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[Illustration: BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS.]
OLD AND NEW PARIS
Its History, its People, and its Places
BY
H. SUTHERLAND EDWARDS
AUTHOR OF "IDOLS OF THE FRENCH STAGE" "THE GERMANS IN FRANCE" "THE
RUSSIANS AT HOME" ETC. ETC.
VOL. I
_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS_
CASSELL AND COMPANY LIMITED
_LONDON PARIS & MELBOURNE_
1893
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I......PAGE
PARIS: A GENERAL GLANCE......1
CHAPTER II.
THE EXPANSION OF PARIS
Lutetia--La Cité--Lutetia taken by Labienus--The Visit of Julian the
Apostate--Besieged by the Franks--The Norman Invasion--Gradual Expansion
from the Île de la Cité to the Outer Boulevards--M. Thiers's Line of
Outworks.....6
CHAPTER III.
THE LEFT BANK AND THE RIGHT.
Paris and London--The Rive Gauche--The Quartier Latin--The Pantheon--The
Luxemburg--The School of Medicine--The School of Fine Arts--The Bohemia
of Paris--The Rive Droite--Paris Proper--The "West End".....9
CHAPTER IV.
NOTRE DAME.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame, a Temple to Jupiter--Cæsar and
Napoleon--Relics in Notre Dame--Its History--Curious Legends--The "New
Church"--Remarkable Religious Ceremonies--The Place de Grève--The Days
of Sorcery--"Monsieur de Paris"--Dramatic Entertainments--Coronation of
Napoleon.....12
CHAPTER V.
SAINT-GERMAIN-L'AUXERROIS
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew--The Events that preceded it--Catherine
de Medicis--Admiral Coligny--"The King-Slayer"--The Signal for
the Massacre--Marriage of the Duc de Joyeuse and Marguerite of
Lorraine.....22
CHAPTER VI.
THE PONT-NEUF AND THE STATUE OF HENRI IV.
The Oldest Bridge in Paris--Henri IV.--His Assassination by
Ravaillac--Marguerite of Valois--The Statue of Henri IV.--The
Institute--The Place de Grève.....30
CHAPTER VII.
THE BOULEVARDS.
From the Bastille to the Madeleine--Boulevard
Beaumarchais--Beaumarchais--The _Marriage of Figaro_--The
Bastille--The Drama in Paris--Adrienne Lecouvreur--Vincennes--The Duc
d'Enghien--Duelling--Louis XVI.....43
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BOULEVARDS (_continued_).
Hôtel Carnavalet--Hôtel Lamoignon--Place Royale--Boulevard du
Temple--The Temple--Louis XVII--The Theatres--Astley's Circus--Attempted
Assassination of Louis Philippe--Trial of Fieschi--The Café Turc--The
Cafés--The Folies Dramatiques--Louis XVI. and the Opera--Murder of the
Duke of Berri.....67
CHAPTER IX.
THE BOULEVARDS (_continued_).
The Porte Saint-Martin--Porte Saint-Denis--The Burial Place of
the French Kings--Funeral of Louis XV.--Funeral of the Count de
Chambord--Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle--Boulevard Poissonnière--Boulevard
Montmartre--Frascati.....95
CHAPTER X.
BOULEVARD AND OTHER CAFÉS.
The Café Littéraire--Café Procope--Café Foy--Bohemian Cafés--Café
Momus--Death of Molière--New Year's Gifts.....107
CHAPTER XI.
THE BOULEVARDS (_continued_).
The Opéra Comique of Paris--_I Gelosi_--The _Don Juan_ of
Molière--Madame Favart--The Saint-Simonians.....115
CHAPTER XII.
THE BOULEVARDS (_continued_).
La Maison Dorée--Librairie Nouvelle--Catherine II. and the
Encyclopædia--The House of Madeleine Guimard.....122
CHAPTER XIII.
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.
Its History--Louis XV.--Fireworks--The Catastrophe in 1770--Place de la
Révolution--Louis XVI.--The Directory.....143
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PLACE VENDÔME.
The Column of Austerlitz--The Various Statues of Napoleon Taken
Down--The Church of Saint-Roch--Mlle. Raucourt--Joan of Arc.....155
CHAPTER XV.
