It was there that Napoleon I. slept after his return to Rheims. His room had been preserved exactly as it was in 1814 (see p. [8]).
THE PARIS GATE
At No. 27 are vestiges of the old Hôtel Levesque de Pouilly. Inside the court there was a 16th century house, the residence of a family which furnished Rheims with some remarkable administrators, chief among whom was Levesque de Pouilly, "lieutenant of the inhabitants." Among the celebrated guests received by him were Voltaire and Madame du Châtelet (1749). In a letter to him, Lord Bolingbroke wrote: "I know but three men who are worthy of governing the nation: You, Pope and myself."
THE VAULTING AND BELFRY OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES (Cliché LL.)
On the right, between Nos. 44 and 46, is the Rue St. Jacques.
Follow the Rue de Vesle to the end, where the Paris Gate stands, about 1 km. from the entrance to the Rue St. Jacques.
This Gate replaced the Vesle Gate which formerly abutted on the river. In consequence of the growth of the city it was built in the faubourg about 1845. Its beautiful wrought-iron work (photo opposite), by the local master-locksmiths Lecoq and Revel, was erected by the City in 1774, at the time of the consecration of Louis XVI.
From the Paris Gate, return by the Rue de Vesle to the Rue St. Jacques, on the right of which stands the Church of St. Jacques.