Nicolle's Travels: Curiosités Intérressant

Well, after quite a dry spell for posting blogs I have now written two in a short period of time – truth be told – when reading my first blog posting for 2017, I must admit it is rather boring, and thinking about it, I believe I really wrote it for me – to see what I’ve done while I’ve lived here, to see if I’ve accomplished my goals for moving here and I see the answer is both yes and no.

Hopefully with this blog I’m back to my old self and that you will find it interesting, educational and informative (is there a difference between educational and informative?).

Shortly after I moved here I found an app named “Secrets de Paris”. Each day it provides an interesting tidbit about somewhere in Paris to visit. I’ve already introduced some things from it in past blogs (rue Crémieux; oldest house). If you visit Paris and have already seen all the tourist sites, I suggest you download this app and find some of the “off the beaten path” quirky things that Paris has to offer. And for those of you who haven’t been here and have no intention on coming – well, here’s to you:

[note: 1) “eme” is an abbreviation for the word arrondissement, and 2) click on the photographs to enlarge them in a separate window]

Square René Viviani

Oldest Tree: Square René Viviani (5eme)

The Square René Viviani is a city park located slightly to the north of the Gothic church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, built at the same time as Notre-Dame Cathedral de Paris and consequently is one of Paris' oldest churches. Disaffected during the Revolution, in the 19th century the ruinous church was taken over by the city's Greek Melchite Church and is today the center of that religious community in Paris.

The square is noted for being the site of the oldest planted tree in Paris. The robinia pseudoacacia, a species commonly known as a locust tree, is believed to have been planted by its namesake, Jean Robin (1550–1620), in 1601; if so, it has now been standing on the rive gauche for over four hundred years. It is supported by two concrete crutches. The tree lost its upper branches to a shell during World War I, but it proves its continuing vitality by blooming every year.

rue des Degrés

Shortest Street: le rue des Degrés (2eme)

At 3.3 metres (10.8 feet) wide and 5.5 metres (18 feet) long the rue des

Degrés has the distinction of being the shortest street in Paris. It’s been here since the middle of the seventeenth-century.

The rue des Degrés, owing its name to its inclination, is comprised of just fourteen steps linking the rue de Clery and the rue Beauregard. These two streets run along the former line of the Charles V wall, built from 1356 to 1383 and demolished in the seventeenth-century to make way for the Grands Boulevards.

At the corner of the rue des Degrés and rue Beauregard, a historic plaque reminds us that at this place the Baron de Batz attempted with some men to help Louis XVI escape on the morning of January 21, 1793 – the day of the King's execution on the Place de la Concorde.

passage du Plateau

Narrowest Street: le passage du Plateau (19eme)

Located south of the park of Buttes-Chaumont it is one of the narrowest passageways in Paris. It measures between 1 and 1.5 meters (3.2 – 4.9 feet) wide. Besides its narrowness, this passageway is remarkable because it contains beautiful ateliers.

That is my friend in the photograph, Jacqui, demonstrating just how narrow the street is – as she can touch the buildings on either side easily.

passage de l’Ancre

Oldest Road: le passage de l’Ancre, 223 rue Saint-Martin (3eme)

passage de l’Ancre is a small unusual private road that one shouldn’t miss while walking through the Marais and Beaubourg. Part way down the road is PEP’S, opened in the 1960’s, specializing in the sale and reparation of umbrellas, parasols, and canes.

The passage was named passage de l’Ancre-Royale but during the French Revolution became passage de l’Ancre-Nationale and today it is simply the passage de l’Ancre.

This is where in the 1640’s Monsieur Sauvage set up the first taxi (fiacre) service at his inn - Hôtel Saint-Fiacre. A fiacre, known as a hackney carriage in English, is a small horse-drawn carriage, with four wheels, formerly used for hire like a taxi. Saint-Fiacre became known as the patron saint for taxi drivers.

passage des Panoramas

Oldest Covered Passage: le passage des Panoramas, 11 boulevard Montmartre (2eme)

The passage des Panoramas is the oldest of the covered passages of Paris. It is one of the earliest venues of the Parisian philatelic (stamp collecting) trade, and it was one of the first covered commercial passageways in Europe. Bazaars and souks in the Orient had roofed commercial passageways centuries earlier but the passage de Panoramas innovated in having glazed roofing and, later on, in 1817, gas lights for illumination. It was an ancestor of the city gallerias of the 19th century and the covered suburban and city shopping malls of the 20th century.