THE JACOBIN CLUB.
The Jacobins--Chateaubriand's Opinion of Them--Arthur Young's
Descriptions--The New Club.....161
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PALAIS ROYAL.
Richelieu's Palace--The Regent of Orleans--The Duke of
Orleans--Dissipation in the Palais Royal--The Palais National--The
Birthplace of Revolutions.....166
CHAPTER XVII.
THE COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE.
Its History--The _Roman Comique_--Under Louis XV.--During the
Revolution--_Hernani_.....172
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY AND THE BOURSE.
The "King's Library"--Francis I. and the Censorship--The Imperial
Library--The Bourse.....187
CHAPTER XIX.
THE LOUVRE AND THE TUILERIES.
The Louvre--Origin of the Name--The Castle--Francis I.--Catherine de
Medicis--The Queen's Apartments--Louis XIV. and the Louvre--The Museum
of the Louvre--The Picture Galleries--The Tuileries--The National
Assembly--Marie Antoinette--The Palace of Napoleon III.--"Petite
Provence".....193
CHAPTER XX.
THE CHAMPS ÉLYSÉES AND THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE.
The Champs Élysées--The Élysée Palace--Longchamps--The Bois de
Boulogne--The Château de Madrid--The Château de la Muette--The Place de
l'Étoile.....218
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CHAMP DE MARS AND PARIS EXHIBITIONS.
The Royal Military School of Louis XV.--The National Assembly--The
Patriotic Altar--The Festival of the Supreme Being--Other
Festivals--Industrial Exhibitions--The Eiffel Tower--The
Trocadéro.....229
CHAPTER XXII.
THE HÔTEL DE VILLE AND CENTRAL PARIS.
The Hôtel de Ville--Its History--In 1848--The Communards.....242
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE.
The Palais de Justice--Its Historical Associations--Disturbances in
Paris--Successive Fires--During the Revolution--The Administration of
Justice--The Sainte-Chapelle.....250
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE FIRE BRIGADE AND THE POLICE.
The Sapeurs-pompiers--The Prefect of Police--The Garde Républicaine--The
Spy System.....270
CHAPTER XXV.
THE PARIS HOSPITALS.
The Place du Parvis--The Parvis of Notre Dame--The Hôtel-Dieu--Mercier's
Criticisms.....276
CHAPTER XXVI.
CENTRAL PARIS.
The Hôtel de Ville--Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie--Rue Saint-Antoine--The
Reformation.....281
CHAPTER XXVII.
CENTRAL PARIS (_continued_).
Rue de Venise--Rachel--St.-Nicholas-in-the-Fields--The Conservatoire des
Arts et Métiers--The Gaieté--Rue des Archives--The Mont de Piété--The
National Printing Office--The Hôtel Lamoignon.....298
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CENTRAL PARIS (_continued_).
The Rue Saint-Denis--Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles--George
Cadoudal--Saint-Eustache--The Central Markets--The General Post
Office.....311
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE "NATIONAL RAZOR."
The Rue de l'Arbre Sec--Dr. Guillotin--Dr. Louis--The Guillotine--The
First Political Execution.....327
CHAPTER XXX.
THE EXECUTIONER.
The Executioner--His Taxes and Privileges--Monsieur de Paris--Victor of
Nîmes.....330
CHAPTER XXXI.
PÈRE-LACHAISE.
The Cemeteries of Clamart and Picpus--Père-Lachaise--La
Villette and Chaumont--The Conservatoire--Rue Laffitte--The
Rothschilds--Montmartre--Clichy.....333
CHAPTER XXXII.
PARIS DUELS.
The Legal Institution of the Duel--The Congé de la Bataille--In the
Sixteenth Century--Jarnac--Famous Duels.....345
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE STUDENTS OF PARIS.
Paris Students--Their Character--In the Middle Ages--At the
Revolution--Under the Directory--In 1814--In 1819--Lallemand--In the
Revolution of 1830.....355
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE RAG-PICKER OF PARIS.
The Chiffonier or Rag-picker--His Methods and Hours of Work--His
Character--A Diogenes--The _Chiffonier de Paris_.....360
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE BOHEMIAN OF PARIS.
