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HISTORIC PARIS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE STORY OF THE CHURCHES OF PARIS
[Illustration: LA TOUR DE L’HORLOGE, LES “TOURS POINTUES” DE LA
CONCIERGERIE ET LE MARCHÉ AUX FLEURS
_Frontispiece_]
HISTORIC PARIS
BY JETTA S. WOLFF
WITH FIFTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXXI
_The Mayflower Press, Plymouth, England._ William Brendon & Son, Ltd.
TO
LA FRANCE
THE BEAUTIFUL--THE VALOROUS
PREFACE
This book, begun many years ago, was laid aside under the stress of
other work, which did not, however, hinder the sedulous amassing of
notes during my long and continuous residence in Paris. The appearance
of the Marquis de Rochegude’s exhaustive work, on somewhat the same
lines in a more extensive compass, took me by surprise, and I thought
for a moment that it would render my book superfluous. The vast
concourse of English-speaking people brought hither by the great war,
people keen to learn the history of the beautiful old buildings they
find here on every side, made me understand that an English book of
relatively small compass was needed, and I set to work to finish the
volume planned and begun so long ago.
I had made the personal acquaintance and consequent notes of most of the
ancient “Stones of Paris” before looking up published notes concerning
them. When such notes were looked up, I can only say their sources were
far too numerous and too scattered to be recorded here. I must beg every
one who may have published anything worth while on Old Paris to receive
my thanks, for I have doubtless read their writings with interest and
benefit. But I must offer special thanks to M. de Rochegude,
for--writing under pressure to get the book ready for press--his work
as a reference book, while pursuing my own investigations, has been
invaluable.
To my readers I would say peruse what I have written, but use your own
eyes, your own keen observation for learning much more than could be
noted here. Look into every courtyard in the ancient quarters, look
attentively at every dwelling along the old winding streets, and fail
not to look up to their roofs. The roofs are never alike. They are
strikingly picturesque. Old world builders did not work mechanically,
did not raise streets in machine-like style, each structure exactly like
its neighbour, one street barely distinguishable from the street running
parallel or crossing it, according to the habit of to-day. The builders
of _les jours d’antan_ loved their craft; every single house gave scope
for some artistic trait. The roofs offered a fine field for
architectural ingenuity: wonderfully planned windows, chimneys,
balconies, gables are to be seen on the roofs often in most unexpected
corners, in every part of the _Vieux Paris_. Look up!--I cannot urge
this too strongly. And within every old _hôtel_--the French term for
private house or mansion--examine each staircase. In the erection of a
staircase the architect of past ages found grand scope for graceful
lines, and exquisite workmanship. Thus walks even through the dimmest
corners of _la Ville Lumière_ will be for lovers of old-time vestiges a
joy for ever.
This was an iconoclastic age even before the destructiveness of the
awful war just over. Precious architectural and historical relics were
swept away to make room for brand-new buildings. As it has been
impossible during the past months to verify in every instance the
up-to-date accuracy of notes made previously, it is probable that some
old structures referred to in these pages as still standing may no
longer be found on the spot indicated. But whether in such cases their
site be now an empty space, or occupied by newly built walls, it cannot
fail to be interesting as the site where a vanished historic structure
stood erewhile.
