath the pavement of the impasse. The house at No. 91 is on
ground once within the cemetery St-Jacques. César Franck the composer
lived and died at No. 95 (1891). No. 105 is the site of the ancient Noviciat
des Feuillants who went by the name “anges guardiens.” The famous
students’ dancing saloon known as bal Bullier was at this end of the
boulevard from 1848 till a few years ago.

CHAPTER L

LES BOULEVARDS EXTÉRIEURS

S TARTING at the ancient Barrière des Ternes, for some years past Place
des Ternes, we take our way through outer boulevards forming a wide
circle. Boulevard de Courcelles, dating from 1789, runs where quaint
old thoroughfares ran of yore. Boulevard des Batignolles was the site of the
barrières de Monceau. The Collège Chaptal, which we see there, was
founded in Rue Blanche in 1844. The busy Place de Clichy is on the site of
the ancient Clichy barrier, valiantly defended by the Garde Nationale in
1814. The huge monument in its centre is modern (1869). On the line of the
boulevard de Clichy stretched in bygone days the barriers Blanche,
Montmartre and des Martyrs, of which at first three boulevards were
formed: Clichy, Pigalle, des Martyrs united under the name of the first in
1864. Just beyond the place, at No. 112, we turn into Avenue Rachel
leading to the cemetery Montmartre, formed in 1804 on the site of the
ancient graveyard of the district. Many men and women of mark lie buried
here. We see names of historic, literary or artistic celebrity on the
tombstones all around. The monument Cavaignac is the work of the great
sculptor Rude. The Moulin Rouge, a music-hall, at No. 88 is on the site of a
once famous Montmartrois dancing-hall, “la Dame Blanche.” No. 77 is an
ancient convent, its garden the site of a café concert. “Les Quatrez-Arts” at
No. 64 is one of the most widely known of Montmartrois cabarets and
music-halls. In the Villa des Platanes, opening at No. 58, we find a bas-
relief showing the defence made on the place in 1814. Rue Fontaine,
opening at No. 57, shows us a succession of small Montmartrois theatres
and music-halls. In Rue Fromentin we still see the sign-board of the far-
famed school of painting, l’Académie Julian formerly here. In Rue
Germain-Pilon we see an ancient pavilion. No. 36 is the Cabaret La Lune
Rousse, formerly Cabaret des Arts, of a certain renown or notoriety. The
passage and the Rue de l’Élysée-des-Beaux-Arts show us interesting
sculptures and bas-reliefs. Nos. 8 and 6, of old a dancing saloon, was the
scene of a tragic incident in the year 1830: the ground beneath it,
undermined by quarries, gave way and an entire wedding-party were

engulfed. Boulevard de Rochechouart was named in memory of a
seventeenth-century abbess of Montmartre; it was in part of its length
boulevard des Poissoniers until the second half of the nineteenth century.
The music-hall “la Cigale,” at No. 120, dating from 1822, was for long the
famous “bal de la Boule-Noire.” At No. 106 we see a fresco on the bath
house walls; an ancient house “Aux-deux-Marronniers” at No. 38, and
theatres, music-halls, etc., of marked local colour all along the boulevard.
Boulevard de la Chapelle runs along the line of the ancient boulevard
des Vertus. Vestiges dating from the days of the struggles between
Armagnacs and Bourguignons are still seen at No. 120, and at No. 39 of the
short Rue Château-Landon, opening out of the boulevard at No. 1, we see
the door of an ancient castel which was for long the country house of the
monks of St-Lazare.
Boulevard Richard-Lenoir shows us nothing of special interest. The
house No. 140 is ancient.

OLD WELL AT SALPÉTRIÈRE
(Le puits de Manon Lescaut)

Boulevard de l’Hôpital dates from 1760. The hospital referred to is the
immense Salpétrière built as a refuge for beggars by Louis XIV on the site
where his predecessor had built a powder stores. A bit of the old arsenal still
stands and serves as a wash-house. The domed church was erected a few
years later; barrels collected from surrounding farms were sawed up to
make its ceiling. Presently a woman’s prison was built within the grounds—
the prison we are shown in the Opera “Manon.” The convulsionists of St-
Médard were shut up there. At the Revolution it was invaded by the
insurgents, women of ill-fame set free, many of the prisoners slain. The new
Hôpital de la Pitié was built in adjoining grounds in recent years. The
central Magasin des Hôpitaux at No. 87, where we see an ancient doorway,
is on the site of the hospital burial-ground of former days.
The fine old entrance portal of la Salpétrière, the statue of the famous Dr.
Charcot just outside it, the various seventeenth-century buildings, the old
woodwork within the hospital, the courtyard known as the Cour des
Massacres, the wide extending grounds, make a visit to this old hospital
very interesting. And the grass-grown open space before it, with its shady
trees, and the quaint streets around give a somewhat rural and provincial
aspect to this remote corner of Paris, making us feel as if we were miles
away from the city. Rue de Campo-Formio, opening at No. 123, was known
in the seventeenth century as Rue des Étroites Ruelles. Rue Rubens was in
past days Rue des Vignes.
Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, in the eighteenth century in part of its
length boulevard des Gobelins, shows us at No. 17 the last Fontaine-
Marchande de Paris, now shut down. At No. 50 we see the little chapel Ste-
Rosalie, with inscriptions recording the names of several victims of the fire
which destroyed the bazar de la Charité in 1897. At No. 68 we used to see
an eighteenth-century house of rustic aspect and pillared frontal, said to
have served as a hunting-lodge for Napoléon I. Subsequently it was used as
the Paris hospital laundry. In more recent times the great sculptor Rodin
made the old house his studio and, when forced to evacuate, took away the
interesting old woodwork and the statues of its façade.
Along boulevard St-Jacques (seventeenth century) we find several
tumbledown old houses.
Boulevard Raspail is entirely modern, cut across streets of bygone ages,
their houses of historic memory razed to make way for it. The recently

erected No. 117 stands on the site of an old house where Victor Hugo dwelt
and wrote for thirteen years and received the notable men of his day.
Beneath the tree we see in the wall at No. 112 the poet loved to sit and read.
Reaching the top of the boulevard we see the ancient Jesuit chapel, between
Rue de Sèvres and Rue du Cherche-Midi.
Boulevard Edgar-Quinet began as boulevard de Montrouge. Its chief
point of interest is the Montparnasse cemetery dating from 1826, with its
numerous tombs of notable persons. There we see, too, an ivy-covered
tower dating from the seventeenth century, known as la Tour-du-Moulin,
once the possession of a community of monks.
Boulevard de Vaugirard (eighteenth century) included in past days the
course of the modernized boulevard Pasteur. We see old houses at intervals
here and in the Rue du Château which led formerly to the hunting-lodge of
the duc de Maine. In Rue Dutot, leading out of boulevard Pasteur, we come
to the great Institut Pasteur, built in 1900, with its wonderful laboratories,
its perfect organization for its own special, invaluable branches of chemical
study. The tomb of its founder is there, too, in a crypt built by his pupils, his
disciples. Behind the central building we see a hospital for animals. The
Lycée Buffon at No. 16 covers the site of the ancient Vaugirard cemetery.
Boulevard Garibaldi began in 1789 as boulevard de Meudon, towards
which it ran—at a long distance; then it took the name of Javel, its more
immediate quarter, then of Grenelle through which it stretched. Some of the
older houses along its course and in adjoining streets, as also along the
course and adjoining streets of the present boulevard de Grenelle, its
continuation, still stand, none of special interest. A famous barrier wall was
in bygone days along the line where we see the Metropolitian railway. Up
against its wall, just in front of the station Dupleix, many political prisoners
of mark were shot in the years between 1797 and 1815.
The boulevards des Invalides, de Montparnasse and de Port-Royal make
one long line. Boulevard des Invalides has its chief point of interest at No.
33, the old hôtel Biron, later the convent of the Sacré-Cœur, then Rodin’s
studio, and Paris home—now in part the museum he bequeathed to Paris
(see pp. 192, 194).
Boulevard Montparnasse, formed in 1760, shows us many fine
eighteenth-century hôtels and some smaller structures of the same period.