Béranger's Bohemians--Balzac's Definition--Two Generations--Henri
Mürger.....365
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE PARIS WAITER.
The Garçon--The Development of the Type--The Garçon's Daily Routine--His
Ambitions and Reverses.....369
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE PARIS COOK.
Brillat Savarin on the Art of Cooking--The Cook and the Roaster--Cooking
in the Seventeenth Century--Louis XV.--Mme. de Maintenon.....372
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
.....PAGE
Boulevard des Italiens....._Frontispiece_
Place de la Concorde.....1
The Left Bank of the Seine, from Notre Dame.....4
Right Bank of the Seine, from Notre Dame.....5
On the Boulevards--Corner of Place de l'Opéra.....8
Théâtre Français.....9
A Street Scene.....11
Notre Dame.....12
The Choir Stalls, Notre Dame.....13
Rue du Cloitre.....16
Apsis of Notre Dame.....17
The Leaden Spire, Notre Dame.....20
Gargoyles in the Sacristy, Notre Dame.....21
Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.....24
(Map) Principal Streets of Paris.....25
Scene during the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.....28
The Pont-Neuf and the Louvre, from the Quai des Augustins.....30
By the Pont-Neuf.....32
Seine Fishers.....32
View from the Pavilion de Flore....._facing_ 33
The Pont-Neuf and the Mint.....33
Statue of Henri IV. on the Pont-Neuf.....36
The Institute.....37
The Pont-Neuf from the Island.....40
View from the Western Point of the Île de la Cité.....41
Place de la Bastille and Column of July.....45
Junction of Grands Boulevards and Rue and Faubourg Montmartre.....48
The Bastille.....49
The Conquerors of the Bastille.....53
À la Robespierre.....56
A Lady of 1793.....56
A Tricoteuse.....56
Map showing the Extension of Paris.....57
Adrienne Lecouvreur.....61
A Duel in the Bois de Boulogne.....64
The Seine from Notre Dame....._facing_ 5
Recruits.....65
Hôtel Carnavalet.....68
Hôtel Lamoignon.....69
Statue of Louis XIII. in the Place des Vosges.....71
The Place des Vosges, formerly Place Royale.....72
The Arcade in the Place des Vosges.....73
The Winter Circus in the Boulevard des Filles de Calvaire.....77
Louis Philippe.....80
Attempted Assassination of Louis Philippe.....81
A Parisian Café.....84
Place de la République.....85
Frédéric Lemaître.....89
Porte Saint-Martin and the Renaissance Theatre.....92
Church of Saint-Méry, Rue Saint-Martin.....93
Apsis of Church of Saint-Méry, Rue Brisemiche.....96
Notre Dame....._facing_ 97
Entrance to the Faubourg Saint-Denis.....97
Boulevard and Porte Saint-Denis.....101
Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle and the Gymnase Theatre.....104
The Boulevard Montmartre.....105
Entrance to the Théâtre des Variétés, Boulevard Montmartre.....109
Cafés on the Boulevard Montmartre.....112
Molière.....113
Street Coffee Stall.....114
Boulevard des Italiens.....116
The 6th of June; the Last of the Insurrection.....121
Marivaux.....124
Paris in the Seventeenth Century.....125
Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin.....128
View from the Roof of the Opera House....._facing_ 129
Mlle. Clairon.....129
View from the Balcony of the Opera.....132
Avenue de l'Opéra.....133
One of the Domes of the Opera House.....135
Eastern Pavilion, Opera House.....136
The Public Foyer, Opera House.....137
Western Pavilion, Opera House.....140
The Staircase of the Opera House.....141
The Madeleine.....144
Interior of the Madeleine.....145
Place de la Concorde.....149
Place de la Concorde, from the Terrace of the Tuileries.....152
Trial of Louis XVI.....153
Top of the Vendôme Column.....155
The Place Vendôme.....157
Rue Castiglione.....160
A First Night at the Comédie Française--The Foyer....._facing_ 161
Mirabeau.....161
Robespierre.....164
The Palais Royal.....165
Gardens of the Palais Royal.....168
The Palais Royal after the Siege.....169
The Montpensier Gallery, Palais Royal.....170
Entrance to the Comédie Française.....172
The Public Foyer, Comédie Française.....173
The Green Room, Comédie Française.....176
Molière.....177
Corneille.....180
Voltaire.....181
