CHAPTER XXVIII. OLD-TIME MANSIONS OF THE RIVE GAUCHE

ARRONDISSEMENT VII. PALAIS-BOURBON

THE word Varennes is a corruption of Garennes: in English the Rue de Varennes would be Warren Street, a name leading us back in thought to the remote age when the district was wild, uncultivated land full of rabbit-warrens. Another street joined to Rue de Varennes in 1850, and losing thus its own name, made it the long street we enter. No. 77 is the handsome mansion and park built early in the eighteenth century by Gabriel for a parvenu wig-maker. Later it was l'hôtel de Maine, then hôtel Biron, to become in 1807 the well-known convent of the Sacré-Cœur. From its convent-days dates the chapel—now the Musée Rodin. Other dependencies of the same date, built to house the nuns, were razed after their evacuation in 1904, when educational congregations were suppressed. The State, in possession of the domain, let it out for a time in logements, used it for a brief period as a National School, then let the whole property to the great sculptor, Rodin, who always had his eye on fine old buildings threatened with degradation or destruction. "I could weep," he once said to me, "when I see fine historic walls ruthlessly razed to the ground." The disaffected chapel became his studio and he set about maturing the plan, faithfully carried out after his death, of organizing there a national museum. He offered the whole of his own works and all the precious works of art he had collected to the State for this purpose. A clause in the treaty stipulates that in the possible but unlikely event of the restitution of the chapel building, after a lapse of years, to religious authorities, it be replaced as a museum by a new structure in the grounds. No. 73 is hôtel de Broglie, 1775. No. 69 hôtel de Clermont, 1714. No. 80 is the Ministère du Commerce. No. 78 the Ministère de l'Agriculture, built in 1712 as the habitation of an actrice. No. 65 began as l'hôtel de la Marquise de la Suze, 1787, to become l'hôtel Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville. No. 72 l'hôtel de Dufour, 1700. No. 64 was an eighteenth-century inn. No. 57, l'hôtel de Matignon, made over by the duchesse de Galliera after her husband's death to the Emperor of Austria, became the Austrian Embassy—till 1914. Numerous have been the persons of historic name and note who stayed or lived at this grand old mansion. It was owned at one time by Talleyrand, whose home was next door at No. 55; by the comte de Paris, who on the marriage of his daughter Amélie and Don Carlo of Portugal, in 1886, gave there a fête so magnificent that it led to the banishment of the Orléans and other princely families of France on the ground of royalist propaganda. Nos. 62-60 are ancient. No. 58 l'hôtel d'Auroy, 1750; l'hôtel Rochefoucauld in 1775. No. 56 l'hôtel de Gouffier, 1760. No. 55 l'hôtel d'Angennes. Nos. 52-52 bis l'hôtel de Guébriant. No. 47 l'hôtel de Jaucourt, 1788, later de Rochefoucauld-Dundeauville. No. 48 the hôtel de Charles Skelton. Monseigneur de Ségur was born here in 1820. No. 45 is l'hôtel de Cossé-Brissac, 1765. No. 46 the petit hôtel de Narbonne-Pelet. Nos. 43-41 l'hôtel d'Avrincourt. At No. 23 are vestiges of l'hôte St-Gelais, 1713. No. 21 is l'hôtel de Narbonne-Pelet. No. 22 l'hôtel de Biron, 1775. No. 19 l'hôtel de Chanterac. In its passage here as elsewhere Boulevard Raspail has swept away venerable buildings.

The Esplanade on the northern side of the hôtel des Invalides, once Plaine-des-Prés-St-Germain, stretches between three long and old-world streets—Rue de Grenelle, Rue St-Dominique, Rue de l'Université—all crossing the 7th arrondissement in almost its entire extent.

