THE BOULEVARDS
THE Paris boulevards are one of the most characteristic features of the city. The word boulevard recalls the days when Paris was fortified, surrounded by ramparts, and the city boulevards stretch for the most part along the lines of ancient boundary walls, boundaries then, now lines in many instances cutting through the very heart of the Paris we know.
The Grands Boulevards run from the Place de la Madeleine to the Place de la Bastille—gay and smart and modern, in the first kilometres of their course; less smart, busier, more commercial, with more abundant vestiges of bygone days as they stretch out beyond the boulevard des Italiens.
The boulevard de la Madeleine follows the line of the ancient boundary wall of Louis XIII, razed during the first years of the eighteenth century. Its upper part on the even-number side was one side of an old thoroughfare reaching as far as Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin, known in its early years as Rue Basse du Rempart. The latter part stretching to Rue Caumartin is of recent date. The old Rue Basse des Remparts was bordered by handsome hôtels, the dwellings of notable persons of the day: vestiges of several of them were until recent years still seen in boulevard des Capucines—Nos. 16 to 22 razed when the new street Rue Édouard VII was cut. In the reception-room of a seventeenth-century house that stood at the corner of the boulevard and the Rue des Capucines known as the Colonnade, Buonaparte first met Joséphine.
Boulevard des Italiens gained its name from the Italian theatre there in 1783. This name was changed more than once in subsequent years. After the Revolution, when the Royalists who had taken refuge beyond the German Rhine returned to Paris and held meetings on this boulevard, it was nicknamed “Le Petit Coblentz.” No. 33 (eighteenth century) is the Pavillon de Hanovre, forming part in past times of the hôtel d’Antin, which had been owned in its later days by Richelieu, then was divided into several dwellings, and in the time of the Merveilleuses one of these sub-divisions of the fine old mansion became a dancing saloon, bal Richelieu, and the meeting-place of the Incroyables. Rue du Helder, which we see opening at No. 36, was in those days a cul-de-sac, i.e. a blind alley. The bank there (No. 7) was erewhile the famous cabaret “le Lion d’Or,” and at No. 2 Cavaignac was arrested when Napoléon made his coup d’état. No. 22 of the boulevard was the far-famed “Tortoni.” No. 20, rebuilt in 1839, now a post office, is the ancient hôtel Stainville, later Maison Dorée. No. 16, till a year or two ago Café Riche, dating from 1791. No. 15, hôtel de Lévis, was once the Jockey Club. On the site of No. 13 stood till recent years the famous Café Anglais. At No. 11 was the club “Salon des Italiens” in the time of Louis XVI, subsequently the restaurant Nicolle and Café du Grand Balcon, its first story commonly known as Salon des Princes. At No. 9 Grétry lived from 1795 till his death, which happened at Montmorency in 1813. No. 1 Café Cardinal founded by Dangest (eighteenth century).
Boulevard Montmartre dates from the seventeenth century, lined in olden days on both sides by handsome private mansions; we see it now a thoroughly commercial thoroughfare, one of the busiest in the city. A modern journalist called its carrefour—the point where it meets the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre—“carrefour des écrasés.” From the house, now a newspaper office, at No. 22 an underground passage ran in past days to the Café Cardinal opposite, leading to an orangery. On the site of No. 23 stood the gambling-house Frascati, built on the site of the old hôtel Taillepied. The Café Véron at No. 13 dates from 1818, opened through the gardens of the hôtel Montmorency-Luxembourg. Passage Jouffroy at No. 10 was cut, in 1846, across the site of an ancient building known as the Maison des Grands Artistes. The théâtre des Variétés, at No. 7, first set up at the Palais-Royal in 1770 by “la Montansier,” was built here in 1807 on the grounds of the hôtel Montmorency-Luxembourg. No. 1 is the site of the Café de la Porte Montmartre, founded by Louis XV, a meeting-place of Parisians hailing from Orléans, nicknamed Guépins.
Boulevard Poissonnières (seventeenth century) begins where hung till recent years an ancient sign at No. 1—“Aux limites de la Ville de Paris”—recording the inscription once on the old wall there. Most of the houses are those originally built along the boulevard, and many old streets run into it on either side. At No. 9 we see Rue St-Fiacre, dating from 1630, when it was Rue du Figuier, a street closed at each end by gates till about 1800. The restaurant Duval at No. 10 of the boulevard was an eighteenth-century mansion. No. 14 is known as Maison du Pont-de-Fer. No. 19, now l’École Pratique du Commerce, was till a few years ago the home of an old lady who, left a widow after one happy year of married life, shut herself up in the house she owned, refused to let any of its six large flats, and died there in utter solitude at the age of ninety. No. 23, designed by Soufflot le Romain in 1775 as a private mansion, became later the dépôt of the famous Aubusson tapistry.
Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, named from the church Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle in Rue de la Lune, dates from the seventeenth century (see [p. 59]). No. 21 was built after the Revolution with the stones of the old demolished church St-Paul (see [p. 12]). No. 11, in 1793, with some of the stones of the Bastille. The theatre, le Gymnase, which we see at No. 38, erected in 1820 on the grounds of a mansion, a barracks and a bit of an old graveyard, was known during some years as the théâtre de Madame la duchesse de Berri, who had taken it under her patronage. Its façade was rebuilt in 1887.
The church just off the boulevard was first built in 1624 on the site of the old chapel Ste-Barbe, and named by Anne d’Autriche, perhaps in gratitude for the good news of the prospect of the birth of a son (Louis XIV) after twenty-three years of childless married life, or, as has been said, on account of a piece of good news communicated to the Queen when passing by the spot. The edifice was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, the tower alone remaining untouched. Within it we find an old painting of Anne d’Autriche and Henriette of England.
Boulevard St-Denis (eighteenth century). The fine Porte St-Denis shows in bas-relief, the victories of Louis XIV in Germany and in Holland. It has been restored three times since its first erection in 1673. The Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 began around this grand old Porte. Paving-stones were hurled from its summit. At No. 19 we see a statue of St-Denis.