After turning to the right, on leaving the Rue Colbert, and quite close to the Square, at No. 4 in the Rue de l'Arbalète, is the house, dating from the middle of the 16th century, where J. B. de la Salle was born.
Although this house suffered from the bombardments of 1918, its front is practically intact. It is the finest Renaissance front in Rheims, after that of Le Vergeur's House (see p. [85]).
The carriage entrance is flanked with two life-size caryatids, popularly called Adam and Eve, on account of their nudity. Along the first storey runs a broad frieze ornamentated with trophies of arms and a shield of unknown significance. Between two windows of this storey a niche, resting on a console, is crowned with a canopy. The shops on the ground-floor somewhat spoilt the general look of the building. The interior of the house was less interesting than the front.
In the courtyard is a strikingly graceful three-storey turret (photo above), one side of which has collapsed.
Among the wooden houses destroyed by the bombardments of 1918 in the Place des Marchés, the following must be mentioned: the Maison Fossier (see p. [76]), which stood in the Square at the right-hand corner of the Rue de l'Arbalète, and especially the Maison de l'Enfant d'Or (sometimes wrongly called the House of Jacques Callou), which stood near the Rue des Elus. The latter house took its name from an old sign representing the gilt figure of a sleeping child. Hence, punningly, the name Golden or Sleeping Child.
In spite of alterations, this house (photo, p. [77]), with its pent-house roof, two overhanging storeys, windows crowned with finials, and sculptural decoration (see carved console, p. [77]), was a well-preserved specimen of 15th century architecture.
From the Place des Marchés, follow the Rue Colbert to the Place Royale.
BEFORE THE WAR
See text, page [75].