THE BUTTE-AUX-CAILLES ("QUAIL HILLTOP"), SITE OF THE REPRESSION'S WORST FIGHTING
Elsewhere Versaillais officers spared unreliable troops, but they could not let Communards control the height that dominates the left bank. Though their forces were six times more numerous, it took four attempts to seize the hill. -- Lissagary
The Observatory Seen from the Butte aux Cailles by Jean Millet, toward 1710 / zoom
"A perspective to delight
the most blasé traveller [...]
The Panthéon's magnificent cupula, the drab and melancholy dome of the Val de Grâce, proudly dominate an entire town [...] From there, the proportions of the the two monuments appear gigantic [...] to the left, the Observatory seems a dark and gaunt spectre [...] then, from afar, the Invalides's elegant lantern flames between the Luxembourg's blue masses and the gray towers of Saint-Sulpice [...]"
-- The Woman of Thirty by Balzac, 1842
To avoid the barricade that guarded the 13th's entry,* they proceeded under along the Bièvre river's islands:
*Les Gobelins, the site of tapestry production since the 17th century, is still where the district begins.
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| Zoom (please scroll down) |
Then their climb began...
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| Parc René Le Gall |
The park is built on enlarged islands.
...crossed what then was a country road...
Now boulevard Auguste Blanqui
...to climb the hill under heavy fire as the terrified residents heard the screams and gun shots...
Engraving of the time, gone from the web
...finally taking it toward 4 pm.
The thousand surviving Communards
retired to the right bank in good order,
where they dispersed to defend their neighborhoods.
