BOULEVARDS--QUAYS--BRIDGES
THE BOULEVARDS
The Paris boulevards are one of the most characteristic features of the
city. The word _boulevard_ recalls the days when Paris was fortified,
surrounded by ramparts, and the city boulevards stretch for the most
part along the lines of ancient boundary walls, boundaries then, now
lines in many instances cutting through the very heart of the Paris we
know.
The Grands Boulevards run from the Place de la Madeleine to the Place de
la Bastille--gay and smart and modern, in the first kilometres of their
course; less smart, busier, more commercial, with more abundant vestiges
of bygone days as they stretch out beyond the boulevard des Italiens.
The boulevard de la Madeleine follows the line of the ancient boundary
wall of Louis XIII, razed during the first years of the eighteenth
century. Its upper part on the even-number side was one side of an old
thoroughfare reaching as far as Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin, known in its
early years as Rue Basse du Rempart. The latter part stretching to Rue
Caumartin is of recent date. The old Rue Basse des Remparts was bordered
by handsome _hôtels_, the dwellings of notable persons of the day:
vestiges of several of them were until recent years still seen in
boulevard des Capucines--Nos. 16 to 22 razed when the new street Rue
Édouard VII was cut. In the reception-room of a seventeenth-century
house that stood at the corner of the boulevard and the Rue des
Capucines known as the Colonnade, Buonaparte first met Joséphine.
Boulevard des Italiens gained its name from the Italian theatre there in
1783. This name was changed more than once in subsequent years. After
the Revolution, when the Royalists who had taken refuge beyond the
German Rhine returned to Paris and held meetings on this boulevard, it
was nicknamed “Le Petit Coblentz.” No. 33 (eighteenth century) is the
Pavillon de Hanovre, forming part in past times of the hôtel d’Antin,
which had been owned in its later days by Richelieu, then was divided
into several dwellings, and in the time of the Merveilleuses one of
these sub-divisions of the fine old mansion became a dancing saloon,
_bal_ Richelieu, and the meeting-place of the Incroyables. Rue du
Helder, which we see opening at No. 36, was in those days a cul-de-sac,
i.e. a blind alley. The bank there (No. 7) was erewhile the famous
cabaret “le Lion d’Or,” and at No. 2 Cavaignac was arrested when
Napoléon made his _coup d’état_. No. 22 of the boulevard was the
far-famed “Tortoni.” No. 20, rebuilt in 1839, now a post office, is the
ancient hôtel Stainville, later Maison Dorée. No. 16, till a year or two
ago Café Riche, dating from 1791. No. 15, hôtel de Lévis, was once the
Jockey Club. On the site of No. 13 stood till recent years the famous
Café Anglais. At No. 11 was the club “Salon des Italiens” in the time of
Louis XVI, subsequently the restaurant Nicolle and Café du Grand Balcon,
its first story commonly known as Salon des Princes. At No. 9 Grétry
lived from 1795 till his death, which happened at Montmorency in 1813.
No. 1 Café Cardinal founded by Dangest (eighteenth century).
Boulevard Montmartre dates from the seventeenth century, lined in olden
days on both sides by handsome private mansions; we see it now a
thoroughly commercial thoroughfare, one of the busiest in the city. A
modern journalist called its _carrefour_--the point where it meets the
Rue du Faubourg Montmartre--“_carrefour des écrasés_.” From the house,
now a newspaper office, at No. 22 an underground passage ran in past
days to the Café Cardinal opposite, leading to an orangery. On the site
of No. 23 stood the gambling-house Frascati, built on the site of the
old hôtel Taillepied. The Café Véron at No. 13 dates from 1818, opened
through the gardens of the hôtel Montmorency-Luxembourg. Passage
Jouffroy at No. 10 was cut, in 1846, across the site of an ancient
building known as the Maison des Grands Artistes. The théâtre des
Variétés, at No. 7, first set up at the Palais-Royal in 1770 by “la
Montansier,” was built here in 1807 on the grounds of the hôtel
Montmorency-Luxembourg. No. 1 is the site of the Café de la Porte
Montmartre, founded by Louis XV, a meeting-place of Parisians hailing
from Orléans, nicknamed Guépins.
Boulevard Poissonnières (seventeenth century) begins where hung till
recent years an ancient sign at No. 1--“Aux limites de la Ville de
Paris”--recording the inscription once on the old wall there. Most of
the houses are those originally built along the boulevard, and many old
streets run into it on either side. At No. 9 we see Rue St-Fiacre,
dating from 1630, when it was Rue du Figuier, a street closed at each
end by gates till about 1800. The restaurant Duval at No. 10 of the
boulevard was an eighteenth-century mansion. No. 14 is known as Maison
du Pont-de-Fer. No. 19, now l’École Pratique du Commerce, was till a few
years ago the home of an old lady who, left a widow after one happy year
of married life, shut herself up in the house she owned, refused to let
any of its six large flats, and died there in utter solitude at the age
of ninety. No. 23, designed by Soufflot le Romain in 1775 as a private
mansion, became later the _dépôt_ of the famous Aubusson tapistry.
Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, named from the church Notre-Dame de
Bonne-Nouvelle in Rue de la Lune, dates from the seventeenth century
(_see_ p. 59). No. 21 was built after the Revolution with the stones of
the old demolished church St-Paul (_see_ p. 12). No. 11, in 1793, with
some of the stones of the Bastille. The theatre, le Gymnase, which we
see at No. 38, erected in 1820 on the grounds of a mansion, a barracks
and a bit of an old graveyard, was known during some years as the
théâtre de Madame la duchesse de Berri, who had taken it under her
patronage. Its façade was rebuilt in 1887.
The church just off the boulevard was first built in 1624 on the site of
the old chapel Ste-Barbe, and named by Anne d’Autriche, perhaps in
gratitude for the good news of the prospect of the birth of a son (Louis
XIV) after twenty-three years of childless married life, or, as has been
said, on account of a piece of good news communicated to the Queen when
passing by the spot. The edifice was rebuilt in the nineteenth century,
the tower alone remaining untouched. Within it we find an old painting
of Anne d’Autriche and Henriette of England.
Boulevard St-Denis (eighteenth century). The fine Porte St-Denis shows
in bas-relief, the victories of Louis XIV in Germany and in Holland. It
has been restored three times since its first erection in 1673. The
Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 began around this grand old Porte.
Paving-stones were hurled from its summit. At No. 19 we see a statue of
St-Denis.
Boulevard St-Martin (seventeenth century). Its course was marked out,
its trees planted a few years earlier than that of boulevard St-Denis.
On its handsome blackened Porte, built in 1674-75, we read the words: “A
Louis-le-Grand pour avoir pris deux fois Besançon et vaincu les Armées
allemandes, espagnoles et hollandaises.” Like Porte St-Denis, it has
been three times restored. The Allies passed beneath it on entering
Paris in 1814. The first théâtre de la Porte St-Martin was built in the
short period of seventy-five days to replace, with the least delay
possible, the Opera-house near the Palais-Royal, burnt down in 1781. It
was the Opera until 1793. The structure we see was erected in 1873,
after the disastrous conflagration caused by the Communards two years
previously. We see theatres and concert-halls along the whole course of
the boulevard. The Ambigu at No. 2 dating from 1828 was founded sixty
years earlier as a marionnette show on the site of the present Folies
Dramatiques. This part of the boulevard was formerly on a steep incline,
with steps up to the théâtre Porte St-Martin. Its ground was levelled in
1850. The novelist Paul de Kock lived at No 8. No. 17 was the abode of
the great painter Meissonnier. The théâtre de la Renaissance is modern
(1872), built on the site of the famous restaurant Deffieux which had
flourished there for 133 years. It was for several years Sarah
Bernhardt’s theatre.
Boulevard du Temple, its trees first planted in the year 1668 when it
was a road stretching right across the area now known as Place de la
République, was at that particular point a centre of places of amusement
of every description--theatres, music-halls, marionnette-shows. All
were closed, razed to the ground, to make way for the grand new _place_
laid out there in 1862. Of the old walls within which Parisians had for
long years previously found so much distraction and merriment, vestiges
remain only at Nos. 48, 46, 44, 42 of the boulevard. No. 42 is on the
site of the house where Fieschi’s infernal machine was placed in 1835.
The restaurant at No. 29 is on the site of the once widely known Café du
Jardin Turc. The théâtre Dejazet records the name of the famous
_actrice_. The two short streets, Rue de Crussol and Rue du Grand
Prieuré, were cut across the grounds of the Grand Prieuré de France in
the latter years of the eighteenth century.
Boulevard Filles-du-Calvaire, named from the ancient convent, dates only
from 1870. The streets connected with it are older. Rue des
Filles-du-Calvaire was a thoroughfare in the last years of the
seventeenth century, and at No. 13 we find traces of the ancient
convent. Rue Froissard and Rue des Commines, memorizing the two old
French chroniclers, were opened in 1804 right across the site of the
convent and its grounds. Rue St-Sébastien dates back to the early years
of the seventeenth century, and we see there many interesting old
houses. No. 19, with its Gothic vaulting, is probably the hôtel
d’Ormesson de Noyseau, a distinguished nobleman, guillotined at the
Revolution. Rue du Pont-aux-Choux, made in the sixteenth century across
market gardens, got its name from an old bridge which spanned a drain
there.
