THE BOULEVARDS, ONCE LUXURY'S PLANETARY HEART

"LES BOULEVARDS' " IMPORTANCE CAME FROM REPLACING THE RAMPARTS, AND SO FACILITATING ACCESS TO VERSAILLES

*Demolishing ramparts, 1672; building the boulevards at the Saint-Denis arc, 1674; eliminating the Court of Miracles, 1676; arresting poisoners and sorcerers, 1678-1680; the move to Versailles, 1682; nuns establish themselves in the convent below, 1683.

Tearing down the city wall asserted continental power, and rooting out crime was part of moving court and government to Versailles.*

     The Saint-Denis Gate by Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin, 1810-1830 / zoom

                                                  Adapted from a map of Paris toward 1530 / zoom

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Residents change

• Nobles had already settled in these outskirts, but the area became much more desirable with the transformation just mentioned. 

• An example is women of the nobility retiring from worldly life to this convent, just south of the Saint-Denis gate, immediately after the criminals had been suppressed and the court moved to Versailles.* 

*Police actions, 1676 and 1680-1682; court lastingly in Versailles, 1682; convent, 1683.

For more on noble residents, please click.

  The convent of the Dames de Saint-Chaumont, built in 1735 / zoom 

• The middle class that the Revolution made dominant brought famous restaurants and the first sidewalk cafés :

The Café Tortoni at the Boulevard des Italiens by Eugène von Guérard, 1856 / zoom

        

Only men are seated: Respectable women came accompanied by men, and rarely, for in this epicenter of prostitution restaurants' private salons had couches for after dinner.  

• As the terrain of fashionable young men...

...the Boulevards are a setting of famous novels:

       Adaptation of Balzac's Lost Illusions by Xavier Giannoli with Benjamin Voisin and Cécile de France, 2021 / zoom

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Luxury establishments grew up nearby: I used to take visitors to the last workshop to produce flowers and plumes by hand...

Zoom (please scroll down)

Bruno Légeron inherited it from his great-great grandfather, who bought it 1888.

• It was founded in 1727 and a client was the royal court. Monsieur Légeron, above, made all the plumes and flowers for the film Marie-Antoinette by Sophia Coppola (in 2006).

Zoom

• Haute couture orders led to extras, which one could buy at reasonable prices after rummaging through the drawers: 

• A multinational acquired it in 2020. Visits are over. 

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Artists painted the Boulevards until World War I...

Boulevard des Capucines by Jean Beraud, toward 1900 / zoom

      The Boulevard de Montmartre by Camille Pissaro, 1897 / zoom

     View of the Grands Boulevards of Paris by Fausto Guido, toward 1900  / zoom

Now Las Vegas evokes them:

     TripAdviser / zoom

But low-level brands and fast foods align there now.

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For the Boulevards' tie to Palais-Royal please click here,

for more on the nobles here 

and for the garment center, here.

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