The Polish School

Each year France and other European countries celebrate what is called “Journées de Patrimoine” (Heritage Days); this year this weekend. There are a lot of manifestations and it means also that the doors to certain buildings, normally closed to public, are opened. I visited among other places “Assemblée Nationale”, the French Parliament buildings. I took too many pictures and have to make some filtering before publishing.

I also visited a more modest but very nice building, situated some 200 meters from where I live; the Polish School of Paris. We were maybe 50 people who attended and we were extremely well guided by a remarkable journalist and historian, whom I already had the privilege to meet a few times (Lucien Maillard). Also some Polish music was played and some Polish poems were read.

I would like to dedicate this post to some of our more or less Polish blogger friends.

The relations between Poland and France have often been very tight, generally in a positive way. (Napoleon is actually still positively mentioned in the Polish national anthem!) I’m not going to go give a history lesson here, but different dramatic events in the often suffering Poland forced thousand of its habitants to leave their country in several waves, especially during the 19th century and many of them came to Paris. Their wish to keep the Polish culture alive lead to a need to create a school.

Frederic Chopin, who lived in Paris with some interruptions between 1831 until his death in 1849 was among the most famous of these Polish immigrants and he gave a number of concerts to collect funds to the school. The funds came however basically from some wealthy Polish aristocratic co-immigrants. The school was created in 1842, used for some time other facilities in the neighbourhood and moved to its present premises in 1874. The school was given by France to Poland in 1927.

Some other names are closely related to this school, which today has several hundred pupils and also offer rooms for Polish university students. Marie Curie (born Sklodowska) was one of these university students. Another Polish personality linked to the school is Adam Mickiewicz, one of the greatest Polish poets, who lived in a neighbour street for many years and even was President of the School Council. (You can see the modest place he and his family shared with other families on one of my photos; the small white ready-to-be-demolished building). The Polish Literature Nobel Prize winner (1980), Czeslaw Milosz, lived for a while in the same street as the school.

Square d'Orléans

Walking around in Paris and having a look behind the street entrances you have sometimes some good surprises. Here is one. Behind 80, rue Taitbout, you will find a calm little area under the name of Square d’Orléans. It dates from the early 19th century.

In a previous post I talked about a small house, transformed into a “Museum of the Romantics” (also not obvious to find), where the painter Ary Scheffer received, among many others, his neighbours and good friends George Sand and Frédéric Chopin. This is where they lived in the 1840’s, more or less together, George at number 5 and Frédéric at number 9.

Some other famous people have lived or worked here, including Alexandre Dumas (père). Georges Bizet came here for his piano lessons. When George Sand left her apartment, Charles Beaudelaire moved in…

You can find the original pictures on my photo blog.

Let's be a little bit romantic

If you deviate a little from the normal tourist promenade of Montmartre, slightly downhill, you can find the small “Museum of the Romantics”. You have more or less to know the address (16 rue Chaptal), because it’s just an ordinary street, with some typical 19th century houses and then there is a small opening between two houses. If you walk up the little alley, you will suddenly come to a paved courtyard and you will see something which looks like a small manor house, more typical for the country side than for the centre of Paris.

This house used to belong to a painter called Ary Scheffer (1795-1858). His reputation as a painter is today perhaps not on the highest level, but you can find his works in some prestigious museums like Louvre, National Gallery… He was clearly a romantic painter and was well appreciated and well introduced in the high society during the first half of the 19th century. He made a lot of portraits including of Chopin and Liszt, who were also among his friends, as were Delacroix, George Sand, Rossini, Tourgueniev, Dickens… all frequent guests here.

The house was occupied by Scheffer’s heirs for a long time, but was then left to the City of Paris and is a museum since 1987.

Especially George Sand and Chopin who were close neighbours spent a lot of time here and part of George Sand’s belongings – furniture, paintings, jewellery, by her made drawings and a manuscript… are now exposed at the museum. You can also find a plaster cast of Chopin’s left hand. … and of course a number of paintings by Scheffer and some others.

After the visit, you can have something to drink in the very nice garden café.