Boulevard Beaumarchais began in 1670 as boulevard St-Antoine. No. 113, a
sixteenth-century structure, was known till 1850 as the Château. The
words we see engraved on its walls--“A la Petite Chaise”--refer to a
tragic incident. The head of the princesse de Lamballe, carried by the
Revolutionists on a pike, was plunged into a pail of water set on a low
chair placed up against this wall to clear it of the dribbling blood.
No. 99, its big doors brought here from the Temple palace, is the hôtel
de Cagliostro, the famous sorcerer.
Rue des Arquebusiers, opening at No. 91, dates from 1720, when it was
Rue du Harlay-au-Marais. Santerre lived here for a time. No. 2 stands on
the site of the house where Beaumarchais died in 1790.
Boulevard Henri IV is modern (1866), cut across the site of two old
convents. Rue Castex leads out of it where stood once the convent des
Filles de Ste-Marie; its chapel, now a Protestant church, is entered at
No. 5. The Caserne des Célestins was built in 1892 on the site of part
of the large and celebrated convent of the Célestins, an Order founded
in 1244 by the priest who became Pope Celestin V. The Carmelites who at
first were established here, greatly disturbed by inundations from the
Seine who overflowed her banks in those long-past ages, even as she does
to-day, quitted their quarters on this site. The Célestins who came to
Paris in 1352 and took over these abandoned dwellings were protected and
enriched by Charles V, inhabiting the Palais St-Pol close by. The Order
was suppressed in 1778, before the Revolution suppressed all Orders--for
the time; and in 1785 the convent here was taken for the first deaf and
dumb institution organized by abbé de l’Épée. The convent chapel with
its numerous royal tombs, the bodies of some royal personages, the
hearts of others, was razed in 1849. Some vestiges of the convent walls
remained standing till 1904. Where the boulevard meets the Quai des
Célestins, we see now a circular group of worn, ivy-grown stones; an
inscription tells us these old stones once formed part of the Tour de la
Liberté of the demolished Bastille. They were unearthed in making the
Paris Metropolitan Railway a few years ago. The birds make the remnant
of that old tower of liberty their own to-day and passers-by stop
regularly to feed them.
Crossing the Seine we come to the boulevard St-Germain, beginning at
boulevard Sully in arrondissement V, stretching right through
arrondissement VI and ending at the Quai d’Orsay near the Chambre des
Députés in arrondissement VII. Though in name so historic and running
across interesting ground, the boulevard is of modern formation. It has
swept away a whole district of ancient streets. The Nos. 61 to 49 are
ancient, all that remains of Rue des Noyers erewhile there. At No. 67
Alfred de Musset was born (1810). The théâtre de Cluny is on the site of
part of the vanished couvent des Mathurins. The firm Hachette stands
where was once a Jews’ cemetery. No. 160 was the restaurant now razed
where Thackeray, when a young student at the Beaux-Arts, took his meals.
A sign-board he painted long hung there. We see some old houses of the
ancient Rue des Boucheries between Nos. 162 and 148. At No. 166 we turn
for an instant into Rue de l’Échaudé, dating from the fourteenth
century, when it was a _chemin_ along the abbey moat, a street of
ancient houses. The word _échaudé_, a confectioner’s term used for a
certain kind of three-cornered cake, signifies in topographical language
a triangle formed by the junction of three streets. The pavement-stones
before Nos. 137 to 135 cover the site of the ancient abbey prison. Rue
des Ciseaux bordered in olden days the Collège des Écossais. The statue
of Diderot at No. 170 was set up on his centenary as close as could be
to the house he dwelt in, in Rue de l’Égout. The hôtel Taranne records
the name of the thirteenth-century street of which some vestiges remain
on the odd-number side of the boulevard between No. 175 and Place
St-Germain-des-Prés, where Saint-Simon lived and wrote. The little
grassy square round the house at No. 186 was originally a leper’s
burial-ground, then, from 1576 to 1604, a Protestant cemetery. Looking
into the Rue St-Thomas-d’Aquin, once passage des Jacobins, we see the
church which began early in the years of the eighteenth century as a
Jacobin convent. At the Revolution it was made into a Temple of Peace!
The frescoes of the ceiling are by Lemoine.
The modern boulevard Raspail opening at No. 103 brought about the
destruction of several ancient streets; where the boulevard St-Germain
meets Rue St-Dominique three or four fine old mansions were razed to the
ground and that old street, previously extending to Rue des
Saints-Pères, cut short here. A fine eighteenth-century _hôtel_ stood
till 1861 on the site of the Bureaux du Ministère des Travaux Publics at
No. 244. The minister’s official residence at No. 246, dating from 1722,
is on the site of one still older, at one time the abode of the dowager
duchess of Orleans. That portion of the Ministère de la Guerre which we
see along this boulevard is a modern construction. We see modern
structures also at Nos. 280, 282, 284, all on the site of fine old
_hôtels_ demolished at the making of the boulevard. At some points of
boulevard Raspail, stretching from boulevard St-Germain to beyond the
cemetery Montparnasse, we come upon vestiges of the ancient streets
demolished to make way for it; here and there an old house, a fine
doorway, and at No. 112 a lusty tree, its trunk protruding through the
garden wall, said to be the tree beneath whose shade Victor Hugo sat and
pondered or maybe wrote several of his best-known works, while living in
an old house close by.
