CHAPTER XVIII. IN THE VALLEY OF THE BIEVRE
EMPHATICALLY a street of the past is the old Rue Mouffetard, its
name a corruption perhaps of Mont Cérarius, the name of the
district under the Romans, or derived maybe from the old word mouffettes, referring
to the exhalations of the Bievre, flowing now below ground here, never
very odorous since the days when, coming sweet and clear from the
southern slopes, it was put to city uses, industrial and other, on
entering Paris. Every house along the course of this street has some
curious old-time feature, an ancient sign, an old well, old doors, old
courtyards. Quaint old streets lead out of it. The market on the place by the old church St-Médard extends up its slope.
In the sordid shops which flourish on the ground-floor of almost
every house, or on stalls set on the threshold, one sees an assortment
of foodstuffs rarely brought together in any other corner of the city,
and articles of clothing of most varied kind and style and date.
The church dating from the twelfth century, partially rebuilt and
restored in later times, was for several centuries a dependency of the
abbey Ste-Genevieve. Its graveyard, for long past a market-place and a
square, was in the eighteenth century the scene of the notorious scandale Médard. Among the graves of noted Jansenists buried there miraculous cures were supposed to take place. Women and girls fell into ecstasies. The number of these
convulsionists grew daily. At last the King, Louis XV, ordered the
cemetery to be closed.
It is the parish of the Gobelins and a beautiful piece of Gobelins
tapestry hangs over the vestry door. Fragments of ancient glass, a
picture by Watteau, others by Philippe de Champaigne, beautiful
woodwork and the quaintness of its architecture make the old church
intensely interesting.
At No. 81 of this old-time street we find vestiges of a
seventeenth-century chapel. At No. 52 ancient gravestones. The fountain
at No. 60 dates from 1671. The house No. 9 is on the site of the Porte
Marcel of bygone days.
Rue Broca, in the vicinity of St-Medard, dating from the twelfth
century, when it was Rue de Lourcine, has many curious old houses. The
houses of Rue du Pot-defer are all ancient, as are most of those in Rue
St-Medard. At No. 1 of Place de la Contre Scarpe close by, a modern place, an inscription marks the site of the Cabaret de la "Pomme de Pin," celebrated by the eulogies of Ronsard and Rabelais.
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