"TURN LEFT AT THE STARBUCKS," I WAS TOLD ON ASKING DIRECTIONS TO RUE MONTORGUEIL, WHICH BORDERS WHAT WAS ONCE THE COURT OF MIRACLES
Adapted from the plan in The Grand Court of Miracles (in French)
A sign advertised rental space for a business to fit "the coolest street:"
Proximity to the former Les Halles market explains the cafés, restaurants and gourmet shops:
The start of rue Montorgueil, photographed from the edge of Les Halles
Most are modern...
...and a few recall the past:
L'Escargot, ("The Snail"), a celebrity destination since 1832
A painting over a shop that must have sold colonial products
The Stoher bakery, founded by the pastry chef for the queen at Versailles (in 1730)
The restaurant Le Rocher de Cancal
appears in Balzac's The Marriage Contrat
A diner sips the wine, by Paul Gavarini
View of cafés
An incident that took place at its bar
Toward 1830 Alfred de Musset,
a young, handsome, elegant nobleman
who is one of France's great poets,
invited Celeste Vénard, a 16-year-old prostitute,
to dine there.
Her brothel's madam dressed her beautifully, and she was delighted to enter the world of the privileged. But Musset and his friends squirted her with spritzer water and laughed when she ran out sobbing.
Cécile became one of the "queens of Paris," courtesans comparable to our movie stars. Musset wrote a poem to her, presumably in hopes of renewing the acquaintance. She did not acknowledge it, a supreme insult, and pretended not see him when they crossed paths.
Demolished by drink and debauchery, he burned out before he was 30.
# # #
Signs of wealth date from the end of the 17th century, when houses like these replaced those of the Middle Ages:
On rue Montorgueil
On rue Saint-Sauveur, which links rue Montorgueil and rue Saint-Denis. The arches led to courtyards for horse-drawn carriages.
# # #
Nothing remains of the Court of Miracles or of the rempart against which it huddled, except for the slight slope due to garbage thrown out at the town's extremity.
The arch in the background is on the rampart's site:
# # #
Later:
How this miserable outskirt
became a neighborhood for the elite.
But now more about Cécile Vénard
who like members of the Court of Miracles,
fought back against the limits birth imposed.
* * *
Next,
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