Rue de Grenelle, in the fifteenth century Chemin de Gamelle, then Chemin des Vaches, a country road, has near its higher end where we start two ancient streets leading out of it, Rue de la Comète (1775), named to record the passage of the famous comet of 1763, where at No. 19 we see a curious old courtyard, and Rue de Fabert with an ancient one-storied house at its corner. No. 127 hôtel de Charnac, abbé de Pompadour, was the palace Mgr. Richard was forced to give up in 1906—now Ministère du Travail. Nos. 140-138, a fine mansion built in 1724, inhabited till the eighteenth century by noblemen of mark, is now hôtel de l'État-Major de l'Armée and Service Géographique de l'Armée. At No. 115, formerly l'hôtel du Marquis de Saumery, the actrice Adrienne Lecouvreur died and was secretly buried. The short Rue de Martignac, opening at No. 130, showing no noteworthy feature, was built in 1828 on the ancient grounds of the Carmelites and the Dames de Bellechasse. No. 105 belonged to Berryer, the famous lawyer, 1766, then to Lamoignon de Basville. No. 122, l'hôtel d'Artagnan, to Maréchal de Montesquieu. At No. 101 l'hôtel d'Argenson, 1700, where Casimir Perier died of cholera in 1832; now Ministère de Commerce del'Industrie. No. 118 l'hôtel de Villars, etc., has very beautiful woodwork. No. 116, the Mairie since 1865, an ancient hôtel transformed and enlarged in modern times. No. 110 l'hôtel Rochechouart, built on land taken from the nuns of Bellechasse, inhabited at one time by Marshal Lames, duc de Montebello, is the Ministère de l'instruction Publique. At No. 97 Saint Simon wrote his diaries and in 1755 died here. No. 106, in 1755 Temple du Panthémont, the abode of a community of nuns from the Benedictine abbey near Beauvais, was sold in lots after the Revolution; its chapel was taken for a Protestant church. No. 87, known in a past age as hôtel de Grimberghe, has a fine staircase. No. 104 formed part of the Panthémont convent. No. 85, l'hôtel d'Avaray 1718, abode, in 1727, of Horace Walpole when ambassador. No. 83 hôtel de Bonneval, 1763. No. 81, Russian Embassy, was built by Cotte in 1709 for the duchesse d'Estrées. No. 102 was built by Lisle Mansart in the first years of the eighteenth century. At No. 90 we turn for an instant into Rue St-Simon to look at the Latin inscriptions on Nos. 4-2, dating, however, only from 1881. No. 77, École Libre, originally l'hôtel de la Motte-Houdancourt, was inhabited in recent times by marquis de Gallifet. No. 75, seventeenth century, built by Cardinal d'Estrées. No. 88 l'hôtel de Noailles. No. 73, Italian Embassy, built by Legrand in 1775. At No. 71, annexed to the Italian Embassy, the duke of Alba died in 1771.

The fine Fontaine des Quatre Saisons, dating from 1737, erected by Bouchandon, was inaugurated by Turgot, Prévôt des Marchands in 1749. Here, at No. 59, Alfred de Musset lived and wrote from 1824 to 1840. No. 36, "A la Petite Chaise," dates from 1681; No. 25, hôtel de Hérissey, from 1747. No. 15 is on the site of an ancient hôtel Beauvais. No. 20 Petit hôtel de Beauvais, 1687. The modern house and garage at Nos. 16-18 are on the site of a house owned by a nephew of La Fontaine and which was inhabited by the Beauharnais. At No. 11 we find vestiges of the hôtel of Pierre de Beauvais, a fine mansion, where the Doge of Venise, come to Paris to make obeisance to Louis XIV, stayed in 1686; a convent subsequently, then the Mairie of the district till 1865, when the lengthening of Rue des Saints-Pères swept it away.

Rue St-Dominique, like Rue de Grenelle in ancient days a country road—"Chemin aux Vaches," then "Chemin de la Justice"—grew into a thoroughfare of fine hôtels, some still standing, others swept away by the cutting of the modern boulevard St-Germain or incorporated in the newer hôtels there. It is the district of the Gros Caillou, the great stone, which once marked the bounds of the abbey grounds of St-Germain-des-Prés. The fountain at No. 129, dating from the early years of the nineteenth century, is by Beauvalet. The Hygia healing a warrior we see sculptured there reminds us of the military hospital recently demolished. The church St-Pierre du Gros-Caillou dates from 1738, on the site of a chapel built there in 1652. In the court at No. 94 we find an old pavilion. A curious old house at No. 74, an old courtyard at No. 66. At No. 81 an ancient inn had once the sign "Le Canon ci-devant Royal." No. 67 was the "Palais des Vaches laitières." No. 32 l'hôtel Beaufort. No. 57 l'hôtel de Sagan, built in 1784 for the princesse de Monaco, née Brignole-Salé, now in the hands of an antiquarian. No. 53 l'hôtel de la princesse de Kunsky, 1789. At No. 49 we find an eighteenth-century hôtel in the court. The fine hôtel at No. 28, 1710, was at one time the Nunciate. No. 47 l'hôtel de Seiguelay, where at the beginning of the nineteenth century gas, newly invented, was first used. No. 45 hôtel Comminges. No. 43 hôtel de Ravannes. No. 41 is ancient. At Nos. 22-20 we see the name of the street "... Dominique," the word saint suppressed in Revolution days. No. 35 l'hôtel de Broglie. Nos. 16-14, build in 1730, now the War Minister's official dwelling (1730), in Napoleon's time the Paris home of his mother, "Madame Laetitia." In the first of these two hôtels, joined to make one, we see Louis XV woodwork decorations, "Empire" decorations in the other. No. 33 l'hôtel Panouse.

