CHAPTER XXVI. ROUND ABOUT THE CARREFOUR DE LA CROIX-ROUGE

PASSING to the western half of the arrondissement, we turn into the modern Rue de Rennes, running south from Place St-Germain-des-Prés along the lines of razed convent buildings or their vanished gardens. The short Rue Gozlin opening out of it dates from the thirteenth century, its present name recording that of a bishop of Paris who defended the city against invading Normans in the ninth century. Two only of the houses we see there now are ancient, Nos. 1 and 5. At No. 50 we see the seventeenth-century entrance of the old Cour du Dragon, with its balcony and huge piece of sculpture dating from 1735; the quaint houses of the alley, with its gutter in the middle, were in past days the habitation of ironmongers. It leads down into the old Rue du Dragon, which began as Rue du Sépulcre, being then the property of the monks of St-Sépulcre. A fine hôtel stood once at either end. At No. 76 we see the remains of a mansion, taken later for a convent, where Bossuet sojourned. Nos. 147-127 are on the site of a Roman cemetery.

Rue Cherche-Midi, once Chasse-Midi, takes its name from an ancient sign-board illustrating the old French proverb: "Chercher midi à quatorze heures," i.e. to look for something wide of the mark. Many old-time houses still stand along its course. It starts from the Carrefour de la Croix-Rouge, where, before a cross in the centre of the Carrefour, criminals and political offenders were put to death. The name is probably due to a signboard rather than to the alleged colour of this cross. In this quiet spot, as historians have remarked, a flaring red cross would hardly have been in keeping with the temper of its patrician inhabitants. The Revolutionists called it Carrefour du Bonnet-Rouge. At No. 12 we see a fine grille. One of the most interesting historically inhabited hotels of the city stood till 1907 on the site of No. 37, in olden times the dependency of a convent, latterly hotel des Conseils-de-Guerre, razed to make way for the brand-new boulevard Raspail. The military prison opposite is on the site of a convent organized in the house of an exiled Calvinist, razed in 1851. Nos. 85, 87, 89, eighteenth century, belonged to a branch of the Montmorency—knew successive inhabitants of historic fame and illustrious name. A fine fountain is seen in the Cour des Vieilles-Tuileries at No. 86. Several old shorter streets lead out of this long one. In Rue St-Romain, named after an old-time Prior of St-Germain-des-Prés, we see the fine old hotel de M. de Choiseul, now the headquarters of the National Savings Bank. Rue St-Placide, seventeenth century, recording the name of a celebrated Benedictine monk, shows some ancient vestiges. Huysmans died at No. 31 in 1907. In Rue Dupin, once Petite Rue du Bac,we see ancient houses at Nos. 19-12, in the latter a carved wood Louis XIII staircase. Rue du Regard, another "Chemin Herbu" of past days, records by its present name the existence of an old fountain once here, now placed near the fountain Medici of the Luxembourg gardens. The publishing house Didot at No. 3 is on the site of a handsome ancient mansion once the home of the children of Mme de Montespan, sacrificed to the boulevard Raspail in 1907. Nos. 5-7 date from the first years of the eighteenth century. The doors of the Mont de Pitié are all that is left of hôtel de la Guiche once on the site.

Rue de Sèvres, forming in the greater part of its course the boundary between arrondissements VI and VII, running on into arrondissement XV, was known familiarly in old days as Rue de la Maladrerie, on account of its numerous hospitals. They are numerous still. At No. 11 and No. 13 we find remains of the couvent des Prémontrés Réformés founded by Anne d'Autriche, 1661. Rue Récamier was recently opened on the site of the famous Abbaye-aux-Bois, where for thirty years Mme de Récamier lived the "simple life," courted none the less by a crowd of ardent admirers—the tout Paris of that day. The Abbaye, as a convent, counted notable women among its abbesses; at the Revolution it was suppressed and let out in flats till its regrettable demolition in 1908. The Square Potain close by, now known as Square du Bon Marché, is on the site of a leper-house which dated from the reign of Philippe-Auguste. A convent and adjoining buildings of ancient date were destroyed to allow boulevard Raspail to pursue its course. An old house still stands at No. 26; vestiges at No. 31. At No. 42 we see the Hospice des Incurables, founded in 1634 by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld and known since 1878 as l'Hospice Laennec. Here in 1819 died the woman Simon, the jailer of the little dauphin "Louis XVII," after a sojourn of twenty-five years. The minister Turgot and other persons of note lie buried in the chapel. The Egyptian fountain dates from 1806. At No. 84 we see very recently erected houses let out in flats on the site of the couvent des Oiseaux, dating from the early years of the eighteenth century—the prison du Bonnet Rouge during the Revolution, a convent school and pension in 1818 till its suppression in 1906. The "Oiseaux" — birds — were perhaps those of an aviary, or maybe those painted by Pigalle on the walls of one of the rooms. The Lazarist convent at No. 95 was previously a private mansion dating from the time of Louis XV. The chapel dates from 1827 and sheltered for some years the remains of St-Vincent-de-Paul. In the eighteenth century, on the site of No. 125, wild beast fights took place. The last numbers of the street are in arrondissement XV. There we see the ancient Benedictine convent, suppressed in 1779—become l'Hôpital Necker. The hospital at No. 149 began life in 1676 as a community of "gentilshommes"; seventy years later it was the "Maison Royale de l'Enfant-Jésus" under the patronage of Marie Leczinsks, enlarged by the gift of an adjoining mansion. Closed at the Revolution, it served for a time as a coal-store, then became a National orphanage, and in 1802 the "Enfants Malades"; its ancient chapel was replaced by the chapel we see under Napoleon III.

Contents