ON ANCIENT ABBEY GROUND
Numerous ancient streets and some modern ones, on time-honoured ground,
lead out of Rue Vaugirard. Rue Bonaparte, extending to the banks of the
Seine, was formed in 1852 of three old streets. Most of its houses are
ancient or show vestiges of past ages and have historic associations. At
No. 45 Gambetta dwelt in 1866. No. 36 was the home of Auguste Comte; on
the site of No. 35 was the kitchen of the great abbey St-Germain-des-Prés,
which stretched across the course of many streets in this district
(_see_ p. 201). No. 20, l’hôtel du duc de Vendôme, son of Henri IV and
Gabrielle d’Estrées. No. 19, hôtel de Rohan-Rochefort, where the wife of
the unfortunate due d’Enghien, shot at Vincennes, used to receive her
exiled husband in secret when he came in disguise to Paris. No. 17 is
noted as the office till recent years of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
first issued there in 1829 as a magazine of travel!
No. 14, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, on the site of the convent des
Petits-Augustins, founded by Margaret de Valois in 1605, of which some
walls remain and to which in the nineteenth century were added the
hôtels de Conti and de Bouillon, the latter known as hôtel de Chimay.
The nucleus of the works of art here seen was a collection of sculptures
and other precious relics saved from buildings shattered or suppressed
in the days of the Revolution, reverently laid in what was called at
first a _dépôt des ruines des Monuments_. The word _ruines_ was soon
omitted and the _dépôt_ became the Musée des Monuments Français, under
the able direction of Lenoir. But ruins are still to be seen there,
splendid and historic ruins--the façade of the château d’Anet, built for
Diane de Poitiers, and remains of many another superb _hôtel_ of bygone
ages. A beautiful chapel, paintings by Delaroche, and Ingres, statuary,
mouldings of Grecian and Roman sculpture, are among the treasures of the
Beaux-Arts. Nos. 1 and 3, forming l’hôtel de Chevandon, was inhabited at
one time by vicomte de Beauharnais, the Empress Joséphine’s first
husband.
[Illustration: L’ABBAYE ST-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS]
Rue des Beaux-Arts, opened a century ago, has ever been the habitation
of distinguished artists and men of letters. Rue Visconti, cut across
the Petit Pré-aux-Clercs, the Students’ Fields, in the sixteenth
century, bore till the middle of the nineteenth century the more
characteristic name Rue des Marais-St-Germain. The Visconti it
memoralizes was the architect of Napoléon’s tomb and of restoration work
at the Louvre. In its early years it was a resort of Huguenots, and
known therefore as the “Petite Genève.” It is very narrow and nearly
every house is ancient; Racine died either at No. 13 or at 21. No. 17
was the printing-house founded by de Balzac, to whom it brought ruin.
No. 21, hôtel de Ranes.
Rue Jacob, lengthened in the nineteenth century by the Rue Colombier,
ancient Chemin-aux-Clercs, owes its name to a chapel built by Margaret
de Valois, la Reine Margot--dedicated to the Hebrew patriarch in
fulfilment of a vow when the Queen was kept in durance in Auvergne. The
street has always been the habitation of notable men of letters,
artists, etc. Sterne lived at No. 46. No. 47, Hôpital de la Charité,
another of Marie de’ Medici’s foundations, was built for the Frères de
St-Jean-de-Dieu. The firm of chemists at No. 48--Rouelle--dates from
1750, formerly on the opposite side of the street. At No. 19 we see in
the courtyard vestiges of the old abbey infirmary. The abbey gardens
stretched across the site of several houses here. No. 26, hôtel Lefèvre
d’Ormesson (1710). At No. 22 there is an eighteenth-century structure in
the court called “temple de l’Amitié.” At No. 20 dwelt the great
eighteenth-century actress, Adrienne Lecouvreur. In Rue Furstemburg we
find vestiges of the abbey stables and coach-house.
Rue de l’Abbaye, opened in the last year of the eighteenth century,
stretches across a line once in the heart of the famous abbey grounds.
The first church on the site of the fine old edifice we see there now,
was built under the direction of Germain, bishop of Paris, in the time
of Childebert, about the middle of the sixth century, dedicated to
St-Vincent and known as St-Vincent et Ste-Croix, on account of its
crucifix form. Bishop Germain added a monastery. In the ninth century
came the devastating Normans. The church and convent were destroyed to
be rebuilt on so grand and extensive a scale two centuries later,
strongly fortified, surrounded by a moat, watch-towers, etc.--a
masterpiece of thirteenth-century architecture. In the eighteenth
century the abbey prison was taken over by the State, the Garde
Française lodged there. In September, 1792 Mme Roland, Charlotte Corday
and many another notable prisoner of those terrible days were shut up
within its walls. The fine library and beautiful refectory were burnt
and there, that fatal September, saw some three hundred victims of
Revolutionary fury put to death, the greater number slain on the spot
where Rue Buonaparte touches the _place_ in front of the church. The
prison stood till 1857. The church is full within as without of
intensely interesting architectural and historic features: its tower is
the most ancient church tower of the city. In the little garden square
we see the ruins of the lady-chapel built by Pierre de Montereau,
architect of the Ste-Chapelle. The Gothic roof, the round-arched nave,
the splendid chapel of the Sacré-Cœur, once the church choir, with
its pillars coloured deep red, the wonderful capitals of the chancel,
the old glass in the chapel Ste-Geneviève, the tombs and the statues,
and Flandrin’s glorious frescoes, all appeal to the lover of the
beautiful and the historic. Of the houses in the vicinity of the church
many are ancient, others are on the site of abbey buildings swept away.
