II.1.1. A SPECTRAL RAMPART

MENU: 2.1.1. Start with a spectral rampart

THIS FIRST WALK SHOWS THE LASTING IMPACT OF THE PAST

We follow the 13th-century rampart, then show its impact on the famous neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

       

Paris in 1615 / zoom

The yellow line shows a location, the red lines our route. 

In brief

• Sites of the Revolution and a haven away from the street

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

• The rampart vestige in a parking lot

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Sites of the Revolution and a haven away from the street

SITES OF THE REVOLUTION AND A HAVEN AWAY FROM THE STREET

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

# # #

Crossing the boulevard from the métro to this portal passes through the site of his 11-room residence...   

                             Pamela Spurdon

• Find yourself in the ditch in front of the rampart:

Pamela Spurdon

 Cours de Commerce Saint-André

• Pass the workshop where the first guillotine was made...

• Next is the home of the ferocious journalist Jean-Paul Marat, precursor of  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.

-- Michelet, 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 touts being on the site of a café where the philosophers of the Enlightenment met,  but the 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 is said to have 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

• 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

The owner looks out on the passage.

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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, which a jovial patron ran:  

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."

Yellow arrows show where something is.

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:

Red arrows show your route.

Just beyond it is Saint-Germain-des-PRÉS 

("in the fields"),

 outside the wall.

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The rampart vestige in a parking lot

THE RAMPART VESTIGE IN A PARKING LOT

BUILDING 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 as you turn right on the crossroad:

(On rue Mazarine)

Adapted from a Google map

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."

End of this section

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Next section,

2.1.2.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés, rampart heir