JETTA SOPHIA WOLFF.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THREE PALACES 1
II. AMONG OLD STREETS 22
III. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE GREAT MARKETS 35
IV. THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE 45
V. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE 51
VI. ROUND ABOUT ARTS ET MÉTIERS (THE ARTS AND CRAFTS INSTITUTION) 62
VII. THE TEMPLE 70
VIII. THE HOME OF MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ 81
IX. NOTRE-DAME 86
X. L’ÎLE ST-LOUIS 92
XI. L’HÔTEL DE VILLE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 94
XII. THE OLD QUARTIER ST-POL 112
XIII. La Place des Vosges 119
XIV. The Bastille 123
XV. In the Vicinity of Two Ancient Churches 126
XVI. In the Region of the Schools 137
XVII. La Montagne Ste-Geneviève 144
XVIII. IN THE VALLEY OF THE BIÈVRE 149
XIX. RUE ST-JACQUES 152
XX. LE JARDIN DES PLANTES 155
XXI. THE LUXEMBOURG 162
XXII. LES CARMES 168
XXIII. ON ANCIENT ABBEY GROUND 170
XXIV. IN THE VICINITY OF PLACE ST-MICHEL 181
XXV. L’ODÉON 184
XXVI. ROUND ABOUT THE CARREFOUR DE LA CROIX-ROUGE 186
XXVII. HÔTEL DES INVALIDES 190
XXVIII. OLD-TIME MANSIONS OF THE RIVE GAUCHE 194
XXIX. ANCIENT STREETS OF THE FAUBOURG SAINT-GERMAIN 203
XXX. THE MADELEINE AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD 208
XXXI. LES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES 213
XXXII. FAUBOURG ST-HONORÉ 216
XXXIII. PARC MONCEAU 221
XXXIV. IN THE VICINITY OF THE OPERA 223
XXXV. ON THE WAY TO MONTMARTRE 227
XXXVI. ON THE SLOPES OF THE _BUTTE_ 232
XXXVII. THREE ANCIENT FAUBOURGS 236
XXXVIII. IN THE PARIS “EAST END” 243
XXXIX. ON TRAGIC GROUND 246
XL. LES GOBELINS 251
XLI. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF PORT-ROYAL 256
XLII. IN THE SOUTH-WEST 260
XLIII. IN NEWER PARIS 263
XLIV. TOWARDS THE WESTERN BOUNDARY 269
XLV. LES TERNES 276
XLVI. ON THE _BUTTE_ 278
XLVII. AMONG THE COALYARDS AND THE MEAT-MARKETS 290
XLVIII. PÈRE-LACHAISE 292
XLIX. BOULEVARDS--QUAYS--BRIDGES 297
L. LES BOULEVARDS EXTÉRIEURS 309
LI. THE QUAYS 320
LII. LES PONTS 337
ILLUSTRATIONS
La Tour de L’Horloge, les “Tour pointues” de la
Conciergerie et le Marché aux Fleurs _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Le Vieux Louvre 3
The Louvre of To-day 5
Palais des Tuileries 9
Palais-Royal 15
L’Église St-Germain-l’Auxerrois 20
Place et Colonne Vendôme 31
Portail de St-Eustache 37
La Tour de L’Horloge, les “Tours Pointues” de
la Conciergerie et le Marché aux Fleurs 46
La Sainte-Chapelle 48
Rue Quincampoix 63
St-Nicolas-des-Champs 65
Rue Beaubourg 67
La Porte du Temple 71
Porte de Clisson 75
Ruelle de Sourdis 77
Hôtel Vendôme, Rue Béranger 79
Notre-Dame 87
Rue Massillon 89
Place de Grève 95
La Tour St-Jacques 97
View across the Seine from Place du Châtelet 99
Rue Brisemiche 101
L’Église St-Gervais 103
Hôtel de Beauvais, Rue François-Miron 105
Rue Vieille-du-Temple 109
Rue Éginhard 113
Rue du Prévôt 115
Hôtel de Sens 117
Rue de Birague, Place des Vosges 121
La Bastille 124
Rue St-Séverin 127
Église St-Séverin 129
Hôtel Louis XV, Rue de la Parcheminerie 131
St-Julien-le-Pauvre 133
Bas-relief, Rue Galande 134
Le Musée de Cluny 139
St-Étienne-du-Mont 145
Interior of St-Étienne-du-Mont 147
Rue Mouffetard et St-Médard 150
Jardin et Palais du Luxembourg 163
L’Abbaye St-Germain-des-Prés 171
Cour de Rohan 179
Rue Hautefeuille 183
Castel de la Reine Blanche 253
La Salpétrière 255
Rue des Eaux, Passy 271
St-Pierre de Montmartre 281
Vieux Montmartre, Rue St-Vincent 282
Rue Mont-Cenis: Chapelle de la Trinité 283
Vieux Montmartre: Cabaret du Lapin-Agile 284
Moulin de la Galette 287
Le Mur des Fédérés 295
Old Well at Salpétrière 311
Cloître de l’Abbaye de Port-Royal 315
Remains of the Convent des Capucins 317
Hôtel de Fieubet, Quai des Célestins 325
Quai des Grands-Augustins 333
Le Pont des Arts et l’Institut 338
Pont-Neuf 339
HISTORIC PARIS
CHAPTER I
THREE PALACES
THE LOUVRE
The Louvre has existed on the selfsame site from the earliest days of
the history of Paris and of France. It began as a rough hunting-lodge,
erected in the time of the _rois fainéants_--the “do-nothing” kings: a
primitive hut-like construction in the dark wolf-haunted forest to the
north of the settlement on the islets of the Seine, called Leutekia, the
city of mud, on account of its marshy situation, or Loutouchezi, the
watery city, by its Gallic settlers, by the Romans Lutetia
Parisiorum--the Paris of that long-gone age. The name Louvre, therefore,
may possibly be derived from the Latin Word _lupus_, a wolf. More
probably its origin is the old word _leouare_, whence lower, louvre: a
habitation.