On the site of No. 25, the hôtel of the duc de Vendôme, grandson of Henri
IV, was the home of the children of Louis XIV by Madame de Montespan.

CLOÎTRE DE L’ABBAYE DE PORT-ROYAL

The Gare Montparnasse at No. 66 is a modern structure on the site of an
older railway station. Impasse Robiquet at No. 81 dates from the fifteenth
century. No. 87 is an old hunting-lodge, inhabited in more modern days by
Pierre Leroux, who was associated with George Sand in founding the Revue
Indépendante. Rue du Montparnasse, opening out of the boulevard, is a
seventeenth-century street cut across land belonging in part to the church
St-Laurent de Vaugirard, in part to the Hôtel-Dieu. The church Notre-
Dame-des-Champs is modern (1867-75). Rue Stanislas, opening by the
church at No. 91, was cut across the grounds of the hôtel Terray, in the early
years of the nineteenth century, where the Collège Stanislas, named after
Louis XVIII, was first instituted. At No. 28 of the Rue Vavin, opening at
No. 99, stood, till last year, the ancient Pavillon de l’Horloge, a vestige of
the old hôtel Traversière. The short Rue de la Grande Chaumière, opened in
1830 as Rue Chamon, memorizes by its present name a famous Latin
quarter dancing-hall close by. Here artists’ models gather for hire at midday
each Monday. Rue de Chevreuse, opening at No. 125, was a thoroughfare
as early as the year 1210, bordering an hôtel de Chevreuse et Rohan-
Guéménée. A famous eighteenth-century porcelaine factory stood close
here.

Boulevard de Port-Royal: here at No. 119 we see the abbey built during
the first half of the seventeenth century. Hither came the good nuns of Port-
Royal-des-Champs in the valley of the Chevreuse, a convent founded in the
early years of the thirteenth century by Mathieu de Montmorency and his
wife Mathilde de Garlande and given to the Order of the Bernardines. In the
sixteenth century learned men desiring solitude found it in that remote
convent. Pascal made frequent sojourns there. Quarrels between Jesuits and
Jansenists brought about the destruction of the convent of Port-Royal-des-
Champs in 1710. The Paris Port-Royal went on until 1790. Then the abbey
became a prison, like so many other important buildings, religious and
secular; its name was changed to Port-Libre, and numerous prisoners of
note, Couthon among the rest, were shut up there. In the year IV of the
Convention, it became what it is on a more complete scale to-day, a
Maternity Hospital. Women-students sleep in the ancient nuns’ cells. Most
of the old abbey buildings are still intact. The tombstone of the recluse,
Arnauld of Andilly, which we see in the sacristy, was found beneath the
pavement some years ago. The portal is modern. The annexe of the hospital
Cochin at No. 111 is an ancient Capucine convent; its chapel serves as the
hospital lecture-room.
Rue Pierre-Nicole, opening out of the boulevard at No. 90, was cut in
modern days across the grounds of the ancient Carmelite convent Val-de-
Grâce. In the prolongation of the street we see some remains of the convent.
Here in ages long gone by was a Roman cemetery, where earth burial as
well as cremation was the rule. At No. 17 bis of this street we see the house
once the oratory of Mademoiselle de la Vallière, who as Sœur Louise de la
Miséricorde passed the last thirty-six years of her life in pénitence here. The
Marine barracks, Caserne Lourcine, at No. 37 of the boulevard, are on the
site of ancient barracks of the Gardes Françaises, and record the former
name of the Rue Broca, which we look into here, a street of ancient
dwellings. The hospital Broca, so named after the famous doctor, was
formed of part of the old convent of the Cordelières, founded in 1259 by
Margaret de Provence, wife of Louis XI. The convent was pillaged in the
sixteenth century by the Béarnais troops, sequestrated and sold in
Revolution days, to become in 1836 Hôpital Lourcine and in 1892 Broca.

REMAINS OF THE CONVENT DES CAPUCINES

The two great latter-day Paris boulevards are boulevard Haussmann and
boulevard Malesherbes. The first, planned and partially built by the Préfet
de la Seine whose name it bears, running through the 8th arrondissement
and into the 9th, begun in 1857, is wholly modern save for one single
house, No. 173, at the juncture of Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré, dating from
the eighteenth century; boulevard Malesherbes dates from about the same
period. Joining this boulevard at No. 11 is Avenue Velasquez, where, at No.
7, we find the hôtel Cernuschi bequeathed by its owner to Paris as an
Oriental Museum. The handsome church St-Augustin is of recent erection.
Besides these stately boulevards and some few others devoid of historic
interest, there are boulevards encircling Paris on every side, along the
boundary-lines of the city, with at intervals the city gates. The boulevards in
the vicinity of the Bois de Boulogne are studded with villas and mansions,
many of them very luxurious. There are modern mansions, modern
dwellings of various categories along the course of all the other boulevards
of this wide circumference bordering the fortifications, but with few
associations of the least historic interest, beyond that of their nomenclature
memorizing, in many instances, Napoléon’s greatest generals.
Boulevard de la Villette is formed of several ancient boulevards, and the
name records the existence there in past days of the “petite ville,” a series of
small buildings, dependencies of the leper-house St-Lazare, first erected on
a site known in the twelfth century as the district of Rouvray. The black-
walled Rotonde we see was the Custom House first built in 1789, burnt

down in 1871, and rebuilt on the old plan. The Meaux barrier was there,
bounding the highway to the north, a point of great military interest. Louis
XVI returned this way to Paris after the flight to Varennes. The Imperial
Guard passed here in triumph in 1807, after their successful campaigns in
Germany. Louis XVIII came through the barrier gate here in 1814. The inn
where the armistice was signed in 1814 was on the Rond-Point opposite the
barrier. At No. 130 of the boulevard we come to Place du Combat, a name
referring to no military struggle, but to bull-fights, perhaps to cock-fights,
which took place here till into the nineteenth century. Close by is the site of
the great city gallows, the gibet de Maufaucon of bygone days (see p. 240).
And here in its vicinity, in the little Rue Vicq d’Azir, dating from the early
years of last century, died the former Paris public executioner Deibler in
1904.
On the opposite side of Paris, in the boulevard Kellermann, the Porte de
Bicêtre recalls the English occupation of long-past ages or may be an
English colonization of later date, for Bicêtre is a corruption of the name
Winchester. These boulevards of the 13th arrondissement are ragman’s
quarters, the district of the Paris chiffonniers. Here at the poterne des
Peupliers the Bièvre enters Paris to be entirely lost to view nowadays in its
course through the city beneath the pavements.
The boulevards in the vicinity of Père Lachaise, Belleville,
Ménilmontant, Charonne, date from 1789. The short Rue des Panoyaux,
opening out of the boulevard Ménilmontant is said to owe its name to the
days when vines grew here, one bearing a seedless grape: “pas noyau”—no
kernel. Mention of the village of Charonne is found in documents dating
from the first years of the eleventh century. The territory was church land,
for the most part, owned by the old abbey St-Magliore and the Paris
Cathedral.