No. 3 Rue de l’Abbaye, the abbey palace, dates from 1586, built with a
subterranean passage by Cardinal Charles de Bourbon. The last abbot who
dwelt there was Casimir, King of Poland, whose tomb is in the church. In
modern times it has served as a studio and is now a dispensary. At No.
13 we see the last traces of the monastery with its thirteenth-century
cloister. At No. 15 Rue St-Benoît are the remains of an old tower; at
No. 11 vestiges of an ancient wall; at No. 2, an old house once the
abode of Marc Orry, a famous printer of the days of Henri IV. Through
pipes down this old street water once flowed from the Seine to the
abbey, and it went by the name Rue de l’Égout. The painter of the last
portrait of Marie-Antoinette lived for some time at No. 17.
Rue du Four, i.e. Oven Street, the site in olden days of the abbey
bakehouse, and one of the most important streets of the abbey precincts,
bearing in its early days the royal name Chaussée du Roi, has been
almost entirely rebuilt in modern times. Here and there we find traces
of another age. Robespierre lived here.
Rue du Vieux-Colombier, recalling by its name the abbey dove-cot, has
known among its inhabitants Boileau, Lesage, the husband of Mme
Récamier. Few ancient houses are left there now. We see bas-reliefs at
No. 1.
Rue de Mézières is so called from the hôtel Mézières given in 1610 to
the Jesuits as their _noviciat_. No. 9 is ancient. Rue Madame, which it
crosses, existed under different names from the sixteenth century, part
of it as Rue du Gindre, a reference to the abbey bakehouse once near,
for a _gindre_ is the baker’s chief man. The name of Madame was given in
1790 to the part newly opened across the Luxembourg gardens by the new
occupant of the palace, the comte de Province, brother of Louis XVI, in
honour of his wife. That did not hinder the count from building in the
same street a fine mansion for his mistress, comtesse de Balbi, razed
some years ago. Flandrin lived at No. 54. Renan at No. 55. Rue Cassette
shows us a series of past-time houses, many of them associated with the
memory of notable persons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Alfred de Musset lived there. No. 12 was in the hands of the Carmelites
till the Revolution. No. 21 belonged to the Jesuits till their expulsion
in 1672. In the garden of No. 24 the vicar of St-Sulpice lay hidden
after escaping from the Carmes at the time of the Massacre. Rue
Honoré-Chevalier, in the days of Henri IV Rue du Chevalier Honoré, shows
in its name another link with the abbey bakehouse, for it was that of
the master-baker who cut the street across his own property.
The church St-Sulpice, with its very characteristic façade, the work of
Servandoni, was begun in the middle of the seventeenth century on the
site of a thirteenth-century church dedicated to St. Pierre, but was not
finished till nearly a century later. Servandoni’s towers were
disapproved of; one was demolished and rebuilt by Chalgrin. The other
remains as Servandoni designed it. Entering the church we see its walls
covered with frescoes and paintings; they are all by celebrated artists.
Those in the lady-chapel by Van Loo, the rest by Delacroix and other
masters of modern times. The high altar is unusually large. The shells
for holy water were a gift from the Republic of Venice to François I.
The pulpit with its carved figures was given by Richelieu. In the
Chapelle-des-Étudiants is an organ that belonged to Marie-Antoinette for
the use of her young son, and has been played by Glück and Mozart. A
sacrilegious fête was held in the church in Revolution days and a great
banquet given in honour of Napoléon. The grand organ is very fine, its
woodwork designed by Chalgrin. The services are noted for the beauty of
their music. The _place_ dates from 1800, built on the site of the
ancient seminary “des Sulpiciens,” razed by Napoléon. The present
Séminaire, no longer a seminary--forfeited to the State in 1906--was
built in 1820-25. The immense fountain was put up there nearly half a
century later, an old smaller one taken away.
Almost parallel with Rue Bonaparte the old Rue de Seine stretches from
the banks of the river to Rue St-Sulpice. It dates in its most ancient
part from 1250 as the Pré-aux-Clercs road. No. 1 is a dependency of the
Institute. No. 6 is on the site of a _palais_ built by la Reine Margot
on leaving l’hôtel de Sens, some traces of which are seen among the
buildings on the spot, and part of the Queen’s gardens. No. 10 was
formerly the Art School of Rosa Bonheur. At No. 12 are vestiges of
l’hôtel de la Roche-Guyon and Turenne (1620). Nos. 41, 42, 57, 56, 101
show interesting seventeenth-century features. Rue Mazarine is another
parallel street--a street of ancient houses. No. 12 is notable as the
site of the Jeu de Paume, a tennis-court, where in 1643 Molière set up
his Illustre théâtre. No. 30, hôtel des Pompes, where died in 1723 the
founder of the Paris Fire Brigade; a remarkable man he ... an actor in
Molière’s troup, the father of thirty-two children! On the site of No.