Starting now from the Place de la République, we pass up the busy modern
boulevard Magenta without finding any point of special interest. The
Cité du Wauxhall at No. 6 was opened in 1840 on the grounds of a more
ancient Wauxhall. The big hospital Lariboisière in the adjoining Rue
Ambroise-Parée was built from 1839 to 1848, on the _clos_ St-Lazare and
named at first Hôpital Louis-Philippe. Its present name is in memory of
the countesse la Riboisière, who gave three million francs for the
hospital. The boulevards Barbes and Ornano run on from boulevard Magenta
to the district of Montmartre. They are of nineteenth-century formation
and without historic interest. No. 10, boulevard Barbes, was once the
dancing saloon “du Grand Turc.”
The bustling boulevard de Strasbourg which boulevard Magenta crosses, a
continuation of the no less bustling boulevard Sébastopol, both great
commercial thoroughfares, was formed in the middle of the nineteenth
century across the lines of many ancient streets and courts. Ancient
streets ran also where we now have the broad boulevard du Palais on
l’Ile de la Cité, crossing the spot on the erewhile Place du Palais
where of yore criminals were set out for public view and marked with a
red-hot iron.
The buildings we see there on the odd-number side opposite the Palais de
Justice: the Tribunal du Commerce, the Préfecture de Police, the
Firemen’s barracks, are all of nineteenth-century erection. So we come
to the boulevard St-Michel, the far-famed “Boule-Miche” of the Latin
Quarter, forming the boundary-line between arrondissements V and VI. As
a boulevard it is not of ancient date. It began at its northernly end in
1855 as boulevard Sébastopol, Rive Gauche. Soon it was prolonged and
renamed to memorize the ancient chapel erewhile in one of the streets it
had swept away. Place St-Michel from which it starts has to-day a modern
aspect. Almost all traces of the ancient Place du Pont St-Michel, as it
was in bygone days, have vanished. The huge fountain we see and cannot
admire, though perhaps we ought to, replaces the fountain of 1684. The
arched entrance to the narrow street Rue de l’Hirondelle, once
Irondelle, as an old inscription tells us, which began in 1179 as Rue de
l’Arondale-en-Laas, and the glimpse at a little distance of the entrance
to ancient streets on the boulevard St-Germain side, give the only
old-world touch to the _place_. The high blackened walls we see in this
Rue de l’Hirondelle are the remains of the ancient collège d’Autun
founded in 1341. At No. 20, on the site of the ancient _hôtel_ of the
bishops of Chartres, is an eighteenth-century _hôtel_. No. 38 of the
boulevard is on the site of the house belonging to the Cordeliers, whose
monastery was near by, where the royal library was kept from the days of
Louis XIII to 1666. The Lycée St-Louis, founded in 1280 as the college
d’Harcourt, covers the site of several ancient structures. A
fragment--the only one known--of the boundary wall of Henri II, is
within the college grounds, and beneath them the remains of a Roman
theatre were found in 1861, and more remains in 1908. Where the
boulevard meets Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, the city wall and a gate of
Philippe-Auguste passed in olden days. And that was the site of the
ancient _place_. No. 60, the École des Mines founded in 1783, and
housed at the Mint, at that time an _hôtel_ Rue de l’Université, then
transferred to Montiers in Savoie, finally settled here in 1815 in the
hôtel Vendôme built in 1707 for the Chartreux, let in 1714 to the
duchesse de Vendôme, who died there soon afterwards. This fine old
structure still forms the central part of the Mining School. At No. 62
we see the Geological Map offices. In the court of No. 64 we find a
house built by the Chartreux, inhabited in past days by the marquis de
Ségur, and in later times by Leconte de Lisle. The railway station Gare
de Sceaux at No. 66 covers the site of the once well-known Café Rouge.
In the old Rue Royer-Collard opening at No. 71, in the sixteenth century
Rue St-Dominique d’Enfer, we see several quaint old houses. Roman pots
were found some years ago beneath the pavement of the _impasse_. The
house at No. 91 is on ground once within the cemetery St-Jacques. César
Franck the composer lived and died at No. 95 (1891). No. 105 is the site
of the ancient Noviciat des Feuillants who went by the name “_anges
guardiens_.” The famous students’ dancing saloon known as bal Bullier
was at this end of the boulevard from 1848 till a few years ago.