CHAPTER LI

THE QUAYS

T HE quays of the Seine in its course through Paris are picturesque in the
extreme and show at almost every step points of historic interest. That
interest is strongest, the aspect of the quays most quaint and entrancing,
where they pass through the heart of the city.
Let us start from the Point-du-Jour, the “Dawn of Day,” at the point
where the boundary-line of Paris touches the banlieue to the south-east. The
name refers to a famous duel fought here at the break of day on a
memorable morning in 1743. Taking the Rive Droite, the right bank, we
follow the Quai d’Auteuil which, till the closing years of the nineteenth
century, was a mere roadway along which the river boats were loaded and
unloaded. The fine viaduct across the river was built in 1864-65. It was
fiercely bombarded in the war of 1870. On Sundays and fête-days this
quaint quay is gay with holiday-makers who crowd its popular cafés,
drinking-booths and shows.
Quai de Passy was made in 1842 along that part of the old high road to
Versailles. Some quaint old houses still stand there. At No. 26 we see a
pavilion Louis XVI. No 32 is surrounded by a fine park wherein we find
vestiges of the home of the abbé Ragois, Madame de Maintenon’s
confessor, and ferruginous springs. Rue Berton, leading up from the Quai,
is one of the most picturesque old streets of Paris. At No. 17 we find an
extensive property and a Louis XV hôtel, once the home of successive
families of the noblesse and of the unhappy princesse de Lamballe, now a
Maison de Santé—a private asylum. The borne at No. 24 has been there
since 1731, a boundary mark between the manors of Passy and Auteuil.
Quai de la Conférence, arrondissement VIII, dates from the latter years
of the eighteenth century, its name referring to the middle of the previous
century, when Spanish statesmen entered Paris by a great gate in its vicinity
to confer concerning the marriage of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse.
Cours-la-Reine, bordering the Seine along this quay, was first planted by
Marie de’ Medici in 1618, on market-garden ground. It was a favourite and
fashionable promenade in the time of the Fronde; a moat surrounded it and

iron gates closed it in. At No. 16 of Rue Bayard leading out of it, we see the
Maison de François I, its sculptures the work of Jean Goujon, brought here,
bit by bit, in 1826 from the quaint old village of Moret near Fontainebleau
where it was first built. On its frontage we read an inscription in Latin.
Quai des Tuileries was formed under Louis XIV along the line of
Charles V’s boundary wall razed in 1670. The walls of the Louvre
bordering this quay, dating originally from the time of Henri IV, who
wished to join the Louvre to the Tuileries, then without the city bounds, by
a gallery, were rebuilt by Napoléon III (1863-68). Place du Carrousel
behind this frontage, so named from a carrousel given there by Louis XIV,
in the garden known then as the parterre de Mademoiselle, dates from 1662.
At the Revolution it became for the time the soi-disant Place de la
Fraternité. On this fraternal (?) place political prisoners were beheaded,
while the conventionels looked on from the Tuileries windows. And it was
the scene of the historic days June 20th and August 10th, 1792, later of the
24th July, 1830.
L’Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel dates from 1806, set up to
commemorate the campaign of 1805. The large square, in the centre of
which stands the colossal statue of Gambetta, known in the time of the
Second Empire as the Cour Napoléon III, was covered in previous days by
a number of short, narrow streets, interlacing. Several mansions, one or two
chapels, a small burial-ground, and a theatre, were there among these streets
and on beyond, and the grounds of the great hospital for the blind, the
“Quinze-Vingts,” stretched along the banks of the Seine at this point,
extending from the hospital, in Rue St-Honoré, its site from its foundation
till its removal to Rue de Charenton in 1779 (see p. 250). Alongside the
Quai we see the terrace “Bord de l’Eau,” of the Tuileries gardens. The
Orangerie reconstructed in 1853 was in the seventeenth century a garden
wherein was the famous Cabaret Regnard, forerunner of the modern
Casino. From this terrace to the Tuileries Palace ran the subterranean
passage made by Napoléon I for Marie Louise, and here was the Pont-
tournant, built by a monk in 1716, across which Louis XVI was led back on
his return from the flight to Varennes.
The Quai de Louvre is a union of several stretches of quay known of old
by different names, the most ancient stretch, that between the Pont-Neuf
and Rue du Louvre, dating from the thirteenth century. In the jardin de
l’Infante, bordering the palace, here the old palace of the time of Catherine

de’ Medici, we see statues of Velasquez, Raffet, Meissonnier, Boucher.
Reaching the houses along the quay we see at No. 10 the ancient Café de
Parnasse, now the Bouillon du Pont-Neuf, where Danton was wont to pass
many hours of the day and ended by wedding Gabrielle Charpentier, its
landlord’s daughter. At No. 8, built by Louis XVI’s dentist, we see a fine
wrought-iron balcony. And now we come to the ancient Quai de la
Mégisserie, dating from the time of Charles V, first as Quai de la Sannierie,
“tools for saltmaking” quay, then as Quai de la Ferraille, “iron-instrument”
quay. Its present name, too, denotes a Paris industry, the preparation of
sheepskins. The cross-roads where it meets Quai du Louvre and the Pont-
Neuf went in olden days by the name Carrefour des Trois-Maries, also by
that of Place du Four.
The “Belle Jardinière” covers the site of the Forum Episcopi, the
episcopal prison of the Middle Ages, later a royal prison rebuilt in 1656 by
de Gondi, the first archbishop of Paris. Its prisoners were for the most part
actors and actresses. Interesting old streets open on this ancient quay. At
No. 12, we turn into Rue Bertin-Poirée, a thoroughfare in the earlier years
of the thirteenth century, where at No. 5 we see a quaint, time-worn sign of
the Tour d’Argent, and several black-walled houses. The thirteenth-century
Rue Jean-Lantier, memorizing a Parisian of that long-gone age, lies, in its
upper part, across what was the Place du Chevalier du Guet, from the hôtel
built there for a Knight of the Guet (the Watch) of Louis IX’s time. Rue des
Lavandières, of the same period, recalls the days when lavender growers
and lavender dealers lived and plied their thriving trade here. At No. 13 we
see a fine heraldic shield devoid of signs; at No. 6, old bas-reliefs. Rue des
Deux-Boules dates under other names from the twelfth century. At No. 2 of
this quay the great painter David was born in 1748.
Quai des Gesvres was built by the Marquis de Gesvres in 1641. The
ancient arcades upon which it rests, hidden away with their vaulted roofing,
still support this old quay. The shops they once sheltered were knocked to
pieces in 1789. The Café at No. 10, built in 1855, was named “A la Pompe
Notre-Dame,” to record the existence till then on the bridge, Pont Notre-
Dame, of the twin pumps from which the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
drew their water. Rue de la Tâcherie (tâche, task, work) was known in
thirteenth-century days as Rue de la Juiverie. This is still the Jews’ quarter
of the city.

Quai de l’Hôtel de Ville was formed in its present aspect in the
nineteenth century, of three ancient thoroughfares along the banks of the
Seine. Corn and hay were in old days landed here. On the walls of the house
No. 34 we see the date 1548, and find within an interesting old staircase. At
No. 90 opens the old Rue de Brosse, named in memory of the architect of
the fine portal of St-Gervais, before us here (see p. 103), and of the
Luxembourg palace, close by the ancient impasse at the south end of the
church; and at the junction of Quai des Célestins, opens the twelfth-century
Rue des Nonnains d’Hyères, where the nuns d’Yerres had of old a convent.
Almost every house is ancient. In the court at No. 21 we see the interesting
façade of the hôtel d’Aumont, now the Pharmacie Centrale des Hôpitaux.

