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Arriving at the Metro Bastille,
follow the sign "Bd Bourdon Bd Henri IV, exit rue Saint-Antoine. Looking at the historical marker “la Bastille”
turn right.
Pass Café des Phares
(philosophical discussions are held here on Sundays).
(You are in the neighborhood of the brasserie, Bofinger on rue de la Bastille).
Cross rue de la Bastille
and then blvd. Beaumarchais and go to the historical marker in front of
the BNP bank.
On the other side of the
BNP bank is Blvd. Richard Lenoir
On the other side of the
BNP bank is blvd. Richard Lenoir and its historical marker.
As you cross the tree-lined
boulevard, keep in mind that one of the largest outdoor markets in Paris
is held here on Sundays between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. A smaller version
is held on Thursdays. (During August both markets are very, very small.)
Continue forward, keeping
the Bastille opera house on your right. On the opera house terrain are
two historical markers:
Pass the bistros to rue
de la Roquette and turn left onto Roquette.
You are walking toward
the café la Rotonde, to the left of the café is rue Saint-Sabin,
to the right and across Roquette is rue de Lappe, our main drag/thoroughfare for the
tour.
A sample of passages to come
is along Saint-Sabin, no. 16, almost next door to the chocolate factory,
à la Petite Fabrique (closed Sunday and Monday).
Take the time and see them
both. If you like dark chocolate, I recommend the “amer” (bitter) at 72%
cocoa, the orange fondant and the praliné. They also have milk chocolate
(au lait), chocolate with different sorts of nuts, truffles with calvados
liqeur, and more, more, more! You can watch them through the glass making
the candies.
As you recuperate from
the chocolate high, turn back toward rue de la Roquette and cross over
to rue de Lappe, which is a pedestrian street, with vehicular invasions
every now and then.
You have left the final
streets of the garment district and are now in the furniture district.
At no. 6 rue de Lappe, is Chez Teil
that sells food products from the Auvergne region of France, as well as clogs/galoches for
45€. Check
out the old counter and refrigerator on the other wall. The entire store is an old style.
At no.9, across from no. 14, is “le Balajo”.
In another lifetime, this dancehall sang with accordion music. Still alive as a
dancehall, the variety is now salsa to tango to rock and roll (www.balajo.fr)
No. 27 is a hotel/bar/restaurant,
Bistrot le Sans-Culottes done in a 1920s style with one of the few pewter
bars left in Paris.
At no. 41 La Galoche d’Aurillac
sells Auvergne specialities and is a good regional restaurant and bar.
They too sell clogs -- galoches are wood and leather, 77€;
the sabots are all wood, 50€.
Chez Paul,a well-known restaurant with
atmosphere is at the end of the rue de Lappe is.
Turn left onto rue de Charonne.
At no. 17 as you turn left,
walk into the past: the glue, the staple gun, the mirrors and chairs being
restored. Not much is left of the old way, but this small passage gives
you an idea of the past, when every bit of space was utilized for the wood
working shops.
Now look for no. 26 across the street, Passage Lhomme.
Through this doorway, except Sunday, you
enter a shared industrial, restoration and residential area with the very
picturesque ivy-covered chimney of the mirror factory. The chimney’s clothing
changes colors with the seasons. This passage makes for great midnight
photos with an open aperture.
Came across a work shop for French epoque chairs, Sieges
Vieille France, in the passage below the chimney. They do the finishing work on chairs (painting,
covering, etc.). I found two interesting items at this shop for people who live
in small spaces. They have a folding classic period style chair and the
other item relates to the seat size on classic period chairs. They reduce the depth
dimensions so your chair takes up less floor space.
Continue out of the passage
turning left on Passage Josset (listening for the tapping of the
upholstery hammer) until you see the Pause Café.
Continue to rue de Charonne
and
turn right, walking toward le Bistrot du Peintre (don’t be surprised if
a movie crew is shooting here. For some reason this bistro, the brasserie,
Café du Commerce, across the street and the boulangerie at no. 109
on Ledru-Rollin are movie photogenic).
Crossing Ledru-Rollin you are heading for the No. 76-purple sign-
bus stop.
Look across the street to your right at a modern building: no.
51-53 with the gray-smoked balconies.
Another building lies behind.
The Hôtel de Mortagne
is from the 1600s. To enter, push the
silver button on the gate.
What once housed textile machines and later
a museum is now an apartment building.
To exit, put your hand through the
gate and push the button.
Return to Ledru-Rollin, turn left,
walk toward rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine - not to be confused with rue
St. Antoine - (past le Bistrot du Peintre).
