II. BEYOND THE EXPECTED CITY

THESE WALKS OR VISITS SHOW THE LOGIC OF THE HISTORIC CENTER, THE ENERGY OF THE OUTSKIRTS AND THE VALUE OF OBSERVATION

A palace that extends along the Seine.

Barbès, considered a "no-go zone"

          Internet, photographer not named

Discovering street art, exploring the diversity of certain neighborhoods and visiting the Louvre make use of kids' sharp eyes.

Looking carefully challenges what is usually said. 

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Next,
II.1.
The logic of the legendary core

II.1. THE LOGIC OF THE LEGENDARY CORE

THE CITY WALL, PALACES AND RIVER SHOW HOW THE HISTORIC CENTER EVOLVED

Our route...

      Paris in 1530, with thanks to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Adaptations of this map will be used many times. / zoom

• Follows the ditch outside the rampart.

• Crosses the transgressive territory of outlaws and Protestants.

• Discovers antiquarians where nobles settled to be nearer Versailles.

• Turns back, crosses the river and strolls through the Louvre's courtyards to the Palais-Royal gardens, where the modern world began...

And unveils recent efforts to erase the past itself.

In brief

• Start with a spectral rampart

• Saint-Germain-des-Prés, rampart heir

• Palaces: glory and collapse 

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Next,

Start with a spectral rampart

II.1.1. START WITH A SPECTRAL RAMPART

MENU: 2.1.1. Start with a spectral rampart

THIS FIRST WALK SHOWS HOW THE PAST IS PURPOSELY ERASED BY...

 Masking the rampart vestige at the Louvre.  

 Suppressing Marie-Antoinette's cell At the Conciergerie.

          Adapted from a Google map

...AND EXPLAINS HOW IT DETERMINES THE LEFT BANK'S MODERN CHARACTER 

This section follows the 13th-century rampart. The next explains its impact on the famous neighborhood of Saint-Germain. 

         Paris in 1615 / zoom

In brief

• The walk starts with the Revolution 

• A trace of the past and a sign of the future  

• The rampart vestige in a parking lot 

• Camouflage at the Louvre

• Marie-Antoinette's cell replaced by a tablet

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Next,
The walk starts with the Revolution

SITES OF THE REVOLUTION

THE ODÉON MÉTRO STAIRS LEAD TO THE STATUE OF  GEORGES DANTON, AN ORATOR WHO WAS CORRUPT AND INDOMITABLE

RATP

• When the Revolution faced defeat his cry,"Audacity, audacity and more audacity, and France will be saved!" inspired the unprecedented action that brought victory.

Wikipedia

• "Show my head to the people. It's worth it!" he told the executioner as he stepped up to the guillotine:

Execution of Danton (detail), engraving by Charles Barbant, 1882 / zoom

A story that enters legend

Danton died simply, royally. He looked with pity to the people on the left and right, and saying to the executioner with authority : « Show my head to the people. It's worth it."

The execution did show it, turning on the scaffold, showing it on the four sides.  

There was a moment of silence [...] no one breathed [...]  

Then came a confused cry from the relieved and satisfied royalists, simulating applause : "So lives the Republic!" 

And a cry sincere and desperate from the patriots, stuck at their heart: "They have decapitated France!"  

-- History of the French Revolution by Jules Michelet, 1847 (ed.1971) pp. 570-571

# # #

Cross the territory between the métro and this portal on the boulevard's other side, which his 11-room residence covered...   

                             Pamela Spurdon

• ...to find yourself in the ditch in front of the rampart:

Pamela Spurdon

 Cours de Commerce Saint-André

• Proceed past the workshop where the first guillotine was made...

• ...next to the home of the ferocious journalist Jean-Paul Marat, precursor of Goebbels and demagoguery now: 

 

"He abstained from abstract theories, unintelligible to the people [...]. One is surprised that the uniform violence, the same, always the same, that makes reading Marat so tiring [...]. Always the same refrain: death. No change beyond the heads to chop, 600 heads, 10 000 heads, 20, 000 heads ; he went, if I remember correctly, as far as 270,000 heads."

-- Michelet, pp. 147-148

The death of Marat by David, 1793 / zoom

         The painting made his assassination one of history's most famous.