The church Ste-Clotilde, 1846-56, is built on the site of a demolished Carmelite convent. The fine bas-reliefs by Pradier and Duret are the best work there. Nos. 12, 10, 8, Ministère de la Guerre since 1804, was once the couvent des Filles de St-Joseph, founded 1640. No. 11, site of the Pavillon de Bellechasse, the home of Mme de Genlis. Nos. 5-3 l'hôtel de Tavannes. Gustave Doré died at No. 5, in 1883. No. 1, hôtel of duc de Mortemart, built 1695, where we see an oval court.

Rue Solférino, No. 1, the chancellerie de la Légion d'Honneur .

Rue de l'Université, so long and interesting a thoroughfare, recalls the days when the Pré-aux-Clercs through which it was cut was the classic promenade of Paris students. It was known in its early days as Rue de la Petite-Seyne, then as Rue du Pré-aux-Clercs. The seventeenth century saw a series of lawsuits between the landowners and the University, the latter claiming certain rights and privileges there. The University was the losing party, the only right conceded to Alma Mater was that of giving her name to the old street. No. 182,an ancient garde-meuble and statuary dépôt, was in recent days Rodin's atelier. No. 137 was built about 1675 with the stones left over at the building of les Invalides. No. 130, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, is modern. No. 128 the official dwelling of the président de la Chambre. No. 126 Palais Bourbon. No. 108, Turgot died here in 1781. No. 102 was the abode of the due d'Harcourt in 1770. The side of the Ministère de la Guerre we see at No. 73, a modern erection, is on the site of several historic hôtels demolished to make way for it and for the new boulevard. Lamartine lived at No. 88 in 1848, after living in 1843 at No. 80. No. 78 was built by Harduin-Mansart in the seventeenth century. No. 72 was l'hôtel de Guise (1728). Mme Atkins lived at l'hôtel Mailly, in what is now Rue de Villersexel, in 1816. The remarkably fine hôtel de Soyecourt at No. 51 dates from 1775. No. 43 l'hôtel de Noailles. Alphonse Daudet died at No. 41 (1897). No. 35 was the home of Valdeck-Rousseau. The Magasins du Petit-St-Thomas, built on the site of the ancient hôtel de l'Université (seventeenth century), inhabited at one time by the duc de Valentinois, by Henri d'Aguesseau, etc., have been razed to make way for a big new bank. Montyon, the philanthropist, founder of the Virtue prizes given yearly by the French Academy, died at No. 23 in the year 1820. No. 15 built in 1685 for a notable Fermier-général. No. 13 was in 1772 the site of the Venetian Embassy. At No. 24, in the court, we see a fine old eighteenth-century hôtel built by Servandoni. The houses No. 18 and No. 20 were built upon the old gardens of la Reine Margot, which stretched down here from her palace, Rue de Seine. From the Place du Palais-Bourbon, due to Louis de Bourbon, prince de Condé, we see one side of the Chambre des Députés, built as the Palais-Bourbon by a daughter of Louis XIV (1722). It was enlarged later by the prince de Condé, confiscated in 1780 and renamed Maison de la Révolution, almost entirely rebuilt under Napoleon. Its Grecian peristyle dates from 1808. In 1816 a prince de Condé was again in possession. The Government bought it back in 1827 and built the present Salle des Séances. In Rue de Bourgogne, on the other side of the place, we find several eighteenth-century hôtels. No. 48 was hôtel Fitz-James. No. 50 has been the archbishop's palace since 1907. Mgr. Richard died there in 1908.

The Champ-de-Mars, wholly modern as we see it, surrounded by brand new streets and avenues, stretches across ancient historic ground. Not yet so named, the territory was a veritable champ de Mars more than a thousand years ago when, in 888, the warrior bishop Eudes, at the head of his Parisians, faced the Norman invaders there and forced them to retreat. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the great space was enclosed as the exercising-ground of the École Militaire. The Fête Nationale de la Fédération was held there on 14th July, 1790, presided by Talleyrand; a year later, 17th July, 1791, La Fayette-Bailly fired upon the mob that gathered here, clamouring for the deposition of the King. At the corner where the Avenue de la Bourdonnais now passes the guillotine was set up for the execution of Bailly in 1793. On June 8th, 1794, the people from far and near crowded here for the Fête de l'Être Suprême. In 1804 the Champ-de-Mars was called for a time Champ-de-Mai. But it remained, nevertheless, the site of military displays. Napoleon's eagles and the new decoration, la Legion d'Honneur, were first bestowed here, and when, in 1816, Louis XVIII mounted the throne of France, it was on the Champ-de-Mars that soldiers and civilians received once more the drapeau blanc.

Horse-races took place here. Here, so long ago as 1783, the first primitive airship was sent up. Also, later, a giant balloon. The great exhibition of 1798 and all succeeding great exhibitions, as well as many smaller ones, were held on the Champ-de-Mars. The park we see was laid out in 1908.

Contents