Lutetia grew in importance, and the royal hunting-lodge in its vicinity
was made into a fortress. The city of mud was soon known by the tribe
name only, Parisii-Paris, and the Louvre, freed from surrounding forest
trees, came within the city bounds. It was gradually enlarged and
strengthened. A white circle in the big court shows the site of the
famous gate between two Grosses Tours built in the time of the
warrior-king Philippe-Auguste. Twelve towers of smaller dimensions were
added by Charles V. Each tower had its own special battalion of
soldiers. The inner chambers of each had their special use. In the Tour
du Trésor, the King kept his money and portable objects of great value.
In the Tour de la Bibliothèque were stored the books of those days,
first collected by King Charles V, and which formed the nucleus of the
National Library. Charles V made many other additions and adornments,
and the first clocks known in France were placed in the Louvre in the
year 1370. About the same time a primitive stove--a _chauffe-poële_--was
first put up there. The grounds surrounding the fortress were laid out
with care, the chief garden stretching towards the north. A menagerie
was built and peopled; nightingales sang in the groves. The palace
became a sumptuous residence. Sovereigns from foreign lands were
received by the Kings of France with great pomp in “_Notre Chastel du
Louvre, où nous nous tenons le plus souvent quand nous sommes en notre
ville de Paris_.”
The Louvre was the scene of two of the most important political events
of the fourteenth century. In the year 1303, when Philippe-le-Bel was
King, the second meeting of that imposing assembly of barons, prelates
and lesser magnates of the realm which formed, as a matter of fact, the
first _états généraux_ took place there. In 1358, at the time of the
rising known as the Jacquerie, Étienne Marcel, Prévôt des Marchands,
made the Louvre his headquarters. In the fourteenth century a King of
England held his court there: Henry V, victorious after Agincourt, kept
Christmas in great state in Paris at the Louvre.
[Illustration: LE VIEUX LOUVRE]
The royal palaces of those days, like great abbeys, were fitted with
everything that was needed for their upkeep and the sustenance of their
staff. Workmen, materials, provisions were at hand, all on the premises.
A farm, a Court of Justice, a prison were among the most essential
elements of palace buildings and domains. Yet the Louvre with its
prestige and its immense accommodation was never inhabited continuously
by the Kings of France, and in the sixteenth century the Palace was so
completely abandoned as to be on the verge of ruin. Then François I,
looking forward to the state visit of the Emperor Charles-Quint, sent
workmen in haste and in vast numbers to the Louvre, to repair and
enlarge. Pierre Lescot, the most distinguished architect of the day,
took the great task in hand. The Grosse Tour had already been razed to
the ground. The ancient walls to the south and west were now knocked
down. One wall of the Salle des Cariatides, and the steps leading from
the underground parts of the palace to the ground floor, are all that
remain of the Louvre of Philippe-Auguste.
It is from this sixteenth-century restoration that the Old Louvre as we
know it dates in its chief lines. Much of the work of decoration was
done by Jean Goujon and by Paul Pouce, a pupil of Michael Angelo. But
the Louvre nevermore stood still. Thenceforward each successive
sovereign, at some period of his reign, took the palace in hand to
beautify, rebuild or enlarge--sometimes, however, getting little beyond
the designing of plans. Richelieu, that arch-conceiver of plans,
architectural as well as political, would fain have enlarged the old
palace on a very vast scale. His King, Louis XIII, laid the first stone
of the Tour de l’Horloge. As soon as the wars of the Fronde were over,
Louis XIV, the greatest builder of that and succeeding ages, determined
to enlarge in his own grand way. An Italian architect of repute was
summoned from Italy; but he and Louis did not agree, and the Italian
went back to his own land.