The Committee of the Comédie Française: Alexandre Dumas (the younger)
Reading a Play.....185
Behind the Scenes, Comédie Française.....186
Entrance to the National Library in the Rue des Petits Champs.....188
The Bourse.....189
The Apollo Gallery--The Louvre....._facing_ 193
The Louvre, from the Place du Carrousel.....193
The Old Louvre (Pierre Lescot's Façade).....195
The Colonnade of the Louvre.....196
Portion of the Façade of Henri IV.'s Gallery, Louvre.....197
Top of the Marsan Pavilion, Louvre.....200
The Marsan and Flora Pavilions, Louvre, from the Pont-Royal.....201
The Richelieu Pavilion.....205
The Tuileries in the Eighteenth Century.....208
The Terrace, Tuileries Gardens.....209
The Tuileries Gardens.....209
Lion in the Tuileries Gardens.....211
The Chestnuts of the Tuileries.....212
Louis XVI. Stopped at Varennes by Drouet.....213
The Royal Family at Varennes.....216
Monument to Gambetta, Place du Carrousel.....217
The Horses of Marly, Champs Élysées.....220
The Elysée.....221
Saint-Philippe du Roule.....221
The Great Lake, Bois de Boulogne.....223
Avenue du Bois de Boulogne.....224
Arc de Triomphe....._facing_ 225
Avenue des Champs Élysées.....225
Avenue Marigny, Champs Élysées.....227
Fountain in the Champs Élysées.....228
The Champ de Mars, 1889.....229
The Military School, Champ de Mars.....232
General La Fayette.....233
The Palais de l'Industrie, Champs Élysées.....236
View Showing Exhibition of 1889.....237
View from the First Platform of the Eiffel Tower.....240
The Trocadéro.....241
Hôtel de Ville in the Fifteenth Century.....244
Attack on the Hôtel de Ville, 1830.....245
Statue of Étienne Marcel on the Quai Hôtel de Ville.....246
The Municipal Council Chamber, Hôtel de Ville.....248
Île St. Louis.....249
The Quai de l'Horloge.....252
Pont au Change and Palais de Justice.....253
The Clock of the Palais de Justice.....255
Entrance to the Court of Assize.....256
The Palais de Justice....._facing_ 257
The Palais de Justice and Sainte-Chapelle.....257
The Façade of the Old Palais de Justice.....260
The Salle des Pas Perdus.....261
Police Carriages.....263
The Conciergerie, Palais de Justice.....264
The Sainte-Chapelle.....265
The Lower Chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle.....267
The Upper Chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle.....268
The Tribunal of Commerce.....269
A Pompier.....272
A Guardian of the Peace.....273
An Orderly of the Garde de Paris.....274
A Gendarme.....277
Principal Court of the Hôtel-Dieu.....280
Rue de Rivoli.....281
Façade of the Church of St. Gervais and St. Protais; and the Apsis, from
the Rue des Barres.....284
Tower of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie.....285
Hôtel de Beauvais.....286
Church of St. Louis and St. Paul.....288
Rue de Rivoli and Hôtel de Ville....._facing_ 289
Rue Grenier-sur-l'eau.....289
The Pont-Marie.....292
Rue Saint Louis-en-l'Île.....293
Pont au Change, Place du Châtelet, and Boulevard de Sebastopol.....296
The Palmier Fountain, Place du Châtelet.....297
Rue de Venise.....299
St. Nicholas-in-the-Fields.....300
The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.....301
The Vertbois Tower and Fountain.....303
The Gaieté Theatre.....304
In the Temple Market.....305
The Temple Market.....305
Sixteenth Century Cloisters, Rue des Billettes.....307
Palace of the National Archives.....308
Hôtel de Hollande.....309
Turret at Corner of Rues Vieille du Temple and Francs Bourgeois.....309
Rue de Birague, leading to the Place des Vosges.....311
Fountain of the Innocents.....312
Saint-Eustache.....313
A Market Scene.....315
An Auction Sale of Poultry in the Central Market.....316
Rue Rambuteau in the Early Morning.....317
On the Way to the Central Markets.....319
The Fish Market.....320
Interior of the Mont de Piété, Rue Capron....._facing_ 321
The General Post Office.....321
The Poste Restante.....321
The Public Hall, General Post Office.....323
The Telephone Room at the General Post Office.....324
Place des Victoires.....325
Rue de la Vrillière.....328
In Père-Lachaise.....333
Parc des Buttes Chaumont.....336