Built in 1799, the passage was opened in 1800 on the site of the town residence of the Marechal de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg, which had been built in 1704. The doorway of the modern building, of the house, which opened on rue Saint-Marc, facing the rue des Panoramas, was the gateway of the original mansion.

Its name came from an attraction built on the site; two large rotundas where panoramic paintings of Paris, Toulon, Rome, Jerusalem, and other famous cities were displayed. They were a business venture of the American inventor Robert Fulton, who had come to Paris to offer his latest inventions, the steamboat, submarine, and torpedo, to Napoleon and the French Directory. While waiting for an answer, Fulton earned money from his exhibition. Napoleon, who had little interest in the navy, finally rejected Fulton's projects.

In 1800 Paris streets were narrow, dark, muddy and crowded, and very few had sidewalks or lighting; they were very unpleasant for shopping. The first indoor gallery, at the Palais Royal, had opened in 1786, followed by the passage Feydau in 1790-91, the passage du Caire in 1799, and the passage des Panoramas in 1800. The rotundas were destroyed in 1831.

In the 1830s, the architect Jean-Louis Victor Grisart renovated the passage and created three additional galleries inside the block of houses: the Saint-Marc gallery parallel with the passage, the gallery of the Varietes which gives access to the entry of the artists of the theatre of the Varietes, and the Feydeau galleries and Montmartre.

Stern the famous engraver settled there in 1834, and then merchants of postcards and postage stamps, and some restaurants moved in. The part of the passage close to the boulevard Montmartre is richly decorated, while the distant part is more modest.

The passage, as it was in 1867, is described in chapter VII of Émile Zola's novel Nana.

Pont Neuf

Oldest Sidewalk: le Pont Neuf

The Pont Neuf (New Bridge) is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine. Its name, which was given to distinguish it from older bridges that were lined on both sides with houses, has remained after all of those were replaced. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia, and during the medieval period, the heart of the city.

As early as 1550, Henry II was asked to build a bridge there because the existing Pont Notre-Dame was overloaded, but the expense was too much at the time.

In February 1578 the decision to build the bridge was made by Henry III who laid its first stone in 1578, the year when the foundations of four piers and one abutment were completed.

It was decided to allow houses to be built on the bridge (though they never were). That required the widening of the bridge. After a long delay beginning in 1588, due to political unrest and to the Wars of Religion, construction was resumed in 1599 under the reign of Henry IV. The bridge was opened to traffic in 1604 and completed in July 1606. It was inaugurated by Henri IV in 1607.

39 rue du Chateau d’Eau

Smallest Building: 39 rue du Chateau d’Eau (10eme)

The building is only 1.10 meters wide (3.6 feet), 5 meters high (16.4 feet), and 3 meters (9.8 feet) deep and has both a ground and second floor. According to legend, the building is perhaps the result of an inheritance dispute between the two buildings on either side next door.

Originally the gap between the two buildings was a narrow passageway, but following a disagreement about ownership and access, one of the parties decided to end the argument by filling the space with a new property.

The property was officially recognized with its own number in the street, but was never really more than a tiny shop unit at ground level (originally a shoemaker) with a room above, which actually connects to the first-floor property at number 41. A newspaper article at the end of the 19th century describes the property, pointing out that the room was home to a baby, the cot apparently taking up the entire space.

RATP/EDF Façade:

Three buildings (below) unlike all others – Paris includes several buildings that are not intended to be inhabited but whose façade conceals the true function. These façades are in all respects similar to those of the surrounding buildings and take up the usual Parisian elements (windows, gates, balconies, etc.), but are, in a way, trompe-l'œil. There are a total of 12 such façades in the City.

RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens – public transportation):