IN NEWER PARIS
ARRONDISSEMENT XVI. (PASSY)
We have left far behind us now Old Paris, the Paris of the Kings of
France, of the upheaval of Revolution days. The 16th arrondissement,
save in the remotest corners of Passy and Auteuil, suburban villages
still in some respects, is the arrondissement of the “Nineteenth Century
and After.” Round about the Étoile the Napoléonic stamp is very evident.
It is the district of the French Empire, First and Second. The Arc de
Triomphe was Napoléon’s conception. The broad thoroughfare stretching as
Avenue des Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde, as Avenue de la
Grande Armée to the boundary of Neuilly, was planned by Napoléon I, as
were also the other eleven surrounding avenues. The erections of his day
and following years were well designed, well built, solid, systematical,
mathematically correct, excellent work as constructions--spacious, airy,
hygienic, but devoid of architectural poetry. The buildings of the
Second Empire were a little less well designed, less well built and yet
more symmetrical, with a very marked utilitarian stamp and a marked lack
of artistic inspiration. Those of a later date, with the exception of
some few edifices on ancient models, are, alas! for the most part,
utilitarian only--supremely utilitarian. Paris dwelling-houses of
to-day are, save for a fine _hôtel_ here and there, “_maisons de
rapport_,” where _rapport_ is plainly their all-prevailing _raison
d’être_. The new houses are one like the other, so like as to render new
streets devoid of landmarks: “_Où sont les jours d’Antan_,” when each
street, each house had its distinctive feature? Only in the Paris of
generations past.
Of Napoléon’s avenues seven, if we include the odd-number side of Avenue
des Champs-Élysées and of the Grande Armée, are in this arrondissement.
The beautiful Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne is due to Napoléon III, opened
in 1854, as Avenue de l’Impératrice. Handsome mansions line it on both
sides. One spot remained as it had been before the erection of all these
fine _hôtels_ until recent years--a rude cottage-dwelling stood there,
owned by a coal merchant who refused to sell the territory at any price.
Francs by the million were offered for the site--in vain. But it went at
last. In 1909 a private mansion worthy of its neighbour edifices was
built on the site.
Avenue Victor-Hugo began in 1826 as Avenue Charles X. From the short Rue
du Dôme, on high ground opening out of it, we see in the distance the
_dôme_ of the Invalides. To No. 117 the first _crêche_ opened in or near
Paris, at Chaillot (1844), was removed some years ago. Gambetta lived
for several years and died at No. 57, in another adjoining street, Rue
St-Didier. At No. 124 of the Avenue we see a bust of Victor-Hugo, who
died in 1885 in the house this one replaces. Place Victor-Hugo began in
1830 as Rond-Point de Charles X. The figure of the poet set up in 1902
is by Barrias. The church St-Honoré d’Eylau dates from 1852. It was
pillaged by the Fédérés in 1871. Lamartine passed the last year of his
life in a simple chalet near the square named after him; his statue
there dates from 1886.
General Boulanger lived at No. 3 Rue Yvon de Villarceau, opening out of
Rue Copernic. Rue Dosne is along the site of the extensive grounds left
by Thiers. At No. 46 Rond-Point Bugeaud we see the foundation Thiers, a
handsome _hôtel_ bequeathed by the widow of the statesman as an
institution for the benefit of young students of special aptitude in
science, philosophy, history.
Avenue d’Eylau, planned to be Place du Prince Impérial, possessed till
recently, in a courtyard at No. 11, three bells supposed to be those of
the ancient Bastille clock.
Avenue Malakoff, began in 1826 as Avenue St-Denis. At No. 66 we see the
chapel of ease of St-Honoré d’Eylau, of original style and known as the
Cité Paroissiale St-Honoré.
Avenue Kléber began in 1804 as Avenue du Roi de Rome. Beneath the
pavement at No. 79 there is a circular flight of steps built in 1786, to
go down to the Passy quarries.
Rue Galilée, opening out of it at No. 55, began as Rue des Chemin de
Versailles. Rue Belloy was formed in 1886 on the site of the ancient
Chaillot reservoirs.