42 stood once another tennis-court, which became the théâtre Guénégaud,
where the first attempts at Opera were made.
Rue de Nesle, till the middle of last century Rue d’Anjou-Dauphine,
stretches across the site of part of the famous hôtel de Nesle; a
subterranean passage formerly ran beneath it. The interesting house No.
8 is one of the many said to be a palace of la Reine Blanche, the mother
of St. Louis. There were, however, as a matter of fact, many “Reines
Blanches” in France in olden times, for royal French widows wore white,
not black for mourning.
Rue de Nevers (thirteenth century) was in past days closed at both ends
and called therefore Rue des Deux-Portes. In Rue Guénégaud we find at
No. 29 a tower of Philippe-Auguste’s wall. All its houses are ancient.
At No. 1 we see the remains of a famous théâtre des Marionnettes.
Rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, in a line with Rue Mazarine, erewhile Rue des
Fossés-St-Germain, is full of historic memories. The Café Procope at No.
13, now a restaurant, was the first café opened in Paris (1689). Noted
men of every succeeding century drank, talked, made merry or aired their
grievances within its walls: modern paintings there record the features
of some of them. No. 14 was the theatre from which the street takes its
name, succeeded by the Odéon (_see_ p. 184). Rue Grégoire-de-Tours shows
us several curious old houses. At No. 32 we see finely chiselled statues
on the façade. Rue de Buci, originally Rue de Bussy from the
_buis_--box-bush--once growing there, the ecclesiastical “Via Sancti
Germani de Pratis,” later Rue du Pilori, passed in ancient days through
Philippe-Auguste’s wall by a great gate with two towers opened for the
purpose. For it was an all-important thoroughfare. The _carrefour_
whence it started was the busiest spot of the whole district. Persons of
ill-repute or evil conduct were chained there; those condemned to death
were hung there. Sedan chairs for the peaceable were hired there.
Thither Revolutionist volunteers flocked to be enrolled in 1792, and
there the first of the September massacres was perpetrated. Most of the
ancient buildings along its course have been replaced by modern
structures. The street has been in part widened; the site of some old
structures lately razed has not yet been built on.
Rue Dauphine, named in honour of the son of Henri IV, later Louis XIII,
dates from 1607. Most of the houses date from that century or the
century following. Rue Mazet, opening out of it at No. 49, was famed in
past days for the old inn and coaching station--“le Cheval Blanc.” It
existed from 1612 to 1906. Near it was the restaurant Magny, where
literary lions of the early years of the nineteenth century--G. Sand,
Flaubert, the Goncourts, etc.--met and dined. Some old houses still
stand there.
[Illustration: COUR DE ROHAN]
Rue St-André-des-Arts, where in ancient days dwelt the makers and
vendors of “arcs,” i.e. bows, and along which the pious passed to pray
at St-André on abbey territory for those who had suffered death by
burning, (_les Arsis_) was in long-gone times a vine-bordered path
reaching to the city wall. It was known at one time as Rue St-Germain,
and was a great shoemaking street. It is rich in vestiges of the past.
Almost every house has interesting features. The modern Lycée Fénelon at
No. 45, the first girls’ _lycée_ in Paris, stands on the site of the
ancient _hôtel_ of the ducs d’Orléans. No. 52, hôtel du
Tillet-de-la-Bussière. Nos. 47-49, on the site of the ancient mansion of
the Kings of Navarre and of the Vieuville, of which some traces are
still seen. At No. 11, a house on the site of the _place_ where stood
the old church, Gounod was born in 1818. Opening out of it is the
Passage du Commerce-St-André, cut in 1776, across the site of
Philippe-Auguste’s great wall of which, at No. 4, we find the base of a
tower, and in the Cour de Rohan, more correctly perhaps Rouen, a very
perfect fragment of the city rampart. The archbishops of Rouen had an
_hôtel_ here, and the vestiges we see before us are those of a mansion
built on its site by King Henri II for Diane de Poitiers. Rue des
Grands-Augustins, in part on the site of an ancient Augustine convent,
was, in the thirteenth century, Rue l’Abbé de St-Denis. Many of its
houses show interesting traces of the past. The reputed restaurant
Lapérouse at No. 1 is a Louis XV _hôtel_. At No. 5 and No. 7 remains of
the ancient hôtel d’Hercule, noted for its mythological paintings and
tapestries, once the Paris abode of the princess of Savoie Carignan. At
No. 3 Rue Pont de Lodi, opening at No. 6, we see traces of the convent
refectory. Littré was born at No. 21 (1808). In 1841 Heine lived at No.
25. Sardou in his youth at No. 26. Augustin Thierry lived for ten years
in a house near the quay.
Almost every house in Rue Christine, named after the second daughter of
Henri IV, dates from the seventeenth century.