[Illustration: THE LOUVRE OF TO-DAY]
The grand Colonnade, on the side facing the old church,
St-Germain-l’Auxerrois, was built between the years 1667-80 by Claude
Perrault. The façade facing the quay to the south was then added. After
the death of the King’s active statesman, Colbert, work at the Louvre
stopped. The fine palace fell from its high estate. It may almost be
said to have been let out in tenements. Artists, savants, men of
letters, took rooms there--_logements!_ The Louvre was, as a matter of
fact, no longer a royal palace. Its “decease” as a king’s residence
dates from the death of Colbert. The Colonnade was restored in 1755 by
the renowned architect, Gabriel, and King Louis XVI first put forward
the proposition of using the palace as a great National Museum. It was
the King’s wish that all the best-known, most highly valued works of art
in France should be collected, added to the treasures of the _Cabinet du
Roi_, and placed there. The Revolutionary Government put into effect the
guillotined King’s idea. The names of its members may be read inscribed
on two black marble slabs up against the wall of the circular
ante-chamber leading to the Galerie d’Apollon, where are preserved and
shown the ancient crown jewels of France, the beautiful enamels of
Limoges and many other precious treasures once the possession of
royalty. This grand gallery, planned and begun by Lebrun in the
seventeenth century, is modern, built in the nineteenth century by
Duban.
The First Empire saw the completion of the work begun by the
Revolutionists. In the time of Napoléon I the marvellous collection of
pictures, statuary, art treasures of every description, was duly
arranged and classified. The building of the interior court was finished
in 1813.
On the establishment of the Second Empire, Napoléon III set himself the
task of completely restoring the Louvre and extending it. The Pavillon
de Flore was then rebuilt, joining the ancient palace with the
Tuileries, which for two previous centuries had been the habitation of
French monarchs.
After the disasters of 1870-71 restoration was again undertaken, but
though the Tuileries had been burnt to the ground the Louvre had
suffered comparatively little damage.
Within its walls the Louvre has undergone drastic changes since its
conversion from a royal palace to a National Museum. The Salle des Fêtes
of bygone ages has become the Salle Lacaze with its fine collection of
masterpieces. What was once the King’s Cabinet, communicating with the
south wing, where in her time Marie de’ Medici had her private rooms, is
known as the Salle des Sept Cheminées, filled with examples of early
nineteenth-century French art.
In the Salle Carrée, where Henri IV was married, and where the murderers
of President Brisson met their fate by hanging--swung from the beams of
the ceiling now finely vaulted--masterpieces of all the grandest epochs
in art are brought together; from among them disappeared in 1911 the now
regained Mona Lisa. Painting, sculpture, works of art of every kind,
every age and every nation fill the great halls and galleries of the
Louvre. We cannot attempt a description of its treasures here. Let all
who love things of beauty, all who take pleasure in learning the
wonderful results of patient work, go and see[A].
Nor can I recount here the numberless incidents, the historic happenings
of which the Louvre was the scene. It is customary to point out the
gilded balcony from which Charles IX is popularly supposed to have fired
upon the Huguenots, or to have given the signal to fire, on that fatal
night of St-Bartholemew, 1572. But the balcony was not yet there. Nor is
it probable the young King fired from any other balcony or window. Shots
were fired maybe from the palace by men less timorous.
On the Seine side of the big court is the site of the ancient Gothic
Porte Bourbon, where Admiral Coligny was first struck and Concini shot
through the heart. In our own time we have the startling theft of the
Joconde from the Salle Carrée, its astonishing return, and the hiding
away of the treasures in the days of war, of air-raids and long-range
guns and threatened invasion, to strike our imagination. “The great
black mass,” which the enemy aviator saw on approaching Paris, and knew
it must be the Louvre, grand, majestic, undisturbed, is the most notable
monument of Paris and of France.
THE TUILERIES
The Palace has gone, burnt to the ground in the war year 1870-71. The
gardens alone remain, those beautiful Tuileries gardens, the brightest
spot on the right bank of the Seine. Several moss-grown pillars, some
remnants of broken arches, the pillars and frontal of the present Jeu de
Paume and of the Orangery, are all that is left to-day of the royal
dwelling that erewhile stood there. The palace was built at the end of
the sixteenth century by Catherine de’ Medici to replace the ancient
palace Les Tournelles, in the Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, where
King Henri II had died at a festive tournament, his eye and brain
pierced by the sword of his great general, Comte de Montmorency. Queen
Catherine hated the sight of the palace where her husband had died thus
tragically. Its destruction was decreed; and the Queen commanded the
erection in its stead of the _magnifique bâtiment de l’Hôtel royal, dit
des Tuileries des Parisiens, parcequ’il y avait autrefois une Tuilerie
au dit lieu_.
