“De par le Roi, défense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu.”
RUE MOUFFETARD ET ST-MÉDARD
It is the parish of the Gobelins and a beautiful piece of Gobelins tapestry hangs over the vestry door. Fragments of ancient glass, a picture by Watteau, others by Philippe de Champaigne, beautiful woodwork and the quaintness of its architecture make the old church intensely interesting.
At No. 81 of this old-time street we find vestiges of a seventeenth-century chapel. At No. 52 ancient gravestones. The fountain at No. 60 dates from 1671. The house No. 9 is on the site of the Porte Marcel of bygone days.
Rue Broca, in the vicinity of St-Médard, dating from the twelfth century, when it was Rue de Lourcine, has many curious old houses. The houses of Rue du Pôt-de-fer are all ancient, as are most of those in Rue St-Médard. At No. 1 of Place de la Contre Scarpe close by, a modern place, an inscription marks the site of the Cabaret de la “Pomme de Pin,” celebrated by the eulogies of Ronsard and Rabelais.
CHAPTER XIX
RUE ST-JACQUES
PASSING amid the ancient colleges and churches, streets and houses we have been visiting, runs the old Rue St-Jacques. It begins at the banks of the Seine, stretches through the whole arrondissement, to become on leaving it a faubourg.