Rue des Francs-Bourgeois (2)

Before we are leaving rue des Francs-Bourgeois, there are two other buildings to which I would like to draw some attention.

One of them is the Crédit Municipal de Paris (no. 55). This is one of the oldest financial institutions in France, created in 1777, which among other things acts as a pawnshop – it will (possibly) lend you money in exchange for a deposit of some more or less valuable merchandise, and when you (possibly) can pay back, they will return your belongings. This kind of institution has several nick names, like “Mont-de-Piété” (after a charitable Italian institution, “Monte-de-Pietà”). Another name for it is “Chez ma Tante” (“At my Auntie”); normally you would not too openly admit that you had to borrow from this institution, you would more easily pretend that you got some money from your auntie. Another version for this expression is that one of the royal princes did not want his mother to find out that he had pawned his watch, so he just said that he had forgotten it at his aunt’s house. The place has still 600 visitors per day and a lot of famous personalities have passed the gate – in the past even Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Claude Monet... When the not reclaimed belongings are later auctioned, you can make some good business here.

An additional interesting thing can be found in the court yard: The trace of the 13th century Philippe-Auguste city wall (which we have already followed in a number of posts). The other building I wanted to mention is the “Hôtel de Soubise” (no. 60), built in the beginning of the 18th century (top picture). It replaced another mansion built during the 13th century and which during the 15th century became the residence of the Guise family, fervent Catholics, and this was where e.g. the Saint Bartholomew”s Day massacre was planned (1572), leading to the death of thousands of Huguenots. You can still see the old entrance to the previous building on the back side (bottom right picture on the below patchwork). The present building was in 1808 (Napoleon again) taken over by the French state and is since the place for (today, part of) the National Archives and also a museum. Only here – and in adjacent buildings - are today stored some 100 km (60 miles) of documents, the oldest form the 7th century. When walking along this street at lunch time together with a friend on our way from Place des Vosges, we made a small deviation, turned to the left at rue Vieille du Temple and found (at no. 30) a small restaurant, "Au Petit Fer à Cheval" (the Small Horse Shoe). The menu and the place looked nice, so we decided to give it a try. I can now say that it was nice. The restaurant dates from 1903, the marble-topped bar in the entrance has the shape of a horse shoe and behind the bar there is room for maybe twenty guests. The restaurant has obviously at a certain moment been restored with some type of 1925 decoration, but it all gives a very authentic impression, the waiters look like the waiters used to look like, the place got full and I believe only with more or less regular guests! Traditional dishes, nice atmosphere and reasonable prices! Some of these pictures can be found on my photo blog.

Before “closing” for the weekend, I wished to show some more details from the Paris spring development (photos from yesterday). Have 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.

Walls

This post will be a bit different; no photos at all! This is a preparation for what normally will follow next week. You have all the weekend to digest this one, if you have the courage!

My intention is to make a few posts about the « Grands Boulevards », meaning a number of avenues you can follow from Place de La Bastille to the Madeleine Church – or vice versa, via Place de la République, Opéra Garnier etc…. Along the “Grands Boulevards” you can find a lot of theatres, cinemas, restaurants…; Paris has not only one city centre for entertainment and nightlife, but several. These boulevards are following the trace of an ancient defence wall.

Before starting the “visit”, I thought it would be worthwhile to give a short history lesson (again). I have tried to trace on a Google map where the different Paris walls have existed. I’m afraid that only a few of you may possibly find this interesting, but I do it anyhow (sorry).

You can still find a few traces of the “Philippe-Auguste wall” built around 1200 in some older buildings and even part of the real wall (my post on “St.Paul etc…”).

This wall was replaced during the latter part of the 14th century. La Bastille was then part of the defence and some stones of La Bastille can still be found (my post on “La Bastille”).

In the beginning of the 17th century this wall was rebuilt and extended and became the “Louis XIII wall”. It did not last for long. The son of Louis XIII, Louis XIV, decided some decades later, in 1670, to demolish this wall, “open” the city… and replace the wall by the “Grands Boulevards”.

You would think that this was the end of the walls. However, a new wall, called “Fermiers Généraux”, was built 1785-88, but the reason was this time purely commercial; taxes to be paid at different gates. The “Fermiers Généraux” was a corporation of “tax farmers” who collected taxes for the monarchy, including on food, beverages, building material etc. brought into the city. Note that the wall was completed just before the Revolution, was hated by most of the habitants and that the tax collection was stopped immediately after the Revolution (and that most of the “tax farmers” were guillotined). The last traces of this wall had disappeared around 1860 in connection with the opening up of new large streets and boulevards (Haussmann).

The last wall, the “Thiers wall”, was built 1841-44 and now again for clear defence purposes. It was destroyed after World War I and replaced by some kind of ring road boulevards, “Boulevards Exterieurs”, also called the “Boulevards Maréchaux”, still today more or less following the Paris city limits.

I wish you a nice weekend! (Happy reading!)

St. Paul etc...

I visited another area of Paris, hardly visited by tourists. It has anyhow its interest.

(The top picture is with a reference to Isabella who lives at a very nice place, Naples in Florida, although with a number of “gators” around, including on her golf course.)

We are just south of the more visited area of “le Marais” and the “Place des Vosges”, between Rue de Rivoli and the Seine River.

To start with there is the St.Paul-St.Louis Church, which is beautiful and has its own interest. Completed in 1641, under Louis XIII, as a Jesuit church, it was inspired by the Gesu Church in Rome. The first mess was held by Cardinal Richelieu. It was of course pillaged and partly destroyed during the 1789 revolution and some fantastic master pieces (Dürer etc.) disappeared.

What was once the church convent is today occupied by one of the most renowned Paris schools, Lycée Charlemagne.

Behind the church, you will find the largest remaining piece and some towers of the 12th century Philippe-August wall, which surrounded the then much smaller Paris.

A later king, Charles V chose to create a residence just outside the wall (1360). This area was later occupied by simple apartment houses, which were more or less restored during the last 30 years. Here you have today a quite a nice quarter going under the name of St.Paul Village. When I visited it this week, it was extremely calm (we are still in August and Paris is to a large extent “closed”), but the place is full of high quality antique shops (obviously also a “gator” for sale – see top picture), some bars and restaurants…. You enter by a number of arched passageways and all the small streets and yards are of course open only for pedestrians. Around the St.Paul Village, you have a number of narrow streets, some nice recently restored flats, a censored version of Manneken Pis…

I wish you all a nice weekend!

You can find the original photos on my other blog - "Peter - photos".