The site of that big tile-yard was in those days outside the city
boundary. The architect, Philibert Delorme, set to work with great
ardour. A rough road was made leading from the _bac_, i.e. the ford
across the Seine, now spanned near the spot by the Pont Royal, to the
quarries in the neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-des-Champs and Vaugirard,
whence stone was brought. Thus was born the well-known Rue du Bac. The
palace was from the first surrounded by a fine garden, separated until
the time of Louis XIV from the Seine on the one side, from the palace on
the other, by a _ruelle_; i.e. a narrow street, a lane.
[Illustration: PALAIS DES TUILERIES]
Catherine took up her abode at the new palace as soon as it was
habitable; but the Queen-Mother was restless and oppressed, haunted by
presentiments of evil. An astrologer had told her she would meet her
death beneath the ruins of a mansion in the vicinity of the church,
St-Germain-l’Auxerrois. She left her new palace, therefore, bought the
site of several houses, appropriated the ground and buildings of an old
convent in the neighbourhood of St-Eustache, had erected on the spot a
fine dwelling: l’hôtel de la Reine, known later as l’hôtel de Soissons,
where we see to-day the Bourse de Commerce. One column of the Queen’s
palace still stands there, within it a narrow staircase up which she
was wont to climb with her Italian astrologer.
Meanwhile, the Tuileries palace showed no signs of ruin--quite the
reverse. Catherine’s son, Charles IX, had a bastion erected in the
garden on the Seine side; a small dwelling-house, a pond, an aviary, a
theatre, an echo, a labyrinth, an orangery, a shrubbery were soon added.
Henri IV began a gallery to join the new palace to the Louvre, a work
accomplished only under Louis XIV. Under Henri’s son, Louis XIII, the
Tuileries was the centre of the smart life of the day; visitors of
distinction, but not of royal rank, were often entertained in royal
style in the pavilion in the garden. Under Louis XIV the King’s renowned
garden-planner, Le Nôtre, took in hand the spacious grounds and made of
them the Jardin des Tuileries, so famous ever since. The fine statues by
Coustou, Perrault, Bosi, etc., were soon set up there. The _manège_ was
built--a club and riding-school stretching from what is now the Rue de
Rivoli from the then Rue Dauphine, now Rue St-Roch, to Rue Castiglione.
There the _jeunesse dorée_ of the day learned to hold in hand their
fiery thoroughbreds. The cost of subscription was 4000 francs--£160--a
year, a vast sum then. Each member was bound to have his personal
servant, duly paid and fed. A swing-bridge was set across the moat on
the side of the waste land, soon to become Place Louis XV, now Place de
la Concorde.
The Garden was not accessible to the public in those days. Until the
outbreak of the Revolution, the _noblesse_ or their privileged
associates alone had the right to pace its alleys. Soldiers were never
permitted to walk there. Once a year only, a great occasion, its gates
were thrown open to the _peuple_.
A period of neglect followed upon the fine work done under Louis XIV.
His successor cared nothing for the Tuileries palace and grounds. They
fell into a most lamentable state; and, when in the troublous days of
the year 1789, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their little son took up
their abode at the Tuileries, the Dauphin looked round in disgust.
“Everything is very ugly here, _maman_,” he said. It was the Paris home
of the unhappy royal family thenceforth until they were led from the
shelter of its walls to the Temple prison. It was from the Tuileries
they made the unfortunate attempt to fly from France. Stopped at
Varennes, the would-be fugitives were led back to the palace across the
swing-bridge on the south-western side. Beneath the stately trees of the
garden the Swiss Guards were massacred soon afterwards. The
Revolutionary authorities had taken possession of the Riding-School, a
band of tricolour ribbon was stretched along its frontage and the
Assemblée Nationale, which had sat first in the old church, St-Pol, then
at the _archevêché_, installed itself there. There, under successive
governments, were decreed the division of France into departments, the
suppression of monastic orders, the suspension of the King’s royal power
after his flight. And there, in 1792, Louis XVI was tried, and after a
sitting lasting thirty-seven hours condemned to death. The Terrace was
nicknamed the Jardin National; sometimes it was called the Terre de
Coblentz, a sarcastic reference to emigrated nobles who erewhile had
disported there. In 1793, potatoes and other vegetables--food for the
population of Paris--grew on Le Nôtre’s flower-beds, replacing the gay
blossoms of happier times, even as in our own dire war days beans, etc.,
are grown in the park at Versailles, and the government of the day sat
in the Salle des Machines within the Palace walls.
