THE KING AMONG HIS PEOPLE

HOUSES COVERED BRIDGES IN THOSE CRAMPED TOWNS...

                       Joute au pont Notre-Dame by Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, 1756 / zoom

Except on pont Neuf...*

*Begun in 1578, halted by the civil wars of the end of the 18th century, finished in 1607.

     Pont Neuf et la pompe de la Samaritaine by Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, 1777, musée Carnavalet

A pump to provide water for the Louvre and Tuileries palaces is the bridge's only building

Where Henri IV replaced them with the first sidewalks and their invented "balconies"...

# # #

All Paris came for jugglers, snake-oil dealers, tooth-pullers, anyone who could attract a crowd...  

Pont Neuf vu de l'entrée de la place Dauphine, anonymous, toward 1665, musée Carnavalet

L'Arracheur de dents du pont Neuf  by Jean Brioché, vers 1650 / zoom (déroulez la page) 

Notice the thief.

# # #

And for actors. The entry to place Dauphine was large enough to set up a stage, and that is where modern French comedy began:  

• Pont Neuf by Hendrick Mommers, toward 1670:

Zoom

• Tabarin, the first French comic to distinguish himself from medieval devils:  

    Tabarin à la place Dauphine, eBay

• The Charlatan by Franz Anton Maulbertsch, 1795 :

 Zoom

       

• Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, stage name Molière, is France's greatest comedy writer, who grew up and acted in his troupe. He had grown up near pont Neuf, whose activity may have inspired his having players constantly moving about and improvise. That was a reason for the popularity that led him to the Sun King's court... 

    Zoom

Molière on stage with his troupe toward 1670.

 

• At the musée Carnavalet, a rare hommage to street energy:  

 

# # #

Henri IV is France's most popular king, for his bonhommie and because the life of the poor improved during his peaceful, competent and quiet reign.

Zoom

"Every laborer should have a chicken in the post on Sundays."  

During the bridge's construction he jumped on horseback over the void in the middle. Amiable caricatures recall the exploit. 

Zoom

His statue hovers over the bridge, recalling monarchy...

 L'Embarras de Paris, pont Neuf à la rue Dauphine by Nicolas Guérard, 1715 / zoom

 

Zoom

At a time when powerful forces

try to erase it. 

 More later.

End of this section. 

 *     *    *

Next section:

IV.1.3.

A design inconceivable elsewhere