HÔTEL DE FIEUBET, QUAI DES CÉLESTINS

Quai des Célestins, in the district of the vanished convent (see p. 303)
has many interesting vestiges of the past. No. 32 is on the site of the Tour
Barbeau, where the wall of Philippe-Auguste ended, and of the tennis-court
which served at one time as a theatre for Molière and his company (1645).
The walls of No. 22 are one side of the fine old hôtel de Vieuville (see p.
114). At No. 16 we find a curious old court. No. 14, once hôtel
Beaumarchais, then petit hôtel Vieuville, at one time used as a Jewish
temple, has a splendid frescoed ceiling. We see remains of old hôtels at No.
6 and 4. No. 2, l’École Massillon, built as a private mansion, l’hôtel
Fieubet, the work of Mansart (seventeenth century), was restored in 1850,
enlarged by the Oratoriens in 1877.
Quai Henri IV stretches along the ancient line of the Île Louviers joined
to the Rive Droite in 1843, the property of different families of the noblesse
till 1790. At No. 30 the Archives de la Seine.
Quai de la Rapée, named from the country house of a statesman of the
days of Louis XV., is bordered along its whole course by old, but generally
sordid, structures, in olden days drinking booths. Passage des
Mousquetaires at No. 18 records the vicinity of the Caserne des
Mousquetaires, now l’Hôpital des Quinze-Vingts.
Quai de Bercy, records by its name the bergerie, in old French bercil,
here in long-gone days. Here, too, there was a castle built by Le Vau and
extensive gardens laid out by the great seventeenth-century gardener Le
Nôtre. Their site was given up in the latter half of the nineteenth century for
the Entrepôts de Bercy.
Picturesque old quays surround the islands on the Seine. Quai de
l’Horloge, overlooked by the venerable clock-tower of the Palais de Justice
(see p. 50), went in past days by the name Quai des Morfondus, the quay of
people chilled by cold river mists and blasting winds. When opticians made
that river-bank their special quarter, it became Quai des Lunettes. Lesage,
author of Gil Blas, lived here in 1715, at the Soleil d’Or. No. 41, where
dwelt the engraver Philipon, Mme Roland’s father, is known as the house of
Madame Roland, for it was the home of her girlhood. No. 17 dates from
Louis XIII.
Quai des Orfèvres, the goldsmith’s quay, dating from the end of the
sixteenth and first years of the seventeenth centuries, lost its most ancient,
most picturesque structures by the enlarging of the Palais de Justice in

recent years. In ancient days a Roman wall passed here. At No. 20 of the
Rue de Harlay, opening out of it, we see part of an ancient archway. At No.
2 a Louis XIII house. Nos. 52-54 on the quai date from 1603, the latter once
the firm of jewellers implicated in the affaire du collier. At No. 58 lived
Strass, the inventor of the simili-diamonds.
Quai de la Cité was built in 1785, on the site of the ancient port-aux-
œufs, remains of which were unearthed in making the metropolitan railway,
a few years ago. Along these banks we see the Paris bird shops; the Marché-
aux-Oiseaux is held here. And close by is the Marché-aux-Fleurs.
Merovingian remains were found beneath the surface on this part of the
quay in 1906. Thick, strong walls believed to have been built by Dagobert,
inscriptions, capitals, tombstones—the remains of oldest Paris.
Quai de l’Archevêché records the existence there of the archbishop’s
palace built in 1697 by Cardinal de Noailles, pillaged and razed to the
ground in 1831. The sacristy and presbytery we see there now are modern.
This is the quay of the Paris Morgue, the Dead-house, brought here in 1864
from the Marché-Neuf, which had been its site since 1804, when it was
removed from le Grand Châtelet. For years past we have been told it is
“soon” to be again removed, taken to a remoter corner of the city.
The Square de l’Archevêché, laid out in 1837, was in olden days a
stretch of waste land known as the “Motte aux Papelards,” the playground
of the Cathedral Staff. Boileau’s Paris home was here in a street long swept
away. His country-house, as we know, was at Auteuil (see p. 275). In 1870
the square was turned for the time into an artillery ground.
Quai de Bourbon on the Île St. Louis dates from 1614. Every house
along its line is interesting, of seventeenth-century date for the most part. At
No. 3, we see a shop of the days and style Louis XV. Nos. 13-15, hôtel de
Charron, where in modern times Meissonnier had his studio. We see fine
doors and doorways, courts, staircases, balustrades, at every house. No. 29
was the home of Roualle de Boisgelon. Philippe de Champaigne lived for a
time at No. 45.
Quai d’Orléans was named after Gaston, the brother of Louis XIII. No.
18 is the hôtel Roland. No. 6 is a Polish museum and library.
Quai de Béthune, once Quai du Dauphin, named by the Revolutionists
Quai de la Liberté, shows us seventeenth-century houses along its entire
course. No. 32 was the home of the statesman Turgot in his youth—his

father’s house. Subterranean passages ran to the Seine from No. 30, and
some other riverine houses. At No. 24, built by Le Vau, we find an
interesting court, with fountain, etc.
Quai d’Anjou is another Orleans quay, for Gaston was duc d’Anjou. No.
1 is the splendid hôtel Lambert de Thorigny (see p. 93). No. 5, the “petit
hôtel Poisson de Marigny,” brother of Mme de Pompadour. No. 7, began as
part of the hôtel Lambert, and is now headquarters of the municipal bakery
directors. Nos. 11, 13, hôtel of Louis Lambert de Thorigny. No. 17, hôtel
Lauzun, husband of “La Grande Mademoiselle,” in later times the
habitation of several distinguished men of letters: Baudelaire, Théophile
Gautier, etc. The society of the “Parisiens de Paris” bought it in 1904, a
magnificent mansion, classed as “Monument historique,” under State
protection, therefore, in regard to its upkeep. Nos. 23 and 25 are built on
staves over four old walls. No. 35 was built by Louis XIV’s coachman.
RIVE GAUCHE (Left Bank).
We will start again from the south-western corner. Here in 1777, in the
little riverside hamlet beyond Paris, a big factory was built, where was first
made the disinfectant, of so universal use in France, known as eau de Javel.
The Quai de Javel was constructed some fifty years later.
Quai de Grenelle, a rough road from the eighteenth century, was built at
the same period. The Allée des Cygnes owes its name to the ancient Île des
Cygnes, known in the sixteenth century and onwards as Île Maquerelle, or
mal querelle, for the secluded islet on the Seine, joined later to the river-
bank, offered a fine spot in those days for fights and quarrels. In the time of
Louis XIV the islet was a public promenade, and the King had swans put
there, hence its name.
Quai d’Orsay memorizing a famous parliamentary man of his day,
Prévôt des Marchands, first constructed in the early years of the eighteenth
century, was known from 1802 to 1815 as Quai Buonaparte. It extends far
along the 7th arrondissement. There we see along its borders the bright
gardens of the recently laid out park of the Champ de Mars, and numerous
smart modern streets and avenues opening out of it. No. 105 is the State
Garde-Meuble, its walls sheltering magnificent tapestries, and historic relics
of the days of kings and emperors. At No. 99 were the imperial stables. No
97, Ministère du Travail. The Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (Foreign

