Ascending the little unseemly streets des Prétres and Boutebrie, we find ourselves in the Rue du Foin, No. 18, being called the Hôtel de la Reine Blanche; she was living about the year 1210, when the church of St. Severin close by was founded in the reign of her father-in-law, and very probably resided in the neighbourhood, perhaps on the very spot where the house stands which is now called after her, but evidently not in the same building which is now shown as such, although the staircase is of a very ancient appearance.
In the same street, at the corner of the Rue Boutebrie, is the old Collége de Maître Gervais, founded in 1370, at present appropriated as a barrack for infantry. The visiter now must prepare for a grand treat, as we turn round into the Rue de la Harpe, and at No. 63, we find the venerable and crumbling remains of the Palais des Thermes (vide page 55). Julian, who was born in 332, inhabited it for some time, and many imagine it was built by his grandfather, but others state that it was alluded to at a still earlier period. Of what now remains there is principally a large hall and a smaller, forming together one room; the architecture is simple but noble, the walls are adorned by three grand arcades, the middle being the loftiest. The vaulting of the roof rests upon supports, representing the sterns of ships; human figures may be distinguished in one of them. Beneath the hall are vaulted apartments extending under most of the neighbouring houses. An aqueduct is traced as having been brought from some leagues, for the purpose it is supposed principally of supplying the baths. The masonry is alternately of stone and brick, in parts covered with a thick stucco. It seems almost incredible that a monument so ancient, and of such high interest should have been for so long a period totally disregarded by the government, and suffered to be occupied by a printer, a traiteur, and a cooper. The Municipality of Paris have now however purchased it, and intend to convert it into a museum for the reception of antiquities that can be collected of the ancient Gauls. After the overthrow of the Roman yoke, the Palais des Thermes was inhabited by the earliest kings of France. To view these ruins the stranger must apply to the concierge, No. 68, Rue de la Harpe, directly opposite, and a trifle should be given to the party showing them.
The Hôtel de Cluny which is almost adjoining, is also an object highly meriting the attention of the observer. It is one of those edifices of the middle ages, of which there are so few remaining. In 1505, in the reign of Louis the Twelfth, this curious building was erected by Jacques d'Amboise, Abbot of Cluny, on the site and with a part of the ruins of the Palais des Thermes. There is a richness about the architecture and the ornaments around the windows, that is particularly striking; the chapel is most highly interesting, and in it was married Princess Mary, the widow of Louis the Twelfth, and sister of Henry VIII, to the duke of Suffolk, as also James V of Scotland to Magdalen, daughter of Francis I. Having at length become the property of M. Sommérard, all the value of his acquisition is duly appreciated, and he has formed within this curious and beautiful edifice, a collection of specimens of the middle ages, which are arranged chronologically; he is the author of a most interesting work on the subject which may be procured upon the premises. The stranger will find a visit to the Hôtel de Cluny one of the most gratifying of any he can bestow, and on writing to M. Sommérard, he may be certain of procuring admission. Following the Rue St. Benoît, we arrive at the Theatre du Pantheon, Rue St. Jacques, opened in 1832; it is partly formed by the church St. Benoît anciently that of St. Benedict built in 1517, much famed during the ligue, where the assassination of Henri III was applauded by Jean Boucher in his sermons. The performances are vaudevilles and melodramas. Highest price two shillings, lowest six-pence.
We now re-enter the Rue de la Harpe, and notice the Royal College St. Louis, originally founded by Raoul Harcourt in 1280; the present building was erected in 1675, but part of the ancient edifice exists, the greater portion of the structure was built in 1814; and the college opened in 1820. There is a chapel attached, and at the lower end a gateway, formerly the entrance to the Collége de Bayeux, founded in 1308, which bears an inscription to that effect, and probably of the same date. A very few steps bring us to the Collége de la Sorbonne, built on the site of a school founded by Robert Sorbon in 1253; it is filled with historical associations, the church and all about it has a very gloomy appearance, it is cruciform and of the corinthian order, surmounted by a dome the interior of which is painted by Philippe de Champagne. The tomb of Cardinal de Richelieu, in the southern transept, is the chef-d'œuvre of Gérardon. The college is a plain building of sombre aspect, but the accommodation for the professors is on a handsome scale; the lectures delivered are all gratuitous.