Rose-Thé is a salon de thé at 104,
avenue Ledru-Rollin (I used to live in this building). It has specialties of the
Cévenne region of France. It's menu consists of tartes/quiches, hot dishes,
homemade desserts; pleasant atmosphere, and very good food. I recommend the MIMI
tarte - onion, spinach and bleu cheese; the pear and chocolate pie was fresh out
of the oven. With a glass of lovely regional white, the bill came to 14€.
Continuing on our journey, you are about to enter
some of the passageways with remnants of a livelihood from long ago. If
it is a weekday, press buttons and enter (passages require a code on the
weekends).
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Hint
Once inside the buildings, you will have
two buttons: one for the door (porte) and one for the light (lumière).
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On rue du Fbg. Saint-Antoine
and the Monoprix side, you will enter the passageways with the remnants
of a livelihood from long ago.
You will recognize no.
95 by the head of the bear over the doorway. Enter this Cour de l’Ours
(bear).
At no. 91, with small,
green, doors, enter a building from the 1500s with its entry and stairwell
in excellent condition. (It's pretty dark inside.) The stairs and balustrade date from between 1545
and 1615; it is not known exactly.
No. 89 still has the Janrys
furniture factory in this passage of the Cour de la Maison Burlée.
No. 81-3 is the Cour des
Trois-Frères with its little factories still functioning.
No. 75 is the Cour de l’Étoile-d’Or.
Look for the sundial from 1751 that might be hidden by the overgrown bamboo) on the face of an old house. According to
the author of “Unexplored Paris”¹ the building was originally a two-storey
high country cottage. The garden was converted into a courtyard for artisans
and the small buildings were rented to cabinetmakers (ébénistes);
hangars and stables were added.
On the right there is a
small, colorful, 18th century house, renovated under the First Empire (Napoléan
I - 1804-1814/1815).
Cour des Shadoks no. 71 is next door to the Cour de
l’Étoile-d’Or. Entering this courtyard
is a must simply to see the transition from the sound of tools and smell
of glue to gentrification.
This next passage is a
little adventure:
At rue de Charonne, enter
no. 5 (Cour St. Joseph) just past the café. This is really two courtyards
in one. Look for no.12. It is a small stairwell. Mount the stairs, pass
through the door and descend the stairs. Through the little courtyard,
you re-enter rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
Turn right. When you reach
no. 33 press the button above the number code pad for more courtyard eye
candy. Instead of the normal click, you will hear a high pitched whine.
Enjoy the exposed wood beam ceiling, the balustrade of the small staircase
and the interior of the courtyard. Have you found the old well?
To exit, press the switch on the left
wall; pull the small portion of the door open.
Head back to the Bastille
past the popular bars, Sephora and other shop to where the faubourg (suburb/countryside) of Saint-Antoine began.
Louis XIV gave permission
to the journeymen in this manufacturing district to design their own furniture
aside from replicating the king’s furniture.
Until the mid-90s this
street was filled with furniture stores. Salesmen were standing in every
doorway wanting you to come in and look around.
At the opening to one
of the passages on the east side of the street, at least five or six would
be standing in the middle of the sidewalk, wanting you to follow them through the alley to a furniture shop.
At the time, I hated the hassle, now it's a flavor of the street that has
disappeared.
As a point
of reference, the east side of the street is in the 12th arrondissement.
I hope you have enjoyed
your Bastille trip of passages, gardens and history in a tiny piece
of the 11th arrondissement.
Please let me know what you thought of the stroll.
e-mail
Colleen
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Historical markers around Bastille |
 La BastilleOn April 22, 1370, the
magistrate Hugues Aubriot placed the first stone of a chateau fortress whose
purpose was to protect the eastern front of Paris during the reign
of Charles V. Charles VI added prison cells and then Henri II added
fortifications toward the countryside.
Prisoners of the government were first sent here under Louis XIII.
The seven prisoners occupying the Bastille on July 14 1789 became a
symbol of the despotic monarchy and were carried out in triumph.
(The Bastille was destroyed in 1790.)
The fortress blocked the
entry to rue Saint-Antoine. Entry to the city was through the Saint-Antoine
doorway situated to the north on rue de la Bastille. In 1671 Blondel reconstructed
in the style of an arc de triomphe. This entry was demolished in 1778. |
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Boulevard Beaumarchais In 1670, Louis XIV ordered
that the wall of Charles V be transformed into a promenade lined with trees.