Death of Marat, « History of the French Revolution" by Jules Michelet, 1847, ed. 1971, p. 500

...the girl seemed of old Norman stock, not flaunting her beauty, a green ribbon holding back her superb hair, under a bonnet...

"Charlotte... pulled out the knife and plunged it up the the hilt in Marat's heart."

# # #

Back to the present: establishments to skip or appreciate

• A restaurant that touts its having been a meeting-place for the 18th-century philosophers, but the spectacular decor is fake, the service indifferent and the cuisine bland 

Zoom (first photo of the series)

Le Procope     

To the left of the entrance

Commercializing the past

• The site where Marat published his paper 
  is now a place for gourmet specialties from southern France. I overheard enthusiastic comments after a tasting.

Maison Brémond 1830

On the other side of the passage

"Marat's press was located here."

-- Sandrine Gaida, who heads the shop

• Many restaurants reheat and decorate dishes that are industrially-made, but here one can one watch classic, affordable French cuisine being prepared in the owner's presence:

Cèpes et figues

59-61 rue du Commerce Saint-André

Just before the exit

The owner looks out on the passage.

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Next,

A trace of the past and a sign of the future

A TRACE OF THE PAST AND A SIGN OF THE FUTURE

FACING THE PASSAGE IS A BOOKSTORE, VESTIGE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF EDITORS AND BOOKSTORES 

Librairie du Camée

70 rue Saint-André-des-Arts

Next to it until 2020 was a traditional restaurant that was excellent and inexpensive, run by a jovial patron 

Vins et Terroirs

66 Rue Saint-André des Arts

A shop for gadgets replaced it, then an Asian fast food:

Around the corner is another bookstore: "Would you accept to be in the photo?," I asked the client in the picture below. "It would show the venerable district of editors and bookstores." 

Librairie François Chanut

41 rue Mazarine

 

"Publish it soon!" he answered, "Before the last disappear."

# # #

Turn left from the passage 

— the rampart ditch — 

 to the crossroads that was the Buci gate:

Just beyond it is Saint-Germain-des-PRÉS 

("in the fields"),

the countryside outside the wall.

*    *    *

Next,

The rampart vestige in a parking lot

THE RAMPART VESTIGE IN A PARKING LOT

BUILDING IN THE FIELDS BEYOND THE RAMPART WAS FORBIDDEN UNTIL ABOUT 1600, SO THAT THE KING COULD VIEW THE COUNTRYSIDE FROM HIS WINDOWS AT THE LOUVRE

-- The Louvre under Henri IV and Louis XIII  by Louis Batiffol, 1930 (in French)

   The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of  Berry / zoom  

Zoom

"ADVICE A FRONDEUR GIVES PARISIANS WHOM HE EXHORTS TO REVOLT AGAINST THE TYRANNY OF CARDINAL MAZARIN"

Imagine the gate and countryside as you turn right:  

(On rue Mazarine)

Adapted from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, 1854 ed.

Ahead of you will be this sign...

34 rue Mazarine

Until 2020 you could push open the gate, walk down one flight of parking lot stairs...

 ...and come upon a segment of the 13th-century wall:

Claude Abron

But then it was privatized and you cannot see the vestige unless you rent a parking space: 

I pressed on the interphone.

After a long wait someone answered.

Our conversation: 

"I'm a Paris guide. Is it still possible to visit the vestige of the medieval city wall?" 

"I've never heard of it."

*     *     *

Next,

Camouflage at the Louvre

CAMOUFLAGE AT THE LOUVRE

THE LOUVRE BEGAN AS A FORTRESS IN THE RAMPART, WHICH FORBADE ACCESS TO THE RIVER

          The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, October  (upper level), 15th century / zoom

A magnificent trace remains,which until 2020 projectors highlighted:  

Then it became part of an installation...  

...from which incomprehensible phrases spring out:

"Light brings us more deeply into auto-reflexion"

Since the majority of visitors are foreigners who don't read French, that obscurity does not matter.

As far as French people are concerned...

• Like these Girl Scouts they ignore the messages...  

• Or stop, try to decipher them and rapidly walk on.  

# # #

The exit leads from gloom to light, that is, to a McDonald's and a souvenir shop

One understands the parking-lot owners' indifference

(while noticing the privatisation of City property).

But the Director of the Louvre? 

*    *    *

Next,

Marie-Antoinette's cell replaced by a tablet