Avenue d’Iéna lies along the line of the ancient Rue des Batailles de
Chaillot, where, in 1593, without the city bounds, Henri IV and
Gabrielle d’Estrées had a house. Rue Auguste-Vaquerie is the former Rue
des Bassins. The Anglican church there dedicated to St-George dates from
1888 and is, like the French churches, always open--a friendly English
church--with beautiful decorations and furnishings. The short Rue
Keppler dates from 1772 and was at one time Rue Ste-Geneviève. Rue
Georges-Bizet lies along the line of an ancient Ruelle des Tourniquets,
a name reminiscent of country lanes and stiles; in its lower part it was
of yore Rue des Blanchisseuses, where clean linen hung out freely to
dry. The Greek church there, with its beautiful _Iconostase_ and
paintings by Charles Lemaire, is modern (1895). Rue de Lubeck began as a
tortuous seventeenth-century road, crossing the grounds of the ancient
convent of the Visitation.
The statue of Washington in the centre of Place d’Iéna, the scene of so
many momentous gatherings, was given by the women of the United States
“_en mémoire de l’amitié et de l’aide fraternelle donnée par la France à
leurs frères pendant la lutte pour l’indépendance_.” The Musée Guinet on
the site of the hippodrome of earlier years, an oriental museum, was
opened in 1888. Rue Boissière, in the eighteenth century in part Rue de
la Croix-Boissière, reminds us of the wooden crosses to which in olden
days the branches of box which replace palm were fixed on Palm Sunday.
Along Rue de Longchamp, then a country lane, seventeenth and
eighteenth-century Parisians passed in pilgrimage to Longchamp Abbey,
while at an old farm on the Rond-Point, swept away of late years,
ramblers of note, Boileau and La Fontaine among the number, stopped to
drink milk fresh and pure. The name of the Bouquet de Longchamp recalls
the days when green trees clustered there. Rue Lauriston, a thoroughfare
in the eighteenth century, was long known as Chemin du Bel-air.
Rue de Chaillot, which leads us to Avenue Marceau, was the High Street
of the village known in the eleventh century by the Roman name
Colloelum. It was Crown property, and Louis XI gave it to Philippe de
Commines. In 1659 the district became a Paris faubourg and in 1787 was
included within the city bounds. There on the high land now the site of
the Trocadéro palace and gardens, the Château de Chaillot, its name
changed later to Grammont, was built by Catherine de’ Medici. Henriette,
widow of Charles I of England, back in her own land of France, made it
into a convent (1651). Its first Superior was Mlle de Lafayette; its
walls sheltered many women of note and rank, Louise de la Vallière is
said to have fled thither twice, to be twice regained by the King. The
chapel was on the site of the pond in the Trocadéro gardens. There the
hearts of the Catholic Stuarts were taken for preservation. Suppressed
at the Revolution, the convent was subsequently razed to the ground by
Napoléon, who planned the erection of a palace there for his son the
“_Roi de Rome_.” The old street has still several old houses easily
recognized: Nos. 5, 9, 19, etc. The church, on the site of an
eleventh-century chapel, dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, with a nineteenth-century chapel and presbytery.
Avenue du Trocadéro, since 4th July, 1918, Avenue Wilson, was
inaugurated as Avenue de l’Empereur, (Napoléon III). The palace, now a
museum and concert-hall, was built on the crest of ancient quarries, for
the Exhibition of 1878, and the Place du Roi de Rome, in previous days
Place Ste-Marie, became Place du Trocadéro. The Musée Galliera, a museum
of industrial art, was built in 1895 by the duchess whose maiden name
Brignole is recorded in the short street opened across her property in
1879. She had planned filling it with her magnificent collection of
pictures, but changed the destination of her legacy when France laicised
her schools.
Avenue Henri-Martin began, like Avenue du Trocadéro, as Avenue de
l’Empereur (1858). The old _tour_ we see at No. 86 Rue de le Tour is
said to have formed part of the Manor of Philippe-le-Bel. It was once a
prison, then served as a windmill tower, and the street, erewhile Chemin
des Moines, Monk’s Road, became Rue du Moulin de la Tour. Few other
vestiges of the past remain along its course. We see old houses at Nos.
1, 66, 68. Rue Vineuse, crossing it, recalls the days when convent
vineyards stretched there. It is, like Rue Franklin, once Rue Neuve des
Minimes, of eighteenth-century date. Franklin’s statue was set up there
in 1906, for his centenary. We see an old-time house at No. 1 Rue
Franklin, and at No. 8 the home of Clemenceau, the capable Prime
Minister of France of the late war. The cemetery above the reservoir was
opened in 1803.