Office), at No. 37, is a modern structure. The Palais de la Présidence, at No.
35, dates from 1722. The Palais-Bourbon from the same date (see p. 200).
The busy Gare d’Orléans, so prominent a modern structure along the
quay, covers the site of the old Palais d’Orsay, and an ancient barracks burnt
to the ground in 1871. In an inner courtyard at No. 1 we find the remains of
the ancient hôtel de Robert de Cotte, royal architect-in-chief, in the early
years of the eighteenth century.
Quai Voltaire was known in part of its course in eighteenth-century days
as Quai des Théatins. It was constructed under Mazarin, restored in 1751.
Many names of historic note are associated with the handsome house at No.
27, built in or about 1712, for Nicolas de Bragelonne, Treasurer of France.
Its chief point of interest is connected with Voltaire. Here he died in 1778;
here his heart was kept till 1791. No. 25 was the home of Alfred de Musset.
The ground between 25 and 15 was occupied from the days of Mazarin till
1791 by the convent of the Théatins. The short Rue de Beaume close here
shows us many interesting old-time houses. No. 1 was the hôtel of the
Marquis de Villette, who became a member of the Convention, and called
his son Voltaire. At No. 3 were his stables. Boissy d’Anglas lived at No. 5,
in 1793, and Chateaubriand stayed here in 1804. No. 17, dating from about
1670, was the house of the Carnot family. At No. 10 we see vestiges of a
house belonging to the Mousquetaires Gris, for this was their headquarters.
No. 2 was built for the Marquis de Mailly-Nesle. Nos. 11 to 9, along the
quai, formed the habitation of Président de Perrault, secretary to the Grand
Condé. The duchess of Portsmouth lived here in 1690, and here the great
painter, Ingres, died in 1867.
Quai Malaquais began as Quai de la Reine Marguerite, but was
nicknamed forthwith Quai Mal-acquet (Mal-acquis) because the Queen,
Henri IV’s light-lived, divorced wife, had taken the abbey grounds of the
Petit Pré-aux-Clercs whereon to build her garden-surrounded mansion. At
No. 1 the architect Visconti died in 1818. In 1820 Humboldt lived at No. 3.
The statue of Voltaire by Caillé was set up opposite No. 5 in 1885. The
house at No. 9 was built about 1624 on the ground mal-acquis by Margaret
de Valois. No. 11, École des Beaux-Arts, is on the site of the ancient hôtel
de Brienne, Louis XIV’s Secretary of State. Joined later to the house next
door it became the home of Mazarin, by and by of Fouché, and was made to
communicate with the police offices at a little distance. Nos. 15 and 17,
built by Mansart in 1640, restored a century later, after long habitation by

persons of noted name, was taken over by the State, and in 1885 annexed to
the Beaux-Arts.
Quai de Conti records the name of the brother of the Grand Condé. Its
most prominent building is the Institut de France, the Collège Mazarin, built
in 1663-70, as the Collège des Quatre Nations Réunies. Its left pavilion
covers the site of the ancient Tour de Nesle, washed by the Seine, which
formed the boundary point of Philippe-Auguste’s wall and rampart.
Mazarin’s will endowed the college for the benefit of sixty impecunious
gentlemen’s sons of Alsace, France, Pignerol, Roussillon. The
Revolutionists styled it “Collège de l’Unité,” then in 1793 suppressed it,
and used the building for meetings of the Salut Public, later as an École
Normale, then as a Palais des Arts; finally, after undergoing restoration, it
became in 1805 the Institut de France, as we know it. The ancient chapel
has been taken for the great meeting-hall, the hall of the grandes “Séances.”
For long Mazarin’s tomb, now in the Louvre, was there. His body is said to
be there still, deep down beneath the chapel pavement. The Bibliothèque
Mazarine is in the part of the building covering the spot where the petit
hôtel de Nesle stood of old. The greater part of the statesman’s valuable
collection of books was brought here from his palace, now incorporated in
the Bibliothèque Nationale, Rue de Richelieu, according to his will. It
contains many precious ancient volumes and manuscripts. The house No.
15 was built by Louis XIV on the foundations of the ancient Tour de Nesle.
No. 13, where we see the shop of the booksellers Pigoreau, was built by
Mansard, in 1659, one of its walls resting upon a bit of the ancient wall of
Philippe-Auguste. Here, on the third story, we may see the room, an attic
then, as now, where young Buonaparte, a student at the École Militaire,
used to spend his holidays, welcomed there by old friends of his family. The
short Rue Guénégaud, memorizing the mansion once there, bordering at
one part the walls of the Mint, shows us along the rest of its course, at No.
1, remains of a once famous marionnettes theatre; at No. 19 an old gabled
house; in the court, No. 29, a tower of Philippe-Auguste’s wall; an ancient
inscription at No. 35; a fine old door at No. 16, etc. The narrow old-world
Rue de Nevers shows us none but ancient houses. This thirteenth-century
street was formerly closed at both ends and known therefore as Rue des
Deux-Portes. Beneath No. 13 of the little Rue de Nesle runs an ancient
subterranean passage blocked in recent years. The old house at No. 5 of the
quay was for long looked upon as the dwelling of Buonaparte after he left

Brienne. At the recently razed No. 3 lived Marie-Antoinette’s jeweller, his
shop surmounted by the sign “Le petit Dunkerque,” referring to articles of
curiosity in the jewellery line, much in vogue in the year 1780. A little café
at No. 1, also razed, was till lately the humble successor of the first Paris
“Café des Anglais,” set up there in 1769, a gathering-place for British men
of letters.

QUAI DES GRANDS-AUGUSTINS

Quai des Grands-Augustins, the oldest of Paris quays, dates in part from
the thirteenth century, and records the existence there of the monastery
where in its heyday the great assemblies of the clergy were held, and the
ecclesiastical archives kept from 1645 to 1792. The Salle des Archives was
then given up to the making of assignats. In 1797 the convent was sold and
razed to the ground. We see some traces of it at No. 55. The bookseller’s
shop there was till recent years paved with gravestones from the convent
chapel which stood on the site of No. 53. The restaurant Lapérouse at No.
51 was, in the seventeenth century, the hôtel of the comte de Bruillevert.
The Académie bookseller, Didier-Perrin, is established in the ancient hôtel
Feydeau et Montholon. No. 25 was built by François I. No. 23 opened on
the vanished Rue de Hurepoix. No. 17 was part of the hôtel d’O,
subsequently hôtel de Luynes.

Quai St-Michel was known for a time in Napoléon’s day as Quai de la
Gloriette. Its first stone was laid so far back as 1561, then no more stones
added till 1767, an interim of two centuries. Another interruption deferred
its completion to the year 1811. The two narrow sordid streets we see
opening on to it, Rue Zacharie and Rue du Chat qui Pêche, date, the first
from 1219, as in part Rue Sac-à-lie in part Rue des Trois-Chandeliers, from
its earliest days a slum; the second, a mere alley, from 1540.
Quai de Montebello began in 1554 as Quai des Bernardins from the
vicinity of the convent—its walls still standing (see p. 136). The quay bore
several successive names till its entire reconstruction in early nineteenth-
century years, when it was renamed in memory of Napoléon’s great
General, Maréchal Lannes.
Quai de la Tournelle was Quai St-Bernard in the fourteenth century. The
Porte St-Bernard was close by. La Tournelle was a stronghold where
prisoners were kept close until deported. On the wall of Nos. 57-55, now a
distillery, we read the words: “Hôtel cy-devant de Nesmond.” It began as
hôtel du Pain. Président de Nesmond, who owned it later, inscribed his
name on its frontage, the first inscription of the kind known. The Pharmacie
Centrale we see at No. 47 is the ancient convent of the Miramiones. The
nuns were so named from Mme de Miramion who, left a widow at sixteen,
founded this convent for the care of poor girls. The nuns had their own boat
to convey the girls to services at Notre-Dame. In the chapel we find
seventeenth-century decorations, and in the body of the building many
interesting vestiges. On the walls at No. 37 we read the inscription, “Hôtel
cy-devant du Président Rolland” (the anti-Jesuit). The old-time coaches for
Fontainebleau had their bureau and starting-point at No. 21. No. 15 is the
quaint and historic restaurant de la Tour d’Argent, which has existed since
1575 (closed during the war), famed for its excellent and characteristic
cuisine and its picturesque, old-time menu cards, with their strong spice of
couleur locale.
Quai d’Austerlitz is the old Quai de l’Hôpital. The boundary-line
between Paris and what was before its incorporation the village of
Austerlitz passed at No. 21. The famous hôtel des Haricots, the prison of the
Garde Nationale, where many artists and men of letters of olden days
served a period of punishment, often left their names written in couplets on
its walls, was till the early years of last century on the site where now we
see the busy departure platform of the Gare d’Orléans.

