Rue de Seine (2)

Yesterday I concentrated on the more historical facts around Rue de Seine. What’s happening around this street today?

The first part of the street, closest to the Seine (as well as some surrounding streets) is today full of high class art galleries. You can find and buy works of a number of well known artists – of course not only -, if you have the funds for it. What I would also recommend is that you look to the right and the left and you will find a number of small attractive side streets – and behind some more or less closed gates – some very nice court yards. Many of these are also dedicated to art and art business. There are a few small hotels and cafés in this part of the street, but you will find more of them, some restaurants and some attractive food shops higher up on the street, the more “modern” part (18th – 19th century). (05) You can find some of these pictures on my photo blog.

Rue de Seine (1)

I thought I had finished with the Quartier Latin, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the 6th arrondissement for a while, but HPY asked me for some news concerning Rue de Seine, so I went back! The street may not have anything very spectacular to show at a first sight, but I would say it’s clearly worth a visit.

Rue de Seine, or at least the part of it close to the Seine, is one of the oldest still existing streets in Paris, dating from at least the 13th century, now and then under different names. You can use it on your way from Saint Germain des Prés to e.g. the Louvre, or the other way, on the way from the Louvre. You cross the pedestrian bridge “Pont des Arts”, which connects the Louvre and the “Institut de France” which is the building where different French academies, including the famous “Académie Française”, meet under the “coupole”. The building dates from 1688.

Rue de Seine starts just behind the “Institut”. (In Paris, the street no. 1 is always for the building closest to the Seine.) This first half of the street (top picture) is the oldest and the historically most interesting part. The upper part was opened only during the 19th century, connecting with rue de Tournon, opening in front of the Palais de Luxembourg, today housing the French senate. (Here, a comparison between 1734 and today.)Just behind the “Institut”, you will first find two small squares with some statues, including the ones of Voltaire and of Montesquieu. This first part of the street was formerly occupied by some castle like buildings (including for Queen Margot, the first wife of Henry IV). The present buildings are mostly from the 17th century and many of them have been inhabited by - at least in France - well known personalities, like Saint Vincent de Paul, d’Artagnan, Armande Béjart (Molière’s widow), Beaudelaire… For our Polish friends I would like to make a special mention for Adam Mickiewicz who lived here when he published his famous” Pan Tadeusz” (1834). During the 17th century you could find not less than ten “jeu de paume” courts along the street. (Maybe a parenthesis to recall some details regarding the “jeu de paume”, the predecessor to lawn tennis and some other ball games: The points were already counted 15, 30, 40 and the word “deuce” comes from the French "à deux", indicating that two points must be won consecutively to win the game. Also the word “love” obviously comes from “l’ouef” – the egg - , the oval shape of the egg being a symbol for "0." Finally, the word “tennis” of course comes from “tenez” = take it, be ready…, which was the word the gentlemen (ladies hardly played those days) used to indicate that they were serving.)

There is more to be said about this street and its today’s life. I will revert to that tomorrow.

Some of the above pictures can be found on my photo blog.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

After strolling around a bit in the area, we have now reached the church Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which used to be part of an abbey with the same name. Just in front of the church you have one of Paris’ most well-known cafés, "Les Deux Magots", and very close you find also "Café Flore" and the famous brasserie "Lipp". The name “…-des- Prés” (= “… in the Fields”) indicates that the abbey was not in the centre of the city when it was founded, as we can see on this old picture where there are no other buildings all the way down to the Seine bank (the old Louvre on the other side of the river). The abbey was outside the "Philippe Auguste wall" (of which we saw some traces at Cour-du-Commerce-Saint-André and at Saint Paul and which I traced on a map in a previous post).

The origins are very old; the abbey was founded already in the 6th century (now and then destroyed – the Normans again). In 990 it was decided to rebuild the church, starting with the tower – the one which is still there, the oldest one in Paris. The construction of the complete present church was basically finished in 1163 with a roman older part and newer gothic part.

The church and the abbey remained as a basic intellectual centre until the Revolution. We can see how in the 18th century the abbey covered a large area. Fires, the Revolution and urbanization destroyed most of the surrounding abbey, but the church (in the red circle) survived and was restored during the 19th century.

Along the church wall you can still find some traces of the connection between the church and the rest of the abbey and one abbey building remains, the abbot’s red brick residence, which you can see here photographed from Place de Furstenberg. The interior of the church has some original stained glass windows from the 13th century. You can find the tombs of, among others, Descartes and John Casimir (Jan Kazimierz), a Polish king (only their hearts are now left here).

A few of these pictures can be found on my photo blog.

Place de Furstenberg

On our way to the church Saint-Germain-des Prés, I would propose a stop at one of the smallest – and nicest – squares in Paris, Place de Furstenberg. Once again, this is a very calm place, where you can find some exclusive shops and art galleries.(The negative side of taking photos during the winter months is that the leaves on the trees are missing; the positive side is that you can see buildings which in a couple of weeks will be hidden.)