Montmartre.....340
The Synagogue in the Rue de la Victoire.....341
St. Peter's Church, Montmartre.....343
The Bells of St. Peter's.....343
The New Municipal Reservoir and the Church of the Sacred Heart,
Montmartre.....344
The Caulaincourt Bridge, Montmartre.....344
In the Parc Monceau.....345
Diana of Poitiers.....348
Marshal Ney.....352
The Race-course, Longchamps....._facing_ 353
Camille Desmoulins.....356
The Polytechnic School.....357
Notre Dame from the Pont Saint-Louis.....360
A Rag-picker.....361
A Rag-picker.....364
The Boulevard Poissonière.....368
Selling Goats.....369
The Bird Market.....373
Madame de Maintenon.....375
[Illustration: PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.]
PARIS, OLD AND NEW.
CHAPTER I.
PARIS: A GENERAL GLANCE.
"Paris," said Heinrich Heine, "is not simply the capital of France,
but of the whole civilised world, and the rendezvous of its most
brilliant intellects." The art and literature of Europe were at that
time represented in Paris by such men as Ary Scheffer, the Dutch
painter, Rossini, the Italian composer, the cosmopolitan Meyerbeer,
and Heine himself. Towards the close of the eighteenth century most
of the European Courts, with those of Catherine II. and Frederick the
Great prominent among them, were regularly supplied with letters on
Parisian affairs by Grimm, Diderot, and other writers of the first
distinction, who, in their serious moments, contributed articles to
the _Encyclopédie_. At a much remoter period Paris was already one
of the most famous literary capitals of Europe; nor was it renowned
for its literature alone. Its art, pictorial and sculptural, was
also celebrated, and still more so its art manufactures; while of
recent years the country of Auber and Gounod, of Bizet, Massenet
and Saint-Saëns, has played a leading part in the world of music.
Paris, too, has from the earliest times been a centre of science and
philosophy. Here Abélard lectured, and here the first hospitals were
established. Then, again, Paris has a military history of singular
interest and variety. It has been oftener torn within its walls by civic
conflicts, and attacked from without by the invader, than any other
European city; while none has undergone so many regular sieges as the
capital of the country of which Frederick the Great used to say that, if
he ruled it, not a shot should be fired in Europe without his permission.
Paris is at once the most ancient and the most modern capital in Europe.
Great are the changes it has undergone since it first took form,
eighteen centuries ago, as a fortress or walled town on an island in the
middle of the Seine; and at every period of its history we find some
chronicler dwelling on the disappearance of ancient landmarks. Whole
quarters are known to have been pulled down and rebuilt under the second
Empire. But ever since the Revolution of 1789, under each successive
form of government and in almost every district, straggling lanes have
been giving way gradually to wide streets and stately boulevards, and
suburb after suburb has been merged into the great city.
The Chaussée d'Antin was at the end of the last century a chaussée in
fact as well as in name: a mere high-road, that is to say; and there
were people living under the government of Louis-Philippe who claimed to
have shot rabbits on the now densely populated Boulevard Montmartre.
The greatest changes, however, in the general physiognomy of Paris date
from the Revolution, when, in the first place, as if by way of symbol,
the hated fortress was demolished in which so many victims of despotism
had languished. "Athens," says Victor Hugo, "built the Parthenon,
but Paris destroyed the Bastille." In the days when the great State
prison was still standing, the broad, well-built Rue Saint-Antoine,
in its immediate neighbourhood, used to be pointed to by antiquarians
as covering the ground where King Henry II. was mortally wounded in
a tournament by Montgomery, an officer in the Scottish Guard. It was
there, too, that, after the death of their protector, the "minions" of
Henry II. slaughtered one another.