Quai de la Gare, bordered by ancient houses, was till 1863 route
Nationale.

CHAPTER LII

LES PONTS (The Bridges)

O NCE more to the south-western corner of this “bonne ville de Paris.”
The first bridge over the Seine within the city boundary, beginning at
this end, is the Viaduct d’Auteuil (see p. 320). The second is Pont-
Mirabeau, dating from the last decade of the nineteenth century. Pont de
Grenelle is of earlier date (1825). The Statue of Liberty we see there
(Bartholdi) is a replica in reduced size of that sent to New York. Pont de
Passy first spanned the Seine as a mere footway at the time of the
Exhibition of 1878, rebuilt in its present form in 1906. Pont d’Iéna has a
greater historic interest. Its construction was set about in 1806. It had just
been finished when in 1814 Blücher and the Allies proposed to blow it up.
Royal influence prevailed to save it. It was called thenceforth till 1830 Pont
des Invalides.
Pont de l’Alma, that emphatically Second-Empire bridge with its four
Napoléonic soldiers, a Zouave, an infantry man, an artillery man, and a
chasseur, was built between the years 1854-57. It was still unfinished when
on April 2nd, 1856, Napoléon III and a sumptuously accoutred cortège
passed across it to present flags to the regiments returned from the Crimea.
Pont-des-Invalides was built in 1855.

LE PONT DES ARTS ET L’INSTITUT

The first stone of the very ornate Pont Alexandre III, formed of a single
arch 107 mètres long, was laid with great ceremony by the Czar Nicholas II
in 1896. It was opened in 1900.
A truly historic bridge is the Pont de la Concorde, built between 1787
and 1790, finished with stones off the razed Bastille, and called at first Pont
Louis XVI. Louis’ head fell, and the bridge became Pont de la Révolution.
Twelve immense statues of famous statesmen and warriors were set up on it
in 1828. They were considered too big, and in 1851 were taken away to the
Cour d’Honneur de Versailles.

PONT-NEUF

Pont de Solferino, built in 1858, records the victorious Italian campaigns
of 1859.
Pont-Royal was designed by Mansart and built in 1689 by Dominican
monks to replace a smaller, more primitive bridge which had been known
successively as Pont-Barlier, Pont-des-Tuileries, Pont-Rouge, and Pont Ste-
Anne; it underwent restoration in 1841. Pont des Saints-Pères, or Pont du
Carrousel was one of the last of Paris bridges to pay toll; built in 1834,
restored in recent years.
Pont-des-Arts, so called from its vicinity to the Louvre, leading in a
straight line from the colonnaded archway of the Court Carrée to the
Institut, was opened in 1804, restored 1854.
Pont-Neuf, the most characteristic of Paris bridges, dates back to the
reign of Henri III. The King himself laid its first stone in 1578, but it was
not finished till 1603, when Henri IV was King. “Le bon Roi” determined
to be the first to cross it on horseback, and while it was still unsafe spurred
his thoroughbred along the unfinished bridge way. His lords, hastening to
follow where their master led, were jolted out of their saddles, and falling
upon the unparapeted structure, rolled into the river and were drowned.
Louis XIII set up a statue of his father on horseback on the bridge; the
statue of the horse was a gift from Cosimo de’ Medici to Louis’ mother. At
the Revolution it was overturned, taken away, and melted down to make
cannons for the insurgents. Louis XVIII replaced it by a statue made of the
bronze of the first statue of Napoléon that had been set up on Place
Vendôme and that of his general, Desaix, on Place des Victoires. Though set
up by the Bourbon King, the figure we see is believed to contain within it a
statuette of Napoléon I and Voltaire’s Henriade. Until 1848 there were
shops within the semicircles we see on either side of the old bridge, and
beneath the second archway near the right bank there was one of the first
hydraulic pumps, known as “la Samaritaine.” Its water was conveyed to the
Louvre, the Tuileries, and to houses all around, and fed the famous old
fountain built in 1608, destroyed a century later, rebuilt in 1715, again
destroyed after another hundred years, with the figure of the Samaritan
woman giving water to our Saviour. The bathing-house near the spot with
its sign, and the big modern shop of hideous aspect, alone remain to record
the name of the ancient pump and fountain. Two or three ancient houses

still stand on the Place du Pont-Neuf in the middle of the bridge. At its
picturesque western point we see the tree-shaded square Henri IV, known
also as the Square du Vert-Galant. Place Dauphine, at its south-western side,
dates from the days when Henri’s son, later Louis XIII, was dauphin.
The Pont St-Michel we see to-day was built in 1857. The first bridge
there, joining the mainland to the island on the Seine, was constructed
towards the close of the fourteenth century. That bridge and two successive
ones were destroyed by fire.
Pont-au-Change, the Money-changers’ Bridge, was in olden days a
wooden construction which went by the names Pont de la Marchandise and
Pont-aux-Oiseaux. Jewellers as well as money-changers plied their trade
along its planks, perhaps also bird merchants. It was a little higher up the
river in its early twelfth century days and was often flooded. It was badly
burnt, too, more than once; then in the seventeenth century was entirely
rebuilt of stone, and bronze statues of the royal family, Louis XIII, Louis
XIV as a child, and Anne d’Autriche, set up there. In the century following
the houses upon it were all cleared away and in 1858 it was again rebuilt.
The Petit-Pont joins the Île to the left bank at the very same spot where
the Romans made a bridge across the river, one of two which spanned the
Seine in their day, and on beyond. Like all town bridges of the Middle Ages
it was made of wood and each side thickly built upon by houses and shops;
windmills, too, stood on this ancient bridge, grinding corn for the citizens
around. And where we now see the Place du Petit-Pont there stood a
wooden tower, la Tour de Bois, erected to protect the bridge against the
invading Normans. At the Musée Carnavalet an ancient inscription may be
seen, recording the names of twelve warriors who fought here to defend
their city, led by Gozlin, bishop of Paris, in 886. In the twelfth century
Maurice de Sully, the builder of Notre-Dame, rebuilt the bridge in stone, but
flood and fire laid it in ruins time after time. The last destructive fire was in
the spring of 1718. It was then rebuilt minus its wooden houses. The present
structure dates from 1853. The place was built in 1782, when the Petit
Châtelet, which had succeeded the Tour de Bois, was razed. In Rue du Petit-
Pont we see some old houses on the odd number side. Many were
demolished when the street was widened a few years ago.
The other bridge of Roman times, succeeding no doubt a rude primitive
bridge, stretched where the Pont Notre-Dame now spans the river. The