The name of the place comes from William Egon von Fürstenberg, who had been archbishop, cardinal etc. and ended up his career at the Abbey of Saint-Germain where he died in 1704.

In one of the corners, you will see an arch (top photo). If you use it, you will reach an inner court, where you will find the apartment where Eugène Delacroix spent his last years and died in 1863 (bottom left on the patchwork). Today it’s his museum.

I show here a famous self portrait of Eugène and the “Liberty Leading the People” which you can find at the Louvre (and, in copy, at Versailles).

The place has been painted by many artists, including, among more recent ones, Salvador Dali and David Hockney. It has also frequently been used in cinema.

I put a few of these pictures on my photo blog.

Ceramic facade

Walking along the Boulevard St. Germain - from places I showed on my most recent posts (including maps) -, heading for the church Saint-Germain-des- Prés, (or Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots or whatever) I would suggest that you stop at the small garden or ancient church yard, just behind the church, and have a look at this spectacular ceramic façade which covers the gable of an adjacent building – very few people seem to pay attention.

I had great difficulties to find any information about it, but it seems that it was originally part of the Sèvres Pavillion during the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris and later put here. Why here, I don’t know, possibly that we are close to the Rue de Sèvres, which leads to Sévres and the Sèvres Manufacture? I even found the names of the creators (Charles Risier and Jules Courtan), but nothing about them. I think that this “monument” would be worth some more attention!

Let’s remember that the 1900 Universal Exhibition somehow was an “art nouveau” exhibition and that the Pont Alexandre III bridge (see my post of June 7, 2007), the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Gare de Lyon, the Gare d’Orsay (now the Orsay Museum) and many other buildings were created for this occasion. (Most of the pavilions were of course considered as temporary and disappeared after the exhibition.) During this Exhibition, the first metros started to run. … and the second Olympic Games took place in Paris.

(A few of these pictures can be found on my photo blog.)

Before closing for today, I wanted to show you some further spring progress in “my” park, although the weekend weather could have been better.

The weather was anyhow good enough to allow Paloma and Mattias to have some outdoor fun in the Jardin du Ranélagh.


My new “toy” is fairly new on the market and draws some attention to it!

Addendum:

Thanks to Maxime we have answers to my questions above:

Charles Risler was a Parisian architect who also designed the pavilion for the department store "Au Printemps" for the same Universal Exhibition.

Jules Félix Coutan has made several sculptures around Paris which can be found e.g. at the Palais de Justice ("La Clémence"), Opéra Comique ("Cariatides"), the National Library ("La Calligraphie"), the Bir-Hakeim Bridge ("La Science", "Le Travail"). One of his monumental works ("Les Chasseurs d'Aigles") can be found at the Orsay Museum. (You can se the Bir-Hakeim sculptures on one of my previous posts.)

Another Charles Garnier building

When walking from the Cour du Commerce Saint André and Cour Rohan (see my two preceding posts), along Boulevard Saint Germain in the direction of the church Saint Germain des Prés (or the cafés Les Deux Magots and Flore etc…) you can find a building created by Charles Garnier,

… who of course is particularly known as the architect of Opéra Garnier (see my post August 2, 2007). This is a very much more modest building.

Actually, Charles had some difficulties to find new jobs after the Paris opera house, much criticized those days, much praised later, and he had to wait two years after finishing the opera to get this job in 1877.

However, he then, later, also created the casino (Wikipedia photo), opera and Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, the casino and the spa hotel in Vittel, a theatre in Paris (Marigny) and several other buildings.








He also created the tomb of Jacques Offenbach in 1880 (see my post April 24, 2007).











This building on Boulevard Saint Germain (no. 117), completed in 1879 is not one of the most well known among his creations, but is certainly worth having a look at. It was built for the “Le Cercle de la Librairie”, where all syndicates and professional associations representing the publishing and editing industry met until 1979. Today, after some interior modifications, the building houses L’Ecole Nationale du Patrimoine (the National School of Patrimony) which should give a good guarantee that the building will be kept in good shape.

It’s not open for visits, but I managed to get in - thanks to a tolerant door man - and to take a few pictures also of the interior stairs. I put the original pictures on my photo blog.

... and it's again time to wish you a nice weekend!

Cour de Rohan

If you are visiting Cour du Commerce Saint André (my post yesterday), I would propose that you also make a small deviation to Cour de Rohan which you easily reach by taking a small alley, some kind of secret passage, just opposite to (the backside of) the Procope restaurant. This opening did not originally exist as here was the Philippe Auguste wall, which I also referred to in yesterday’s post. You can see some old stones on the house illustrated on top. Originally, you had to enter here from the other side – still possible.