We will now proceed to the School of Medicine in the street bearing the same name. The first stone was laid by Louis XV, in 1769, it is a truly elegant building, a peristyle of the ionic order with a quadruple range of columns unite the two wings and support the library, and a fine cabinet of anatomy. The grand court is 66 feet in length by 96 in breadth, the amphitheatre which is opposite the entrance is capable of containing 1,400 people; there are several allegorical and emblematical bas-reliefs, and on the whole it is a building which excites much admiration both in an ornamental and in a useful point of view, there not being a single object that can in any manner facilitate the study of medicine that is not to be found within this institution. At No. 5, in the same street, is a gratuitous school of drawing, established in the ancient amphitheatre of surgery, chiefly intended for artisans, to instruct them in the principles of drawings and architecture, and lectures are given on geometry, mensuration, etc. Opposite to the École de Médecine, is the Hôpital clinique de la Faculté de Médecine, established in the cloister of the Cordeliers, of which there are some remains still visible; it is rather a handsome building and contains 140 beds. The body of the building is in the Rue de l'Observance. In the same street as the École de Médecine; is the Musée Dupuytren, being the valuable pathological collection of that celebrated anatomist, bought by the University of his heirs, and placed in the refectory of the Cordeliers which has been fitted up in the style of the 15th century, the date of its erection.
Adjoining to this Museum is the School of practical Anatomy, being a set of dissecting rooms for the use of the students. As we are so near I must conduct the visiter to the Rue Hautefeuille; on the west side is a house of the 16th century, which once belonged to a society of Premonstratensian monks. In the same street, Nos. 23, 13, 9 and 5, and at the corner of the Rue du Paon and Rue de l'École de Médecine, the houses have ancient turrets, and are stated to have been built in the reign of Charles VII. In the house, No. 18, of the latter street, in a dirty backroom, Charlotte Corday stabbed that beau idéal of monsters, Marat. We will now make our way to the Rue d'Enfer, and at No. 34 is the Hôtel de Vendôme, at present the royal School of Mines; this noble mansion was erected in 1707 by the Carthusian monks, but being purchased by the Duchess of Vendôme was called after her. Every description of tool or instrument used in mining will here be found, and perhaps the extensive mineralogical collection is unrivalled anywhere in Europe, and arranged in the most scientific manner by M. Haüy, with a ticket attached to each explanatory of their quality and locality. The geological specimens have been collected by Messrs. Cuvier and Bronguiart; weeks might be passed in this museum by those partial to studying mineralogy, geology, and conchology, and subjects for examination and meditation would still not be exhausted. We will now turn into the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace; they are in the true French stiff style, but look at them in a slanting direction and all the formality is lost; the statues are seen intermingled with the trees, shrubs, flowers, parterres, walks, vases, fountains, etc. and the coup-d'œil has a most beautiful effect, and some of the retired walks amongst the high trees have a very inviting though solitary appearance.
The Palace (vide page 98) was erected by Marie de Medicis, and is now with the recent additions a very extensive building, and taken in a general sense is decidedly a very fine monument, but I certainly think the pillars being in such bad taste with large square knobs sticking out all the way up the columns, in a degree spoil the effect of the whole edifice, still there is a heavy grandeur in the ensemble which has an imposing appearance. After having been occupied by various royal personages, it was given by Louis the Sixteenth to his brother afterwards Louis XVIII, who resided in it until he quitted France in 1791; it has since been appropriated to many different purposes, and is now used as the Chamber of Peers; for their discussions a new apartment has been constructed 92 feet in diameter, the form is semi-circular. In the middle of the axis is a recess in which the president's and secretaries' seats are placed; above are a range of statues in recesses, the chairs of the peers are arranged in an amphitheatrical manner and occupy the space in front of the president; the peer who speaks takes his place below the president's desk.
There are altogether in this palace so many statues, apartments, sculpture and galleries to describe, that it would monopolise far too much space in my little volume if I were to attempt to do it justice. I must therefore content myself with advising the reader to take the first opportunity of viewing it with its beautiful gallery of pictures, many of which are the chefs-d'œuvre of the best living French artists. In the new divisions which have been lately constructed there are some fine specimens of painting from the pencils of Messrs. Delaroche, Scheffer, Boulanger, Roqueplan, etc., and the chambers voted 800,000 fr. (32,000 l.) for the artistical decorations of the recent erections added to the original building.
Le Petit Luxembourg is a large hotel contiguous and may be considered as a dependency of the great palace, it was built by Cardinal Richelieu who made it his residence whilst the Palais Royal was building, when he afterwards gave it to his niece the Duchess d'Aiguillon. It is now occupied by the Chancellor of France, as President of the House of Peers; it also contains a small prison for persons committed for political offences, and tried by the Court of Peers: the ministers of Charles X were here confined in 1830. In the same street, No. 70, is the Convent of the Carmelite Sisters, already mentioned, a portion of the building is still devoted to sacred purposes, the chapel is dedicated to St. Joseph, and of the Tuscan order, it was founded by Marie de Medicis. Here first began the massacres in Paris of the 2nd of September, 1792, when a number of priests here imprisoned were murdered. This is the convent which has long been famed for the Eau de Mélisse and Blanc des Carmes, which are still sold here.
At the southern gate of the Garden of the Luxembourg is the Jardin botanique de l'École de Médecine, where every medicinal plant agreeing with the climate is raised, and ticketed as classified by Jussieu.