Roman bridge, built on staves, was overthrown by the Normans in 861.
Rebuilt as Pont Notre-Dame in 1413, it crashed to pieces some eighty years
later, carrying down with it the house of a famous printer of the day. It was
alternatively destroyed and rebuilt several times till its last reconstruction in
1853. Its houses were the first in France to be numbered (1507). There were
sixty-eight of them and the numbering was done in gold or gilded ciphers.
All these old houses were pulled down in 1786. Pont Notre-Dame was the
“bridge of honour.” Sovereigns coming to Paris in state crossed it to enter
the city. Close up to it stood for nearly two hundred years—1670 to 1856—
the Pompe Notre-Dame, from which all the fountains of the district were
supplied with water.
Pont d’Arcole, built as we now see it in 1854, succeeded a wooden
bridge erected in 1828 with the name Pont de la Grève, commonly called
Pont de la Balance. It gained its present name, recalling Napoléon’s victory
of 1796, in the Revolution of 1830, when a youth at the head of a band of
insurgents rushed upon the bridge waving the tricolor and shouting: “If I
die, remember my name is Arcole.”
Pont-au-Double, so called because to cross it passengers paid a double
toll for the benefit of the Hôtel-Dieu, is a nineteenth-century construction,
replacing the original bridge of the name built in the sixteenth century, a
little higher up the river.
Pont de l’Archevêché dates from 1828. Pont St-Louis, joining l’Île de la
Cité to l’Île St-Louis, was built in 1614 as a wooden bridge painted red and
called, therefore, Pont-Rouge. Like all wooden erections of the age, it was
damaged by fire, and in the eighteenth century at the time of the
Revolution, “icebergs” on the Seine knocked it over. An iron footbridge was
put up in its place and remained till 1862, when the bridge we see was built.
Pont Louis-Philippe was built in the same year to replace a suspension
bridge paying toll.
Pont de la Tournelle, built as we see it in 1851, began as a wooden
bridge of fourteenth-century erection.[I]
Pont Marie was not, as one might suppose, named in honour of the
Virgin, nor after Marie de’ Medici, who laid its first stone. It simply records
the name of its constructor, who was “Entrepreneur-Général des Ponts de
France” at the time. Fifty houses were built upon it. Some were destroyed
by floods a few years later, others razed in 1788. The two Ponts de Sully

are, except Pont de Tolbiac, the most modern of Paris bridges, built some
years after the Franco-Prussian war, replacing two older bridges of slight
importance. Pont d’Austerlitz dates from 1806, the year of the great battle.
When the Emperor fell the Allies demanded the suppression of the name,
and the French Government of the day called the bridge Pont du Jardin du
Roi, referring to the Jardin des Plantes in its vicinity (see p. 155). The name
did not catch on. The people would have none of it. It has remained a
reminder of Napoléon’s victory. It has been enlarged more than once, the
last time in 1885. Pont de Bercy was built in 1835, rebuilt 1864. Pont de
Tolbiac, in 1895. Pont National, a footbridge, in 1853.

PARIS
ts
Limite des Arrond

INDEX TO HISTORIC PERSONS
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Z
A
Abelard, 91, 135
About, Edmond, 228
Affre, Monseigneur, Archbishop of Paris, 250, 289
Agnesseau, Henri d’, 200, 274 Madame de, 274
Agrippa, 147
Alba, Duque d’, 197
Albert, le Grand, Maître, 134-5
Alexander I, Czar, 217
Alexander III, Pope, 88
Amélie, Ex-Queen Dowager of Portugal, 195
Ancre, Maréchale d’, 168
Angoulême, Duc d’, 44
Angoulême, Duchesse d’ (daughter of Louis XVI), 148, 258, 161
Anjou, Charles d’, King of Naples and Sicily, 110
Anjou, Duc d’, King of Poland, 222
Anjou, Duc de, see Orléans, Gaston d’
Anne d’Autriche, Queen, 14, 32, 59, 154, 188, 205, 300, 341
Anne de Bretagne, Queen, 184
Arcole, 343
Arc, Jeanne d’, 27, 209, 289
Armagnacs, the, 310
Arnaud of Andilly, recluse, 316
Arnould, Sophie, 60
Artagnan, Lieutenant-Captain d’, 22
Astley’s Circus, 241
Atkins, Mrs. (née Walpole), 200, 205

Auber, 229
Aubert, M., vicaire, 134
Aubray, Antoine d’, 116
Aubriot, Prévôt de Paris (13th century), 107
Aubriot, Hugues, Prévôt du Roi, 123
Augier, Émile, 32
Aulard, Pierre, 98
Aymon, Les Quatre Fils d’, 76
B
Balbi, Comtesse de, 175
Ballard, 35-6
Ballu, 26
Balsamo, Joseph, Comte de Cagliostro, 84, 303
Balue, Jean de la, 76
Balzac, Honoré de, 72, 83, 165, 172, 216, 256, 271-2
Barbette, 82
Barclay, Robert, 161
Barras, 164, 229
Barrère, 27
Barrias, 264
Bartholdi, 337
Basville, Lamoignon de, 196
Batz, Baron, 58
Baudelaire, 329
Baudry, Paul, 41
Bault, and his wife, 110
Beauharnais, Eugène de, 205
Beauharnais family, 198
Beauharnais, Joséphine (later Empress), 60, 164, 165, 168, 171, 217,
225, 298
Beauharnais, Vicomte de, 171

Beaumarchais, 111, 228, 303
Beauvais, Pierre de, 198
Beauvalet, 198
Beauvau, Prince de, 211
Bègue, 296
Belhomme, Dr., 244
Bellefond, Abbesse de, 235
Béranger, 32, 41, 78, 272
Berlioz, 224, 227, 228, 282
Berlioz, Madame (née Smithson), 282
Bernadotte, 235
Bernhardt, Sarah, 301
Berri, Duc de, 52, 217, 219
Berri, Duchesse de, 217, 270, 300
Berryer, 196
Biard, 73
Blanche of Castille, Queen, 39, 137, 177, 252
Blanche, Docteur, 273, 285
Blanche de France, 104
Blanche, Queen, widow of Philippe de Valois, 252
Blücher, Marshal, 337
Boffrand, 29, 205
Boigne, Comtesse de, 210
Boileau, 174, 275, 328
Boisgelon, Roualle de, 338
Boissy d’Anglas, 331
Bonheur, Rosa, 176, 185
Bosi, 10
Bossuet, 33, 39, 98, 186
Bossuet, Abbé, 92-3
Bouchandon, 197
Boucher, 39

Boulanger, Général, 265
Bourbon, Cardinal Charles de, 174
Bourbon, Comte de, 39
Bourbon, Duchesse de, 217
Bourbon-Condé, Mlle. de, Abbesse de Remiremont, 193
Bourbon, Louis de, Prince de Condé, 200-1
Bourdon, 159
Bourguignons, the, 310
Bourrienne, 237
Bragelonne, Nicolas de, 330
Breteuil, Général de, 191
Breteuil, Marquis de, 33, 234
Briancourt, 116
Brienne, de, 331
Brinvilliers, Madame de, 116, 118, 135
Brissac, Duc de, 248
Brisson, Président, 7
Brosse, Jacques de, 164
Brosse, Salomon de, 104, 162
Bruillevert, Comte de, 334
Brunehaut, Queen, 22
Buffon, 155, 156
Buonaparte, Caroline (Murat), 217
Buonaparte, Jérôme, 17, 157
Buonaparte, Lætitia (Madame-mère), 199
Buonaparte, Lucien, 219
Buonaparte, Napoléon, see Napoléon I
Buonaparte, Napoléon, Orma, 17
Buonaparte, Pauline (Princesse Borghese), 218
Buonaparte, Prince Victor, 17
Buonarotti, Michael Angelo, 4

C
Cadoual, 42, 68, 206
Cagliostro, Comte de, 84, 303
Caillé, 331
Cain, Georges, 81
Calvin, Jean, 148
Cambon, 28
Cambronne, Général, 260
Camille, Sœur, 168-9
Carême, Antoine, 36
Carlos, King of Portugal, 195
Carnot, 219
Carnot family, 205, 331
Carpeaux, 223
Casabianca, 60
Casanova, 58
Casimir, King of Poland, 174
Cassini, 256
Castanier, de, 61
Catherine de’ Medici, Queen, 8, 9, 10, 39, 79, 154, 157, 203, 267, 322
Caumartin, Prévôt des Marchands, 223
Cavaignac, 298, 309
Celestin V, Pope, 303
Cernuschi, 318
Certain, Vicaire, 142
Cerutti, 230
Chabanais, Marquis de, 244
Chalgrin, 28, 140, 164, 175, 176, 215, 217
Champaigne, Philippe, de, 110, 151, 328
Chanac, Guillaume de, Archbishop of Paris, 135, 160
Chantal, Mme de, 120