On June 7th, 1794, the Tuileries palace and gardens were the scene of a
great Revolutionary fête. A few months later the body of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau was laid out in state in the dry _bassin_ before being carried
to the Panthéon. Revolutionary fêtes were a great feature of the day,
and Robespierre, in the intervals of directing the deadly work of the
Guillotine, devised the semi-circular flower-beds surrounded by stone
benches for the benefit of the weak and aged who gathered at those
merry-makings.
Then it was Napoléon’s turn. The Tuileries became an Imperial palace.
For Marie Louise awaiting the birth of the son it was her mission to
bear, a subterranean passage was made in order that the Empress might
pass unnoticed from the palace to the terrace-walk on the banks of the
Seine. The birth took place at the Tuileries, and a year or two later a
pavilion was built for the special use of the young “Roi de Rome.” At
the Tuileries, in the decisive year 1815, the chiefs of the Armies
allied against the Emperor met and camped.
Louis XVIII died there in 1824. In 1848, Louis-Philippe, flying before
the people in revolt, made his escape along the hidden passage cut in
1811 for Marie-Louise. The palace was then used as an ambulance for the
wounded and for persons who fell fainting in the Paris streets during
the tumults of that year. Its last royal master was Napoléon III. The
new Emperor set himself at once to restore, beautify and enlarge. The
great iron railing and the gates on the side of the Orangery were put up
in 1853. A _buvette_ for officers was built in the garden. The Prince
Imperial was born at the Tuileries in 1854. During the twenty years of
Napoléon’s reign, the Tuileries was the scene of gay, smart life. The
crash of 1870 was its doom. The Empress Eugénie fled from its shelter
after Sedan. The Commune set fire to its walls. Crumbling arches,
blackened pillars remained on the site of the palace until 1883. Then
they were razed, cleared away and flower-beds laid out, where grand
halls erewhile had stood. The big clock had been saved from destruction.
It was placed among the historic souvenirs of the Musée Carnavalet. The
Pavillon de Marsan of the Louvre, built by Louis XIV, and the Pavillon
de Flore joining the Tuileries, were rebuilt in 1874.
THE PALAIS-ROYAL
Crossing the Rue de Rivoli in the vicinity of the Louvre, we come to
another palace--the Palais-Royal--of less ancient origin than the Louvre
or the Tuileries, and never, strictly speaking, a royal palace. Built in
the earlier years of the seventeenth century by Louis XIII’s powerful
statesman, Cardinal Richelieu, it was known until 1643 as the
Palais-Cardinal. Richelieu had lived at 20 and 23 of the Place-Royale,
now Place des Vosges, and at the mansion known as the Petit Luxembourg,
Rue de Vaugirard. The great man determined to erect for himself a more
splendid residence, and made choice of the triangular site formed by the
Rue des Bons-Enfants, Rue St-Honoré and the city wall of Charles V,
whereon to build. Several big mansions encumbered the spot. Richelieu
bought them all, had their walls razed, gave the work of construction
into the hands of Jacques de Merrier. That was in the year 1629. The
central mansion was ready for habitation four years later; additions
were made, more _hôtels_ bought and razed during succeeding years. Not
content with mere courts and gardens around his palace, the Cardinal
acquired yet another mansion, the hôtel Sillery, in order to make upon
its site a fine square in front of his sumptuous dwelling. He did not
live to see its walls knocked down. A few days after the completion of
this purchase the famous statesman lay dead. It was then--a month or two
later--that the Palais-Cardinal became the Palais-Royal. By his will,
Richelieu bequeathed his palace to his King, Louis XIII, who died a few
months later. Anne d’Autriche, mother of the young Louis XIV, was living
at the Louvre which, in a continual state of reparation and enlargement,
was not a comfortable home. Richelieu’s fine new mansion tempted her. It
was truly of royal aspect and dimensions, and was fitted with all “the
modern conveniences and comforts” of that day. To quote the words of a
versifier of the time:
“Non, l’Univers ne peut rien voir d’égal.
