ROUND ABOUT THE CARREFOUR DE LA CROIX-ROUGE
Passing to the western half of the arrondissement, we turn into the
modern Rue de Rennes, running south from Place St-Germain-des-Prés along
the lines of razed convent buildings or their vanished gardens. The
short Rue Gozlin opening out of it dates from the thirteenth century,
its present name recording that of a bishop of Paris who defended the
city against invading Normans in the ninth century. Two only of the
houses we see there now are ancient, Nos. 1 and 5. At No. 50 we see the
seventeenth-century entrance of the old Cour du Dragon, with its balcony
and huge piece of sculpture dating from 1735; the quaint houses of the
alley, with its gutter in the middle, were in past days the habitation
of ironmongers. It leads down into the old Rue du Dragon, which began as
Rue du Sépulcre, being then the property of the monks of St-Sépulcre. A
fine _hôtel_ stood once at either end. At No. 76 we see the remains of a
mansion, taken later for a convent, where Bossuet sojourned. Nos.
147-127 are on the site of a Roman cemetery.
Rue Cherche-Midi, once Chasse-Midi, takes its name from an ancient
sign-board illustrating the old French proverb: “Chercher midi à
quatorze heures,” i.e. to look for something wide of the mark. Many
old-time houses still stand along its course. It starts from the
Carrefour de la Croix-Rouge, where, before a cross in the centre of the
Carrefour, criminals and political offenders were put to death. The name
is probably due to a sign-board rather than to the alleged colour of
this cross. In this quiet spot, as historians have remarked, a flaring
red cross would hardly have been in keeping with the temper of its
patrician inhabitants. The Revolutionists called it Carrefour du
Bonnet-Rouge. At No. 12 we see a fine _grille_. One of the most
interesting historically inhabited _hôtels_ of the city stood till 1907
on the site of No. 37, in olden times the dependency of a convent,
latterly hôtel des Conseils-de-Guerre, razed to make way for the
brand-new boulevard Raspail. The military prison opposite is on the site
of a convent organized in the house of an exiled Calvinist, razed in
1851. Nos. 85, 87, 89, eighteenth century, belonged to a branch of the
Montmorency--knew successive inhabitants of historic fame and
illustrious name. A fine fountain is seen in the Cour des
Vieilles-Tuileries at No. 86. Several old shorter streets lead out of
this long one. In Rue St-Romain, named after an old-time Prior of
St-Germain-des-Prés, we see the fine old hôtel de M. de Choiseul, now
the headquarters of the National Savings Bank. Rue St-Placide,
seventeenth century, recording the name of a celebrated Benedictine
monk, shows some ancient vestiges. Huysmans died at No. 31 in 1907. In
Rue Dupin, once Petite Rue du Bac, we see ancient houses at Nos. 19-12,
in the latter a carved wood Louis XIII staircase. Rue du Regard, another
“Chemin Herbu” of past days, records by its present name the existence
of an old fountain once here, now placed near the fountain Médici of the
Luxembourg gardens. The publishing house Didot at No. 3 is on the site
of a handsome ancient mansion once the home of the children of Mme de
Montespan, sacrificed to the boulevard Raspail in 1907. Nos. 5-7 date
from the first years of the eighteenth century. The doors of the Mont de
Pitié are all that is left of hôtel de la Guiche once on the site.
Rue de Sèvres, forming in the greater part of its course the boundary
between arrondissements VI and VII, running on into arrondissement XV,
was known familiarly in old days as Rue de la Maladrerie, on account of
its numerous hospitals. They are numerous still. At No. 11 and No. 13 we
find remains of the couvent des Prémontrés Réformés founded by Anne
d’Autriche, 1661. Rue Récamier was recently opened on the site of the
famous Abbaye-aux-Bois, where for thirty years Mme de Récamier lived the
“simple life,” courted none the less by a crowd of ardent admirers--the
_tout Paris_ of that day. The Abbaye, as a convent, counted notable
women among its abbesses; at the Revolution it was suppressed and let
out in flats till its regrettable demolition in 1908. The Square Potain
close by, now known as Square du Bon Marché, is on the site of a
leper-house which dated from the reign of Philippe-Auguste. A convent
and adjoining buildings of ancient date were destroyed to allow
boulevard Raspail to pursue its course. An old house still stands at No.
26; vestiges at No. 31. At No. 42 we see the Hospice des Incurables,
founded in 1634 by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld and known since 1878 as
l’Hospice Laennec. Here in 1819 died the woman Simon, the jailer of the
little dauphin “Louis XVII,” after a sojourn of twenty-five years. The
minister Turgot and other persons of note lie buried in the chapel. The
Egyptian fountain dates from 1806. At No. 84 we see very recently
erected houses let out in flats on the site of the couvent des Oiseaux,
dating from the early years of the eighteenth century--the prison du
Bonnet Rouge during the Revolution, a convent school and _pension_ in
1818 till its suppression in 1906. The “Oiseaux”--birds--were perhaps
those of an aviary, or maybe those painted by Pigalle on the walls of
one of the rooms. The Lazarist convent at No. 95 was previously a
private mansion dating from the time of Louis XV. The chapel dates from
1827 and sheltered for some years the remains of St-Vincent-de-Paul. In
the eighteenth century, on the site of No. 125, wild beast fights took
place. The last numbers of the street are in arrondissement XV. There we
see the ancient Benedictine convent, suppressed in 1779--become
l’Hôpital Necker. The hospital at No. 149 began life in 1676 as a
community of “_gentilshommes_”; seventy years later it was the “Maison
Royale de l’Enfant-Jésus” under the patronage of Marie Leczinska,
enlarged by the gift of an adjoining mansion. Closed at the Revolution,
it served for a time as a coal-store, then became a National orphanage,
and in 1802 the “Enfants Malades”; its ancient chapel was replaced by
the chapel we see under Napoléon III.