The blvd. Saint-Antoine, developed from the walls of the dike, took the
name blvd. Beaumarchais in 1831.
Pierre-Augustin Caron de
Beaumarchais, the famous author of “The Barber of Seville”, bought a large
piece of property bordered by blvd. Beaumarchais (no.2 to 20), rue Pasteur
Wagner, rue Amelot and blvd. Richard-Lenoir.
He built a sumptuous home
designed by Paul-Guillaume Lemoine with gardens designed by François-Joseph
Belanger, the architect of Bagatelle (in Bois de Boulogne).
At his death on May 18,
1799, Beaumarchais was buried in his garden, that was subsequently destroyed
in 1822 with the construction of the Canal Saint-Martin. |
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Blvd. Richard Lenoir Blvd. Richard-Lenoir covers
Canal Saint-Martin, that was once open to the sky between la Villette and
l’Arsenal. Built under the direction of Charles-Edouard Devilliers, the
canal was inaugurated on November 4, 1825.
In order to facilitate
traffic circulation with the newly laid out blvd. Voltaire, the prefect
of the Seine, Haussmann, decided in 1861 to build a boulevard over the
canal between the Bastille and rue Rampon.
The level of the canal
was lowered six metres (thus, the use of locks along the canal). In 1862,
Gabriel Davioud, architect of the Châtelet Theatre, decorated the
central portion of the boulevard with 15 identical gardens. The architect,
David Mangin, and the landscaper, Jacqueline Osty, developed new gardens
in 1993. |
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La Barricade du Fbg Saint-AntoineThe suburban Saint-Antoine
played a large role during the revolutions of 1789, July 1830 and February
1848. In each of these three events, craftsmen and workers contributed
each time to the fall of the monarchy. The insurrection of June 1848 was
described by Victor Hugo in “les Misérables”, notably the enormous
barricade raised at the entrace to the streets of Charenton and of the
Faubourg-Saint-Antoine. General Négrier and the archibishop of Paris,
Monsignor Affre, arrived at a truce near the erection of these barricades
on June 25, 1848. At 10 a.m. on June 26, general Lamoricière brought
down the barricades, but in order to crush the worker rebellion, his troupes
had to dismantle the remaining 65 barricades one by one that were piled
up along the rue de Faubourg-Saint-Antoine between Bastille and Nation. |
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La Colonne de Juillet Between July 27 and 29,
1830 Paris revolted against Charles X who was forced to flee and abdicate
his throne. On July 27, 1831, the new king, Louis-Philippe laid the first
stone for a stone column commerating this revolution.
Designed by Alovoîne
and constructed by Duc in 1840, it is topped by the genie of liberty designed
by Dumont.
The 504 names of the victims
of the insurrection are engraved on this bronze column that measures 52
metres. Along with these victims, buried within its walls are also some
Egyptian mummies. Originally buried in the garden of the national library
and decomposed by the humidity, they were eventually transferred and buried
with the victims of the July 1830 revolution.
They were later joined
by the 196 victims of the February 23-24, 1848 revolution. |
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rue de Lappe A gardener, Girara de
Lappe, owned this property in 1635. Since the 17th century, carpenters
and cabinetmakers were established here. Attracted by the freedom of commerce
to the suburb of Saint-Antoine, the villagers from Auvergne grouped together
here at the end of the 18th century. The practiced the occupations of “chaudronniers,
de ferblantiers and umbrella merchants. Until the 19th century, the shops
were “tenues” by the scrap iron merchants, antique shops and wine merchants.
The Auvergne dancehalls opened, and one could dance to the sound of the
musette/small accordion.
Even after the accordion
replaced the musette, the dancehalls continued to be referred to musette.
At one time, the rue de Lappe had about 15 of these dancehalls. One of
them continues the tradition today at “le Balajo”. |
Hôtel de Mortagne
51-53, Ledru-RollinJacques Nourry, secretary
of the Order of the Duke of Orleans, had a superbe residence called la
Folie Nourry constructed in 1661 by the architect, Pierre Deliste-Mansart,
nephew of François Mansart. In 1711 the mansion belonged to Count
Antoine de Mortagne, first “ecuyer” of the Duchesse of Orleans. Jacques
Vaucanson, an inventor of spirit? Lived here from 1746 until his death
in 1782. After the automates that had made him celebrated he placed in
this residence large mechanical textile machines and the tools to work
with silk that allowed him to enter the Academy of Science. In 1783, Louis
XVI decided to establish the first museum of Arts and Métiers (occupations)
at the Mortagne Mansion. |
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May 2008