Aux superbes dehors du Palais Cardinal.
Toute une ville entière avec pompe bâtie;
Semble d’un vieux fossé par miracle sortie.
Et nous fait présumer à ses superbes toits
Que tous ses habitants sont des Dieux ou des Rois.”
[Illustration: PALAIS-ROYAL]
In 1643 the Queen moved across to it with her family. When the King left
it in 1652, Henriette of England, widow of Charles I, lived there for a
time. In 1672 Louis XIV made it over to his brother the duc d’Orléans,
who did some rebuilding, but the most drastic changes were made in the
vast construction close upon Revolutionary days. Then, in 1784,
Philippe-Égalité, finding himself in an impecunious condition,
conceived a fine plan for making money. Round three sides of the
extensive garden of his palace he built galleries lined with premises to
let--shops, etc.--and opened out around them three public thoroughfares:
Rue de Valois, Rue Beaujolais, Rue Montpensier. The garden thus
truncated is the Jardin du Palais-Royal as we know it to-day. It was
even in those days semi-public. Parisians from all time have loved a
fine garden, and the population of the city resented this curtailment.
They resented more especially the mercantile spirit which had prompted
it.
It was in the year 1787 that the theatre known subsequently as the
Comédie Française, more familiarly the “Français,” was built. The
artistes of the _Variétés_ _Amusantes_ played there then, and for
several succeeding years. The theatre Palais-Royal had already been
built, bore many successive different names and became for a time the
Théâtre Montansier, later Théâtre de la Montagne. The fourth side of the
palace had been left unfinished. The duc d’Orléans had planned its
completion in magnificent style. The outbreak of the Revolution put a
stop to all such plans. Temporary wooden galleries had been built in
1784. They were burnt down in 1828 and replaced by the Galerie
d’Orléans, now let out in flats.
Richelieu was titular Superintendent-General of the Marine: some of the
friezes and bas-reliefs illustrative of this office, decorating the
Galerie des Proues, are still to be seen there. But of the great
statesman’s original palace comparatively little remains. The duc
d’Orléans, Regent for Louis XV, razed a great part of Richelieu’s
construction; many of the walls of the palace as we know it date from
his time--1702-23. Disastrous fires wrought havoc in 1763 and 1781. The
financially inspired transformations of Philippe-Égalité made in 1786,
and finally the incendiary work of the Commune in 1871, changed the
whole aspect of the palace. It went through many phases also during the
Revolution. Seized as national property, it was known for a time as
Palais-Égalité. Revolutionary meetings took place in its gardens.
Revolutionary clubs were organized in its galleries. The statue of
Camille Desmoulins, set up in recent years--1905--records that decisive
day, July 12th, 1789, when Desmoulins, haranguing the crowd, hoisted a
green cocarde in sign of hope. That garden was thenceforth through many
years the meeting-place of successive political agitators. In our own
day the Camelots du Roi met and agitated there.
Under Napoléon as Premier Consul, the Tribunat was established there in
a hall since razed. The Bourse de Commerce succeeded the Tribunat. Then
the Orléans regained possession of the palace and Prince Louis-Philippe
went thence to the hôtel de Ville, to return Roi des Français.
The galleries and the façade of the portico of the second court date
from the first half of the nineteenth century. The upheaval of 1848 and
the reign of Napoléon III resulted in further changes for the
Palais-Royal. It became for a time Palais-National, and was subsequently
put to military uses. Then King Jérôme took up his abode there, and was
succeeded by his son Prince Napoléon. The little Gothic Chapel where
Princess Clothilde was wont to pray serves now as a lumberroom. Prince
Victor, the husband of Princess Clémentine of Belgium, was born at the
Palais-Royal in 1862.
The galleries surrounding the garden are brimful of historic
associations. Besides the clubs, noted Revolutionary clubs which met in
the cafés, notorious gambling-houses existed there.
Galerie Montpensier, Nos. 7-12, is the ancient Café Corazza, the famous
rendezvous of the Jacobins, frequented later by Buonaparte, Talma, etc.;
36, once Café des Mille Colonnes, was so named from the multiple
reflection in surrounding mirrors of its twenty pillars. At 50 we see
the former Café Hollandais, which had as its sign a guillotine; at 57-60
the Café Foy, before the doors of which Desmoulins harangued the people
crowding there.
