I often think about the importance of connections in France, from relationships established with the pharmacist, butcher, cheese monger and plumber (very important, that one!) to time invested in personal friendships. There is another, no less vital connection for me, and that is a visceral attachment to the city of Paris itself. A walk in the streets of Paris is energizing, soul-sustaining and gut-wrenchingly beautiful, a stroll through several centuries in parallel.
There is no bad time to walk in Paris, but I especially appreciate my morning walk to work through the Marais. Parisians are not morning people. Shops do not open before 9, and often not until 10. At 8:30, the street cleaners are out, spraying the streets. The odd harried parent hurries a small child to school, but for the most part, the small side streets are, if not empty, at least calm, and I enjoy the morning coolness.
I pass Nicolas Flamel’s house, built in 1407. Nicolas Flamel may not have achieved mortality through alchemy, but he lives on in literature, in Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris, the French title for the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and in J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter books. His is the oldest stone house in Paris, the newly restored inscription on the Gothic façade reads: "Nous homes et femes laboureurs demourans ou porche de ceste maison qui fut faite en l'an de grâce mil quatre cens et sept somes tenus chascun en droit soy dire tous les jours une paternostre et un ave maria en priant Dieu que sa grâce face pardon aus povres pescheurs trespasses Amen". (We plowmen and women living in the hall of this house, built in the year of grace 1407, accept the obligation to say one Paternoster and one Ave Maria each day, praying God to grant his grace to poor dead sinners. Amen.)
As I cross the rue Beaubourg, Hugo comes to mind again as I glance right for my morning glimpse of the freshly cleaned towers of Notre Dame. To my left is the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the Museum of Arts and Industry, partially housed in the old Priory of the Saint Martin in the Fields Abbey, dating from the XIIth century, and incorporated into the city in the XIVth century. The church was deconsecrated after the Revolution and now houses Foucault’s pendulum and a collection of early airplanes and automobiles.
As I wind my way through the side streets, delivery men wheel their diables, two-wheeled dollies, loaded with boxes for the leather goods stores and articles for the notions trade – hair clips, buttons, hats and scarves. Metal security blinds clatter up and storefronts begin to open. I glance at plaques commemorating World War II Resistance groups, those fallen during the street fighting of the Liberation of Paris in August 1944, and on each school, a plaque commemorating Jewish schoolchildren deported during the war under the Vichy government.
My twisting 20 minute walk to work leads me past several stately hôtels particuliers, 17th century mansions, many of which fell into disrepair after the nobility left the area for Versailles in the 18th century, only to become factories and print shops in the 19th and early 20th centuries when the area was home to the latest wave of Jewish immigrants. Many of these grand residences have been restored and now house museums, such as the Musée Carnavalet, the Paris History Museum, 17th century home of the letter-writing Madame de Sévigné, and the more recent Museum of Jewish Art and History.
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http://patrick.margerand.pagesperso-orange.fr/ Pinet/F-postal/Sculpsit/cartsclp.htm |
I like to walk down the short rue de Braque from rue du Temple to rue des Archives. As I turn into the street I catch sight of the 14th century corbelled turrets of the Hôtel de Soubise, built on a site previously owned by the Knights Templar, which currently houses the National Archives where you encounter documents such as an early 9th century land deed signed by Charlemagne.
The Hôtel de Soubise is an arresting sight in itself, since there are only a few examples of medieval architecture in Paris. The turrets flank a painted entry door, the Porte de Clisson, which dates from 1380. What catches my attention, however, as I advance down the street is the improbable juxtaposition of the 14th century turrets with the gracious statuary of the main façade, remodeled in the 18th century, and tacked onto the earlier mansion. From my angle, the unlikely elegant form of a woman juts out from the turret, a rather frightening creature about to take flight.
With the stories of centuries swirling in my mind, I pause for a café crème at a corner café before heading off to work at the site of the former La Force Prison, accompanied again by Victor Hugo who was known to visit his friend, the song writer Pierre-Jean de Béranger, imprisoned for his writings against Charles X.
Nicolas Flamel’s house, 51 rue Montmorency, 3rd, M: Rambuteau
Musée des Arts et Métiers, 60 rue Réaumur, 3rd, M: Arts et Métiers, Closed Monday.
http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/
Musée Carnavalet, 23 rue de Sévigné, 3rd, M: St. Paul, http://carnavalet.paris.fr/
Closed Monday. Free entry.
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, 71 rue du Temple, 3rd,
M: Rambuteau, www.mahj.org, Closed Saturday.
Hôtel de Soubise, 60 rue des Franc Bourgeois, 3rd, M: Hôtel de Ville or St. Paul
Clisson Entrance, corner of rue des Archives and rue de Brague, 3rd,
M: Rambuteau. Closed Tuesday.
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| Skipping through History on rue Montorgueil © 2011 Isabelle Vianu |
Walking Tours
The above is just a sliver of historical sites that you’ll encounter in any area of Paris. If you’d like to participate in a walking tour, I recommend Paris Walks. Oriel Caine organizes walks of the major neighborhoods in Paris, as well as art, fashion and food walks. You can sign up for one of the public walks, or organize a private walk for a small group. Iris Grossman Spencer is my favorite guide.
Paris Walks, www.paris-walks.com
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Classical Paris
- If you’re interested in Gallo-Roman Paris, the French Cultural Ministry has put together
this walk through the Latin Quarter.
- Archeological Crypt at Notre Dame, Parvis de Notre Dame, crypte.paris.fr,
Closed Monday.
- Arènes de Lutèce Arena, a first century Roman arena, 47 rue Monge, 5th, M: Monge
(exit at the back of the metro)
- Musée de Cluny Musee National du Moyen Age, 6 rue Paul Painlevé, 5th,
M: Cluny-La Sorbonne, Closed Tuesday. Roman Baths.