Charcot, Dr., 312
Charlemagne, 22, 88, 209, 258
Charles I of England, 14, 267
Charles-le-Mauvais, 40
Charles V, Emperor, 3
Charles V, King, 2, 38, 39, 108, 116, 117, 118, 120, 123, 247, 303, 321,
323
Charles VI, 23, 98, 252
Charles VII, 43
Charles IX, 7, 10, 270
Charles X, 219
Charlotte de Bavière, 166
Charost, Duc de, 218
Charpentier, 157
Charpentier, Gabrielle, 323
Chaslun, Pierre de, Abbot of Cluny, 138
Châtel, Jean, 26
Chavannes, Puvis de, 147, 228, 277
Châteaubriand, 28, 204, 207, 218, 258, 331
Châteaubriand, Madame, 258
Chénier, André, 58, 165, 237, 248, 273
Cherubini, 234
Chevalier, Honoré, 175
Childebert, King, 90, 173, 181
Chimay, Princesse de (ci-devant Mme Tallien), 214
Choiseul, Duc and Duchesse de, 60
Choiseul, Ducs de, 53
Chopin, 31, 209
Christine de France, 180
Cinq Mars, 108
Clarence, Duke of, 74
Claretie, 228

Clavière, 240
Clemenceau, 268
Clementine, Princess, of Belgium, 17
Clermont, Robert de, 39
Clermont, Bishop of, 141
Clisson, Connétable Olivier de, 74
Clothilde, Princess, 17
Clovis, King, 209
Cochin, Vicaire, 256
Colbert, 4, 132, 213, 250, 256
Coligny, Admiral, 7, 21, 26
Commines, Philippe de, 266
Comte, Auguste, 82, 170, 185
Concini, 7
Condé, le Grand, 113, 331
Condé, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de, 200-1
Conflans, Jean de, 39
Conti, brother of Condé, 331
Conti, Princesse de, 168
Coppée, François, 243, 286
Corday, Charlotte, 18, 173, 185, 206, 210, 212
Corneille, Pierre, 32, 58
Corot, 167, 234, 237
Cotte, Robert de, 197, 330
Cousin, Jules, 82
Coustou, 10, 159, 212

Couthon, 28, 316
Coysevox, 135, 159, 212
Crawford, 227
Cuvier, 156, 207
D
Dagobert, King, 86, 91, 113, 289, 327
Dangest, 299
Dante, 132, 135
Danton, 333
Darboy, Mgr., Archbishop of Paris, 241-2, 243
Daubenton, 156
Daubigny, 229
Daudet, Alphonse, 111, 120, 165, 200
David, 324
David, Bishop of Moray, 161
Deguerry, Abbé, 209, 243
Deibler, 319
Dejazet, 302
De la Bedoyère, Colonel, 234
De la Brosse, Guy, 155
Delacroix, 175
Delamair, 74, 75
De la Meilleraie, Maréchale, 207
De la Rapée, 326
De la Reynie, 98
Delaroche, 171
De la Rochefoucault, Cardinal, 145, 188
De la Tour d’Auvergne, Abbesse de Montmartre, 232
De la Tour-du-Pin-Gouvernet family, 76
De la Vallette, Comtesse, 219
De la Vallière, Louise, 153-4, 257, 267, 317

Delavigne, Casimir, 233
De l’Épée, Abbé, 33, 153, 303
Delorme, Marion, 82, 120
Delorme, Philibert, 8, 59
Desaix, Général, 49, 340
Descartes, 158
Desmoulins, Camille, 17, 18, 162, 165
Diane de France, 111
Diderot, 27, 304-5
Dionis, 156
Doge, the (1686), 198
Doré, Gustave, 199, 228
Dosne, Mme, 229
Dosne, Mlle, 229
Duban, 6
Dubarry, Jean, 59
Dubarry, Mme, 58, 135
Dumas, 226
Dumas, Alexandre, père, 32, 229
Dupin, Aurore (George Sand), 66
Duret, 199
Duret, Président, 205
E
Edgeworth, Abbé, 77, 148
Effiat, Maréchal de, 108
Enghien, Duc d’, 170, 193, 217
Enghien, Duchesse d’, 170
Épinay, Mme d’, 224
Érard, Sebastien, 270
Erasmus, 148
Esterhazy, Comte, 69

Estrées, Cardinal d’, 197
Estrées, Duchesse d’, 197
Estrées, Gabrielle d’, 22, 26, 68, 83, 118, 141, 170, 265
Estrées, Maréchal d’, 83
Étiolles, M. d’, 233
Eudes the Falconer, Bishop of Paris, 96-7, 201
Eugénie, Empress, 13, 273
F
Faure, Félix, Président, 236
Favart, 60
Fersan, Comte de, 217, 219
Fesch, Cardinal, 225
Fieschi, 246, 302
Flamel, Nicolas, 43, 69, 96
Flamel, Pernelle, 69, 96
Flandrin, 128, 173, 175, 239
Flaubert, 178
Florian, 270-1
Foucault, 167
Fouché, 331
Folmon, Comte de, 244
Fontenay, Aubert de, 83
Fouquet, père et fils, 120
Fourcy, de, family, 107
Fragonard, 39, 56
Francis-Joseph, Emperor, 195
François I, 3, 94, 97, 140, 175, 206, 334
Franck, César, 308
Franklin, Benjamin, 219, 268, 271-2
Franque, Simon, 100
Franqueville, Comte de, 270 & n.

Fulbert, Chanoine, 91
Fulcon, or Falcon, Comte, 240
Funck-Brentano, 118
G
Gabriel, 4, 28, 142, 191, 194, 211
Gallièra, Duchesse de, née Brignole, 195, 267
Gallifet, Marquis de, 197
Gambetta, 165, 170, 219, 225, 264, 322
Garcia, Manuel, 226
Garlande, Mathilde de, 316
Gaston, brother of Louis Treize, 328
Gauthier, Marguerite (la Dame aux Camélias), 213
Gautier, Théophile, 120, 329
Gay, Sophie, 56
Genlis, Mme de, 199, 217, 219, 233
Géoffrin, Mme, 28
Géricault, 60
Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, 295
Germain, Bishop of Paris, 173
Gesvres, Marquis, de, 324
Girardon, 138
Glasgow, Bishop of, 161
Glück, 176
Gobelin, Jehan, 251, 252
Gobelin, Philibert, 251, 252
Goldoni, 58
Goncourts, frères de, 178
Gondi, Mgr. de, first Archbishop of Paris, 250, 323
Gonthière, 239
Goujon, 4, 41, 43, 59, 81, 321
Gounod, 178, 228

Gourmet, 211
Goy, 245
Gozlin, Bishop of Paris, 186, 342
Gracieuse family, 159
Grand, Mme, 226
Gregory of Tours, 130
Grétry, 33, 298-9
Greuze, 23
Grignan, Mme de, 81
Grimaldi family, 228
Grimm, 224
Gringonneur, Jacquemin, 98
Gros, 147
Guise, Duc de, 119
Guise family, 74
Guizot, 45, 207, 211
H
Halévy, 49, 228
Harcourt, Duc d’, 200
Harduin-Mansart, 200
Haudri, Jean, 73
Haussmann, Baron, 211
Hauteville, Comte d’, 238
Haüy, Valentin, 192
Heine, Heinrich, 180, 213, 227
Héloïse, 91
Helvetius, 32
Henault, Président, 106
Henner, 228
Henri de Bourbon, 166
Henri II, 8, 36, 79, 111, 119, 180, 307