The now thickly inhabited Place des Victoires, where stands the statue
of Louis XIV., lasting monument of kingly pride and popular adulation,
was at one time the most dangerous part of the capital. In the open
space now enclosed by lordly mansions and commodious warehouses thieves
and murderers held their nightly assemblies, or even in the face of day
committed depredations on the passers-by. "Could a better site have been
chosen," asks an historian of the last century, "for the effigy of that
royal robber, born for the ruin of his subjects and the disturbance of
Europe: who aimed at universal monarchy and sacrificed the wealth and
happiness of a whole kingdom to pursue an empty shadow; who lived a
tyrant and died an idiot?"
Not far distant, the Halles, or general markets, stand on the spot
where Charles V. made a famous speech against Charles, surnamed the
Mischievous, King of Navarre; when the former was hissed and hooted by
the mob because he had neither the good looks, the eloquence, nor the
reasoning power of his antagonist. It was here, too, that the first
dramas were acted in France; and here, significantly enough, that
Molière was born.
At the Butte Saint-Roch, now remembered chiefly by the church of the
same name, the Maid of Orleans was wounded during the siege of Paris,
then in the hands of the English. Joan of Arc was not at this time--not,
at least, with the Parisians--the popular heroine she has since become.
Detesting Charles VII. and all his supporters, they could not love the
inspired girl whose example had restored the courage of the king's
troops. A Parisian of that day, who had witnessed the siege, describes
her as a "fiend in woman's guise."
The bell may still be heard of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois; the very
bell, it is asserted, that called the faithful to the massacre of St.
Bartholomew. Near the church from which the tragic signal rang forth
stands the palace from whose windows Charles IX. fired upon the unhappy
Huguenots as they sought safety by swimming across the Seine; and close
at hand used to be pointed out another window from which money was
thrown to an agitated crowd in order to keep it from attending Molière's
funeral, at which the mob proposed, not to honour the remains of the
illustrious dramatist, but to insult them.
It was in the old Rue du Temple that the Duke of Burgundy fell by the
hand of his assassin, the Duke of Orleans, only brother of Charles
VI., who, though a madman and an idiot, was suffered to remain on the
throne; and it was in this same Rue du Temple that Louis XVI. and
Marie-Antoinette were confined before being taken to the guillotine.
What scenes has not the Place de Grève witnessed! from the burning of
witches to the torture of Damiens, and from the atrocious cruelties
inflicted upon this would-be regicide to the first executions under the
Revolution, when the cry of "A la lanterne!" (to the lamp-post, that is
to say, of the Place de Grève) was so frequently heard.
But the most revolutionary spot in this, the most revolutionary
capital in the world, is to be found in the gardens of the Palais
Royal; those gardens from whose trees Camille Desmoulins plucked
the leaves which the besiegers of the Bastille were to have worn in
their hats as rallying signals. Here, too, assembled the journeymen
printers, who, their newspapers having been suppressed by Charles
X., determined, under the guidance of the journalists--their natural
leaders on such an occasion--to reply by force to the armed censorship
of the Government. Again, in 1848, the Palais Royal Gardens witnessed
the first manifestations of discontent, though it was a pistol-shot
fired on a fashionable part of the boulevard that precipitated the
collision between the insurgents and the troops. The next morning, at
breakfast, Louis-Philippe was told that he had better abdicate; and an
hour afterwards an old gentleman, with a portfolio under his arm, was
seen to take a cab on the Place de la Concorde, and drive off in the
direction of Saint-Cloud, whence he reached the coast of Normandy, and
in due time the shores of England.
Paris possesses one of the most ancient and one of the most
characteristically modern churches in Europe--the venerable Notre-Dame,
and in sharp contrast, the fashionable Madeleine, celebrated for the
splendour of its essentially mundane architecture, the luxurious attire
of its female frequenters, the beauty of its music, and the eloquence
of its preachers. The first stone of Notre-Dame was laid, as Victor
Hugo puts it, by Tiberius, who, recognising the site of the future
cathedral as well-fitted for a temple, began by erecting an altar "to
the god Cerennos and to the bull Esus." In like manner, on the hill of
Sainte-Geneviève, where now stands the edifice known as the Pantheon,
Mercury was at one time worshipped.
