IN THE VALLEY OF THE BIÈVRE
Emphatically a street of the past is the old Rue Mouffetard, its name a
corruption perhaps of Mont Cérarius, the name of the district under the
Romans, or derived maybe from the old word _mouffettes_, referring to
the exhalations of the Bièvre, flowing now below ground here, never very
odorous since the days when, coming sweet and clear from the southern
slopes, it was put to city uses, industrial and other, on entering
Paris. Every house along the course of this street has some curious
old-time feature, an ancient sign, an old well, old doors, old
courtyards. Quaint old streets lead out of it. The market on the _place_
by the old church St-Médard extends up its slope.
In the sordid shops which flourish on the ground-floor of almost every
house, or on stalls set on the threshold, one sees an assortment of
foodstuffs rarely brought together in any other corner of the city, and
articles of clothing of most varied kind and style and date.
The church dating from the twelfth century, partially rebuilt and
restored in later times, was for several centuries a dependency of the
abbey Ste-Geneviève. Its graveyard, for long past a market-place and a
square, was in the eighteenth century the scene of the notorious
_scandale Médard_. Among the graves of noted Jansenists buried there
miraculous cures were supposed to take place. Women and girls fell into
ecstasies. The number of these convulsionists grew daily. At last the
King, Louis XV, ordered the cemetery to be closed. A witty inhabitant of
the district managed to get near one of the tombstones the morning after
the King’s command was made known and wrote thereon:
“De par le Roi, défense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu.”
[Illustration: RUE MOUFFETARD ET ST-MÉDARD]
It is the parish of the Gobelins and a beautiful piece of Gobelins
tapestry hangs over the vestry door. Fragments of ancient glass, a
picture by Watteau, others by Philippe de Champaigne, beautiful woodwork
and the quaintness of its architecture make the old church intensely
interesting.
At No. 81 of this old-time street we find vestiges of a
seventeenth-century chapel. At No. 52 ancient gravestones. The fountain
at No. 60 dates from 1671. The house No. 9 is on the site of the Porte
Marcel of bygone days.
Rue Broca, in the vicinity of St-Médard, dating from the twelfth
century, when it was Rue de Lourcine, has many curious old houses. The
houses of Rue du Pôt-de-fer are all ancient, as are most of those in Rue
St-Médard. At No. 1 of Place de la Contre Scarpe close by, a modern
_place_, an inscription marks the site of the Cabaret de la “Pomme de
Pin,” celebrated by the eulogies of Ronsard and Rabelais.