Historic Paris

by Jetta Sophia Wolff

ARRONDISSEMENT XV. (VAUGIRARD)

RUE VAUGIRARD, originally Val Girard, which we enter here, on its course from arrondissement VI (see [p. 164]), is the longest street in Paris, a union of several streets under one name, extending on beyond the city bounds. At No. 115 we find an ancient house recently restored by a man of artistic mind; at No. 144, ancient buildings connected with the old hospital l’Enfant-Jésus, its façade giving on Rue de Sèvres. At intervals all along the street, and in the short streets opening out of it, we come upon old-time houses, none, however, of special interest. In this section of its course Rue de la Procession, opening at No. 247, dates from the close of the fourteenth century, a reminiscence of the days when ecclesiastical processions passed along its line to the church. Rue Cambronne, named after the veteran of Waterloo, dates from the first Empire and shows us at Nos. 98, 104, 117, houses of the time when it was Rue de l’École—i.e. l’École Militaire.

The modern church St-Lambert in Rue Gerbert replaces the ancient church of Vaugirard in Rue Dombasle, once Rue des Vignes, the centre of a vine-growing district, where till recent years stood the old orphanage of St-Vincent-de-Paul. Rue de la Croix-Nivert, traced in the early years of the eighteenth century, records the existence of one of the crosses to be found in old days at different points within and without the bounds of the city. In Rue du Hameau, important Roman remains were found a few years ago. In Rue Lecourbe, known in the seventeenth century as le Grand Chemin de Bretagne, in the nineteenth century for some years as Rue de Sèvres, like the old street it starts from at Square Pasteur, prehistoric remains were found in 1903. Rue Blomet, the old Meudon road, was in past days the habitation of gardeners, several old gardeners’ cottages still stand there. The district known as Grenelle, a village beyond the Paris bounds till 1860, has few vestiges of interest. The first stone of its church, St-Jean Baptiste, was laid by the duchesse d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI. The long modern Rue de la Convention is known beyond its immediate vicinity chiefly for the Hôpital Boucicaut built by the founder and late owner of the Bon Marché.

Avenue Suffren, bounding this arrondissement on its even-number side, dates from 1770. Rue Desaix was once le Chemin de l’Orme de Grenelle. Rue de la Fédération memorizes the Fête de la Fédération held on the Champ de Mars in 1790. The oldest street of the district is Rue Dupleix, a road in the fifteenth century and known in the sixteenth century as Sentier de la Justice or Chemin du Gibet, a name which explains itself. Then it became Rue Neuve. The Château de Grenelle stood in old days on the site of the barracks on Place Dupleix, used in the Revolution as a powder factory; there in 1794 a terrific explosion took place, killing twelve hundred persons. Where the Grande Roue turns, on the ground now bright with flower-beds and grassy lawns, duels were fought erewhile. This is the quarter of new streets, brand-new avenues.

Crossing the Seine at this point we find ourselves in arrondissement XVI, for to its area south of the Étoile and surrounding avenues, were added in 1860 the suburban villages of Passy and Auteuil.

CHAPTER XLIII
IN NEWER PARIS

ARRONDISSEMENT XVI. (PASSY)

WE have left far behind us now Old Paris, the Paris of the Kings of France, of the upheaval of Revolution days. The 16th arrondissement, save in the remotest corners of Passy and Auteuil, suburban villages still in some respects, is the arrondissement of the “Nineteenth Century and After.” Round about the Étoile the Napoléonic stamp is very evident. It is the district of the French Empire, First and Second. The Arc de Triomphe was Napoléon’s conception. The broad thoroughfare stretching as Avenue des Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde, as Avenue de la Grande Armée to the boundary of Neuilly, was planned by Napoléon I, as were also the other eleven surrounding avenues. The erections of his day and following years were well designed, well built, solid, systematical, mathematically correct, excellent work as constructions—spacious, airy, hygienic, but devoid of architectural poetry. The buildings of the Second Empire were a little less well designed, less well built and yet more symmetrical, with a very marked utilitarian stamp and a marked lack of artistic inspiration. Those of a later date, with the exception of some few edifices on ancient models, are, alas! for the most part, utilitarian only—supremely utilitarian. Paris dwelling-houses of to-day are, save for a fine hôtel here and there, “maisons de rapport,” where rapport is plainly their all-prevailing raison d’être. The new houses are one like the other, so like as to render new streets devoid of landmarks: “Où sont les jours d’Antan,” when each street, each house had its distinctive feature? Only in the Paris of generations past.

Of Napoléon’s avenues seven, if we include the odd-number side of Avenue des Champs-Élysées and of the Grande Armée, are in this arrondissement. The beautiful Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne is due to Napoléon III, opened in 1854, as Avenue de l’Impératrice. Handsome mansions line it on both sides. One spot remained as it had been before the erection of all these fine hôtels until recent years—a rude cottage-dwelling stood there, owned by a coal merchant who refused to sell the territory at any price. Francs by the million were offered for the site—in vain. But it went at last. In 1909 a private mansion worthy of its neighbour edifices was built on the site.

Avenue Victor-Hugo began in 1826 as Avenue Charles X. From the short Rue du Dôme, on high ground opening out of it, we see in the distance the dôme of the Invalides. To No. 117 the first crêche opened in or near Paris, at Chaillot (1844), was removed some years ago. Gambetta lived for several years and died at No. 57, in another adjoining street, Rue St-Didier. At No. 124 of the Avenue we see a bust of Victor-Hugo, who died in 1885 in the house this one replaces. Place Victor-Hugo began in 1830 as Rond-Point de Charles X. The figure of the poet set up in 1902 is by Barrias. The church St-Honoré d’Eylau dates from 1852. It was pillaged by the Fédérés in 1871. Lamartine passed the last year of his life in a simple chalet near the square named after him; his statue there dates from 1886.