Place des Vosges

We are now in the area called “le Marais” and will start with a look at the central place, Place des Vosges. Here used to be a royal residence (Hôtel des Tournelles) with a garden where the king Henry II was killed in a tourney in 1559, after which his widow, Catherine de Medicis, got the building destroyed.

Henry IV decided to build a square, which was finished in 1612 (after his death) and then became a very fashionable place, originally called Place Royale. It got its present name, Place des Vosges, in 1799 to honor the first French provincial department to pay taxes to support the Revolutionary army.The place looks a bit empty and dull on the pictures I took last week; as a comparison you can see a photo I took last summer.

It’s a true square, 140 x 140 meters (460 x 460 ft), all the buildings are in the same style with the same design and measures, except two pavilions with slightly higher roofs, designated as the King’s and the Queen’s pavilions. No king or queen ever lived here, but a lot of aristocracy and other prominent people. Among those, you can mention Sully, Cardinal Richelieu, Madame de Sevigné, Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, Alphonse Daudet...

Under the arcades you find today a number of art galleries, shops and a few cafés and in the middle of the place you can find a statue of Louis XIII - the original one was melted down during the Revolution and replaced in 1825.Behind no. 9, where you find the top restaurant “l’Ambroisie”, you will find another open garden or square (the gate is normally open). It’s surrounded by the Hôtel de Chaulnes and the Hôtel Sully, today housing respectively the Academy of Architecture and the “Caisse nationale des Monuments Historiques”. As usual, some of these pictures can be found on my photo blog.

I made an extra post today - see below!!

Extra post

Leena (leenam) asked me to show some updated spring pictures from “my” park. These ones were taken yesterday. If some of you would feel jealous, I can maybe comfort you by showing the last patchwork – it was raining.

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-Eustache

Some of you suggested that I should now offer you a lunch or dinner at “Lipp”. I’m sorry, but immediately after Saint-Germain-des-Prés, there will be another church - Saint-Eustache, some 500 years younger; the construction started in 1532 and lasted for about 100 years. The facade was rebuilt during the 18th century and the church was restored in 1844 after a fire, by Baltard, especially known for the creation of “les Halles”, the central market place in Paris, torn down in 1972-73.
As you can see, the church is situated very close to what still is called “les Halles” and it’s also close to rue Montorgueuil (on which I recently posted), which starts at the back end of this church.

The church represents a mixture of gothic and renaissance style.

Molière was baptized and got married in this church and Louis XIV received his communion here. You can find a lot of paintings, including by Rubens. Among the tombs, you can find the one of Colbert, great statesman and minister of finance, who managed to keep the French finances more or less afloat despite big expenditures by Louis XIV for wars and for the building of Versailles.

The church’s musical tradition is very strong; Lully and Rameau performed here and the premieres of Berlioz’s “Te Deum” and Liszt’s “Messiah” took place in this church. Rameau is buried here. I don’t know if Mozart played at Saint Eustache, but he organized the funeral of his mother. A lot of concerts are still given. The organ has been completely rebuilt in recent years and is considered as one of the biggest and best in the world.In front of the church you can find a different kind of sculpture, called “l’Ecoute” (see photo bottom right on the first patchwork). If you want to know something more about it, I can refer to a recent post by Cergie.

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

I have visitors around I may not find the time to post tomorrow, nor to visit your blogs as I usually try to do, … so I wish you already now a nice weekend!

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.)