Galerie Beaujolais, No. 103--now a bar and dancing-hall--is the ancient
Café des Aveugles, where in the sous-sol an orchestra played, formed
entirely of blind men from the Quinze-Vingts, the hospital at first
close by then removed to Rue Charenton, while the Sans-Culottes met and
plotted. The mural portraits of notable Revolutionists seen there is
modern work.
Galerie de Valois, Nos. 119, 120, 121, Ombres Chinoises de Séraphin
(1784-1855) and Café Mécanique formed practically the first Express-Bar.
At 177, was formerly the cutler’s shop where Charlotte Corday bought the
knife to slay Marat.
Of the three streets made by the mercantile-minded duc d’Orléans the
walls of two still stand undisturbed. In Rue de Valois we see, at No. 1,
the ancient pavilion and passage leading from the Place de Valois,
formerly the Cour des Fontaines, where the inhabitants of Palais-Royal
drew their water; at 6-8 the restaurant, Bœuf à la mode, built by
Richelieu as hôtel Mélusine; at 10, the façade of hôtel de la
Chancellerie d’Orléans; at 20, hôtel de la Fontaine-Martel, inhabited
for a year by Voltaire, 1732-33. In Rue de Beaujolais we find the
theatre which began as Théâtre des Beaujolais, was for several years
towards the close of the eighteenth century a theatre of Marionnettes,
and is now Théâtre Palais-Royal. Then Rue de Montpensier--1784--shows us
interesting old windows, ironwork, etc.; Rue Montesquieu--1802--runs
where the Collège des Bons-Enfants once stood. The Mother-house of the
Restaurants Duval, so well known in every quarter of Paris, at No. 6, is
on the site of the ancient Salle Montesquieu, once a popular dancing
saloon, then a draper’s shop with the sign of “Le Pauvre Diable” where
the founder of the world-known Bon Marché was in his youth a salesman.
Three notable churches stand in the immediate vicinity of these three
palaces. The ancient St-Germain-l’Auxerrois, St-Roch, erewhile its
chapel of ease, and the Oratoire. St-Germain opposite the Louvre was the
Chapel Royal of past ages. Its bells pealed for royal weddings,
announced the birth of princes, tolled for royal deaths, rang on every
other occasion of great national importance. Its biggest bell sounded
the death-knell of the Protestants on the fatal eve of St-Bartholomew’s
Day, 1572. No part of the fine old church as its stands to-day dates
back as a whole beyond the fifteenth century, but a chapel stood on the
site as early as the year 560. A baptistery and a school were built
close to the chapel about a century later, and this early foundation was
the eldest daughter of Notre-Dame--the Paris Cathedral. After its
destruction by the invading Normans, it was rebuilt as a fine church by
Robert le Pieux, in the first years of the eleventh century, and no
doubt many of its ancient stones found a place in the walls of
successive rebuildings and restorations. The beautiful Gothic edifice is
rich in ancient glass, marvellous woodwork, pictures, statuary and
historic memorials.
[Illustration: L’ÉGLISE ST-GERMAIN-L’AUXERROIS]
The first stone of St-Roch, in the Rue St-Honoré, was laid by Louis XIV,
in 1653, but the church was not finished till nearly a century later. In
the walls of its Renaissance façade we see marks of the grape-shot--the
first ever used--that poured from the guns of the soldiers of the young
Corsican officer, Napoléon Buonaparte, in the year 1795. Buonaparte had
taken up his position opposite the church, facing the insurgent
_sectionnaires_ grouped on its broad steps. The fight that followed was
the turning-point in the early career of the young officer fated to
become for a time master of the city and of France. St-Roch is
especially interesting on account of its many monuments of notable
persons of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and its groups of
statuary. The Calvary of the Catechists’ Chapel, as seen through the
opened shutters over the altar in the Chapel of the Adoration, is of
striking effect.
The Oratory, Rue de Rivoli and Rue St-Honoré, was built during the early
years of the seventeenth century as the mother-church of the Society of
the Oratorians, founded in 1611, and served at times as the Chapel
Royal. The Revolution broke up the Society of the Oratorians, their
church was desecrated, secularized. In 1810, it was given to the
Protestants and has been ever since the principal French Protestant
Church of Paris. The statue of Coligny on the Rue de Rivoli side is
modern--1889.