MENU: 2.1.3. Antiquarians on way to Versailles
NOBLES SETTLED IN THE WEST TO BE NEARER THE COURT, AND THEIR FAUBOURG SAINT-GERMAIN* WAS THE CENTER OF POWER FOR 15 YEARS AFTER NAPOLEON'S DEFEAT**
* "Faubourg," literally "false burg" or suburb, and "Saint-Germain," the area around the abbey of Saint-Germain that we have just passed through.
**The Restauration, when Louis XVI's brothers and returned émigrés tried to restore a semblance of the Old Regime (in 1815-1830).
Their austere town houses shun parvenu ostentation and the spirit of the time is hidden...
Splendid knockers highlight closed portals: Henry James describes the society they protect (The American, 1877).
...except for the antiquarians' wares and the innate courtesy of people whose families transmitted the usages of the court.
Follow the river and the arrows...
Take quai Voltaire to pont du Carrousel
Adapted from a Google map
In brief
- Lords step out from the shadows
- Farther on
- Plaques reveal this river bank's prestige
- More antiquarians
- Conclusion
* * *
Next,
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