Quai des Orfèvres, the goldsmith’s quay, dating from the end of the sixteenth and first years of the seventeenth centuries, lost its most ancient, most picturesque structures by the enlarging of the Palais de Justice in recent years. In ancient days a Roman wall passed here. At No. 20 of the Rue de Harlay, opening out of it, we see part of an ancient archway. At No. 2 a Louis XIII house. Nos. 52-54 on the quai date from 1603, the latter once the firm of jewellers implicated in the affaire du collier. At No. 58 lived Strass, the inventor of the simili-diamonds.
Quai de la Cité was built in 1785, on the site of the ancient port-aux-œufs, remains of which were unearthed in making the metropolitan railway, a few years ago. Along these banks we see the Paris bird shops; the Marché-aux-Oiseaux is held here. And close by is the Marché-aux-Fleurs. Merovingian remains were found beneath the surface on this part of the quay in 1906. Thick, strong walls believed to have been built by Dagobert, inscriptions, capitals, tombstones—the remains of oldest Paris.
Quai de l’Archevêché records the existence there of the archbishop’s palace built in 1697 by Cardinal de Noailles, pillaged and razed to the ground in 1831. The sacristy and presbytery we see there now are modern. This is the quay of the Paris Morgue, the Dead-house, brought here in 1864 from the Marché-Neuf, which had been its site since 1804, when it was removed from le Grand Châtelet. For years past we have been told it is “soon” to be again removed, taken to a remoter corner of the city.
The Square de l’Archevêché, laid out in 1837, was in olden days a stretch of waste land known as the “Motte aux Papelards,” the playground of the Cathedral Staff. Boileau’s Paris home was here in a street long swept away. His country-house, as we know, was at Auteuil (see p. 275). In 1870 the square was turned for the time into an artillery ground.
Quai de Bourbon on the Île St. Louis dates from 1614. Every house along its line is interesting, of seventeenth-century date for the most part. At No. 3, we see a shop of the days and style Louis XV. Nos. 13-15, hôtel de Charron, where in modern times Meissonnier had his studio. We see fine doors and doorways, courts, staircases, balustrades, at every house. No. 29 was the home of Roualle de Boisgelon. Philippe de Champaigne lived for a time at No. 45.
Quai d’Orléans was named after Gaston, the brother of Louis XIII. No. 18 is the hôtel Roland. No. 6 is a Polish museum and library.
Quai de Béthune, once Quai du Dauphin, named by the Revolutionists Quai de la Liberté, shows us seventeenth-century houses along its entire course. No. 32 was the home of the statesman Turgot in his youth—his father’s house. Subterranean passages ran to the Seine from No. 30, and some other riverine houses. At No. 24, built by Le Vau, we find an interesting court, with fountain, etc.
Quai d’Anjou is another Orleans quay, for Gaston was duc d’Anjou. No. 1 is the splendid hôtel Lambert de Thorigny (see [p. 93]). No. 5, the “petit hôtel Poisson de Marigny,” brother of Mme de Pompadour. No. 7, began as part of the hôtel Lambert, and is now headquarters of the municipal bakery directors. Nos. 11, 13, hôtel of Louis Lambert de Thorigny. No. 17, hôtel Lauzun, husband of “La Grande Mademoiselle,” in later times the habitation of several distinguished men of letters: Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, etc. The society of the “Parisiens de Paris” bought it in 1904, a magnificent mansion, classed as “Monument historique,” under State protection, therefore, in regard to its upkeep. Nos. 23 and 25 are built on staves over four old walls. No. 35 was built by Louis XIV’s coachman.
RIVE GAUCHE (Left Bank).
We will start again from the south-western corner. Here in 1777, in the little riverside hamlet beyond Paris, a big factory was built, where was first made the disinfectant, of so universal use in France, known as eau de Javel. The Quai de Javel was constructed some fifty years later.