By the way, the name should rather refer to Rouen than to Rohan as this is the way to a mansion formerly supposed (but not confirmed) to have been used by the archbishops of Rouen.

Once you have entered, you will meet a rather authentic several hundred years old surrounding. There are no shops or restaurants here, just private homes. The entrance gate may be closed during weekends and evenings. When it’s open, very few people (good for the inhabitants) dare to pass the gate, which leads to three successive and irregularly shaped courtyards. It’s extremely calm, although so close to a very busy area. A wonderful place to live if you accept the idea of not bringing your car to the front of your house!
In one of the courtyards, you can find the only (?) in Paris remaining “pas-de-mule”, or “montoir” (horse-block?), a tool to help you to mount a horse.

Part of the scenes of Vincente Minelli’s film, Gigi, were turned here (Leslie Caron’s home in the film) – now 50 years ago.

You can find some of these photos on my photo blog.

Cour du Commerce Saint André

Most tourists and other visitors of the Quartier Latin, would walk up (or down) Rue Saint André des Arts, not all will deviate to see also the narrow passageway Cour Commerce Saint André. Even fewer (hardly anybody) would visit Cour Rohan. I will talk about Cour Rohan tomorrow, today just a few words about Cour du Commerce Saint André.

One entrance to this partly covered narrow street is from Rue Saint André des Arts, the other one is from Boulevard Saint Germain. The oldest known Paris wall, the Philippe-Auguste wall (built 1190-1213, see my post Jan 8, 2008), used to pass here and there are still some traces, however inside an existing building (the Catalogne tourism office).

Anyhow, the street has some kind of 18th century atmosphere, is covered by centuries- old cobble-stones, has a lot of charm and a number of historical references.
The first experiments with the guillotine (on sheep) took place in this building (no. 9).

The oldest still existing Paris café*, Le Procope – opened in 1686 - , has its (today backdoor) entry here. Among its regular visitors you can mention Racine, Molière, Voltaire, Diderot, Balzac, Napoleon and his marshals, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Jefferson … Benjamin Franklin (who is said to have “fine-tuned” the American constitution here)… a lot of ancient times’ actors (the old Comédie Française was just across the street) .. and the Revolutionary Robespierre, Marat, Danton….and Guillotin.

Marat also printed the Revolutionary newspaper “L”Ami du Peulple” in this street (no. 8) and Danton had his home at no. 20 which corresponds to a part of the street which disappeared with the construction of Boulevard Saint Germain. Danton’s statue now stands where his house used to be.

*/ As a small extra note – I referred to Le Procope as a “café”: Did you know that the word “restaurant” comes from the French word “restaurer” (to restore)? It was used for an eating establishment for the first time around 1765 by a Parisian soup-seller. The first restaurant in the form we know it today (sitting down, ordering from a menu…) was founded in Paris in 1782. Previously eating places were basically for travelling people who paid a flat rate for what the inn owner wanted to serve.

A few of these pictures can be found on my photo blog.

Saint Sulpice

The Saint Sulpice church is situated on the east side of Place Saint Sulpice, not far from the Luxembourg Gardens. The place as such is quite nice and in the middle you find a fountain, created by Ludovico Visconti in 1844, just renovated.

Saint Sulpice is the second biggest church in Paris – after Notre Dame. The present church which replaced an older one from the 13th century was mostly completed in 1732 (the facade a few decades later). (Half of the church facade is under renovation, so I show only the other half.) From the interior you can note a beautiful pulpit, the Chapel of the Madonna (statue by Pigalle) and some wall paintings by Delacroix (too dark to be correctly photographed). The church is known for its organ, which is supposed to be one of the best in the world, created by Arisitide Cavaillé-Coll in 1862, but still with a lot of material from its original construction in 1781. Cavaillé-Coll is considered as one of the world’s best organ builders ever. The church has also always employed top class organists (and composers). The organ is frequently used for concerts and recordings.

The church is also known for its gnomon (from 1749). It was requested as part of the original church construction. The purpose was to determine the time of equinoxes (and hence of Easter). A meridian brass band crosses the floor and ends up on the gnomon, a marble obelisk. The sunlight comes in through a small lens on the opposite side of the church. The fact that this was also used for different scientific experiences may have saved it from destruction during the Revolution (when the church temporarily became a “Temple of Victory”). The church was made even more famous thanks to the "Da Vinci Code". I have already in a previous post indicated that the “French Prime Meridian” and this Saint Sulpice meridian have nothing to do with each other. The church is situated some hundred meters from the “French Prime Meridian” (referred to as the “Rose Line” by Dan Brown). Furthermore, relating to the "Da Vinci Code": The church does not stand on the place of an old pagan temple and the symbolic “PS” you can find in the church refer to St. Pierre and to St. Sulpice and not the invented “Priory of Sion”.

Some of these pictures can as usual be found on my photo blog.