So rich is Paris in historical associations that often the same street,
the same spot, recalls two widely different events. Thus the statue
of Henri IV. on the Pont-Neuf commemorates the glory of the best and
greatest of the French kings, and at the same time marks the very ground
where, in the fourteenth century, Jacques de Molay, the Templar, was
infamously burned. At No. 14 in the Rue de Béthisy Admiral Coligny died
and Sophie Arnould was born. At a house in the Rue des Marais Racine
wrote "Bajazet" and "Britannicus" in the room where, fifty years later,
the Duchess de Bouillon is said to have poisoned Adrienne Lecouvreur.
There was a time when, at the corner of the Rue du Marché des Innocents,
a marble slab, inscribed with letters of gold, associated the important
year of 1685 with three notable events: the arrival of an embassy from
Siam, a visit from the Doge of Genoa, and the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. This strange record has disappeared, together with many other
interesting memorials of various shapes and kinds: such, for example,
as the iron cauldron in the Cour des Miracles, where, in the name of a
whole series of kings who had played tricks with the national currency,
and more than once produced national bankruptcy, coiners used to be
boiled alive.
As we go further back in the history of Paris, lawlessness on the part
of the inhabitants, and cruelty on that of the rulers, seem constantly
to increase. Until the reign of Louis XI., Paris was without police,
though laws were nominally in force, especially against stealing. Theft
was punished much on the principle laid down in the inscription of the
sixth century which adorned one of the walls of Lutetia, the Paris of
the Romans: "If a thief is caught in the act he must, in the case of a
noble, be brought to trial; in the case of a peasant, be hanged on the
spot." The capitular of Charlemagne forbade ecclesiastics to take human
life: which did not prevent the abbés of different monasteries from
besieging one another or crossing swords when, with their followers,
they chanced to meet outside the fortified monasterial walls, whether in
the plain or in the public street. The right of private warfare existed
in France until 1235.
Paris has undergone atrocious sufferings through war, famine,
pestilence, and calamities of all kinds. The Normans, after burning one
half of Paris, allowed the remainder to be ransomed with an enormous sum
of money. In one of the famines by which Paris in its early days was so
often visited, people cast lots as to which should be eaten. The taxes
were so excessive that many pretended to be lepers, in order to profit
by the exemption accorded in such cases. But it was sometimes not well
to be a leper, real or pretended; for it was proclaimed one day to the
sound of horn and trumpet that lepers throughout the kingdom should be
exterminated: "in consequence of a mixture of herbs and human blood,
with which, rolling it up in a linen cloth and tying it to a stone, they
poison the wells and rivers."
How terrible, and often how ridiculous, were the proclamations issued
in those days! In front of the Grand-Châtelet six heralds of France,
clothed in white velvet, and rod in hand, were wont to announce after a
plague, a war, or a famine that there was nothing more to be feared, and
that the king would be graciously pleased to receive taxes as before. In
the centre of the so-called "town"--Paris in general, that is to say, as
distinct from the city--was "la Maubuée" (derived, according to Victor
Hugo, from _mauvaise fumée_), where Jews innumerable were roasted over
fires of pitch and green wood to punish what a chronicler of the time
terms their "anthropomancy"; and what the Counsellor de l'Ancre further
describes as "the marvellous cruelty they have always shown towards
Christians, their mode of life, their synagogue, so displeasing to God,
their uncleanliness, and their stench." The unhappy Jews, however, were
not the only victims. Close by, at the corner of the Rue du Gros-Chenet,
was the place where sorcerers used to be burned. Torture, moreover, in
its most hideous forms was practised upon criminals even until the time
of the Revolution; which, while introducing the guillotine, abolished,
in addition to a variety of other torments, breaking on the wheel, and
the beating of criminals to death with the iron bar.
Many of the names, still extant, of the old Paris streets recall the
ferocity and the superstition of past times. The Rue de l'Arbre Sec
was the Street of the Gibbet, with "Dry Tree" as its familiar name.
The Rue d'Enfer, or Hell Street, was so called from a belief that this
thoroughfare on the outskirts of Paris, just beyond the Luxemburg
Gardens, was haunted by the fiend. In order to put an end to the
scandal by which the whole neighbourhood was alarmed, it occurred to
the authorities to make over the street to the Order of Capuchins who,
they thought, would know how to deal with their inveterate enemy. The
Capuchins accepted, with gratitude, the valuable trust; and thenceforth,
whether as the result of some exorcising process or because public
confidence had been restored, no more was heard of the visitor from
below.
[Illustration: THE LEFT BANK OF THE SEINE, FROM NOTRE-DAME.]
To get a complete idea of the vastness and variety of Paris, it should
be seen from the towers of Notre-Dame, the Pantheon, the July Column of
the Place de la Bastille, the tower of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie,
the Vendôme Column, the Triumphal Arch, and, finally, the Eiffel Tower.
From these different points panoramic views may be obtained which
together would form a complete picture of Paris.
The shape of Paris is oval. The longest diameter--east to west--would
be drawn from the Gate of Vincennes to the Gate of Auteuil; and the
shorter--north to south--from the Gate of Clignancourt to the Gate of
Italy.
Paris is divided longitudinally by the course of the Seine, whose
windings are scarcely noticed by the observer taking a bird's-eye view.
The river looks like a silver thread between two borders of green.
These are the plantations of the quays, whose trees, during the last
five-and-twenty years, have become as remarkable for their luxuriant
growth as for their beauty of form. From the height of our observatory
we see the Island of the City, looking like a ship at anchor, with its
prow towards the west.
On all sides the summits of religious edifices present themselves:
the towers of Notre-Dame, the dome of the Pantheon, the turrets
of Saint-Sulpice, the steeple of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the
gilded cupola of the Invalides, and the lofty isolated belfry of
Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.
Following the course of the Seine with careful eye, one may see its
twenty-one "ports"--eleven on the right bank, and ten on the left--from
Bercy to the Tuileries; also, like slender bars thrown across the
river, the twenty-seven bridges connecting the two banks, from the
Pont-National to the viaduct of the Point du Jour.
The double line of quays--quadruple, where the islands of St. Louis and
of the City divide the river in two--presents an incomparable series of
stately structures; such as the Hôtel de Ville, the Palais de Justice,
the Louvre, the Mint, the Institute, the Palais Bourbon, and a number of
magnificent private mansions.
[Illustration: RIGHT BANK OF THE SEINE, FROM NOTRE-DAME.]
From the Gothic steeple of the Sainte Chapelle the eye wanders to
innumerable domes, built under the influence of the Renaissance; for
while the domes have endured, the steeples, so numerous in ancient
Paris, have, for the most part, succumbed either to fire or to the
vandalism of the renovating architect. It must be remembered, too, that
under the reign of Louis XIV. Gothic architecture was proscribed, as
recalling "the age of barbarism." Every new edifice was constructed
in the Italian or Italo-Byzantine style. The finest, if not the most
ancient, dome that Paris could ever boast was the one which crowned the
central pavilion of the Tuileries Palace. The cupola of St. Peter's was
the model adopted in the early part of the sixteenth century by all
French architects who had studied in Italy, or Italian architects who
had settled in France; and the masterpiece of Michael Angelo at Rome was
not yet finished when the first stone of the impressive and picturesque
Church of Saint-Eustace was laid in 1532 at Paris. Only a few years
afterwards the French architect, Philibert de l'Orme, attached to the
service of Pope Paul III., returned to Paris, and, beneath the delighted
eyes of Queen Catherine de Medicis, worked out the designs which he had
formed under the inspiration of Michael Angelo and of Bramante. The
dome, however, of Philibert de l'Orme was destined to lose its beauty
through the additions made to it by other architects.
Of late years it has been the rule in Paris not to destroy but to
preserve the ancient architecture of the city. "Demolish the tower of
Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie?" asked Victor Hugo, when, during the
reconstruction and prolongation of the Rue Rivoli, the question of
keeping it standing or pulling it down was under general discussion:
"Demolish the tower of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie? No! Demolish the
architect who suggests such a thing? Yes!"