Canal Saint Martin

You can follow the trace of Canal Saint Martin on this map. The starting (or ending) point is close to Place de la Bastille. I already talked about this part, the so called Port de l'Arsenal, in some previous posts (1, 2). After La Bastille the canal goes underground, more or less until it reaches a point near Place de la République (the dotted line).

This is where you will find the more romantic part of the canal (with trees, pedestrian bridges...). Further up, the canal becomes more industrial (or rather used to be) and finally it reaches a basin, Bassin de la Villette (of which I plan to talk tomorrow).

Napoleon (sorry, it's he again) decided in 1802 to have the canal built. One of the purposes was to bring (relatively) clean water to Paris, the other was of course to use the canal for transport of merchandise. The port handling took basically place in the extreme ends of the canal, Port de l'Arsenal and Bassin de la Villette. The canal was finished in 1825, has nine locks enabling to compensate for 25 meters (80 ft) of level difference.

Part of the canal was later during the 19th century covered, (of course) due to Haussmann and the wish to open for large avenues and boulevards. More or less a total loss of traffic brought again the idea in the 60's to cover also the rest of the canal. Fortunately this never happened.

Today you can have a boat ride or take a pleasant walk on the quays - and there are plenty of places for refreshment.

Along the canal you can find the - at least for Frenchmen - well-known "Hôtel du Nord" - still there - which, with the pedestrian bridge in front of it, is the place of some famous film scenes; "Hôtel du Nord", Marcel Camus, 1938. The film was however made with studio decoration. A scene from "Amélie Poulain" was shot on the spot.

You can find most of these pictures on my photo blog.

Place de la République

Before continuing on the boulevards, I propose a stop at Place de la République (for the plan of Paris, see preceding posts.).

This place was basically created during the second half of the 19th century. The present large buildings you can find on one side of the place replaced some theatres including the then famous “Diaporama”, where Daguerre – one of the photography inventors – presented his shows. One of the buildings was originally a big department store (Magasins Réunis) and is now occupied by a hotel and some shops. In the other large building you find the quarters of part of the Garde Républicaine (the French equivalent to the British Horse Guards).

On the opposite side of the place you can find a modest version of a pedestrian passageway, Passage Vendôme, one of many that were created around 1820-30, the forerunners to our present shopping centres.

The place is of course mostly known for the monument, “La République”, which was inaugurated - before it was quite ready - for the first official celebration of the 14th of July as a national holiday in 1880. A new inauguration took place when it was completed in 1883. It was created by two brothers Morice.

On the top, you have “Marianne”, one of the symbols of the Republic. Why Marianne? It seems to have been a popular name at the time of the Revolution among the working classes…. Why a woman? Because the Republic is feminine in French (La République) and women were perhaps also supposed to be less concerned about power and more about people’s well being…. Why the Phrygian bonnet? It was worn already by former slaves during the Roman Empire as a symbol for their citizenship….The monument is rich in decorations: You have also three sculptures representing “Liberté, égalite, fraternité”. Although “Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood (– or Death)” was an essential message already during the 1789 Revolution, it became an official motto only a few decades later. Once again these are feminine words in French and represented by women.
There is also a reference to the “Suffrage Universel”, the right for everybody to vote, established by France, as the first state in the world, in 1848. Of course, it was then limited to men only – French women had to wait until 1945!!











A last remarkable thing with the monument are 12 bronze reliefs around the base. They are made by A-J Dalou (who competed for the whole monument but instead made the monument for Place de la Nation). The reliefs tell the story of the establishment of the Republic (of course only the bright side of it). I thought that to show these reliefs in detail would be a good opportunity for me – and some of you – to memorize the major Revolutionary events. I made a separate post here below showing these reliefs with a few explaining words. I leave you the choice to look at this post as a supplement, if you have the courage.

Tomorrow we will continue with some more boulevards.

Some of the above pictures can be found on my photo blog.

Place de la République bis

Referring to the above post, here you can se the 12 reliefs by A-J Dalou, representing the major French Revolutionary events, which can be found on the base of the monument at Place de la République.

Grands Boulevards (1)

Before starting a walk along the boulevards, I would like to show you this additional map from 1725 on which I have indicated some then already existing sites as well as some later ones. Today we will just make it from Place de la Bastille to Place de la République. We start thus with Boulevard Beaumarchais, originally called St. Antoine, which later got the name from Beaumarchais - inventor, musician, spy, arms dealer, revolutionary - most known as the author of “The Barber of Seville” and “The Marriage of Figaro” (“Le Nozze di Figaro”), successful plays which served as base for the Rossini and Mozart operas. He had his residence (now destroyed) on the corner of Place de la Bastille.

A bit further up on the boulevard (no.23), you can see the entrance gate to a mansion house built by and for Jules Hardouin Mansart, chief arechitect of Louis XIV, who designed the largest part of Versailles and several other castles, churches (Invalides) and places (Place Vendôme). One of the most famous French courtesans, “Ninon” (de l’Enclos) held her salon here. In France her name goes for “wit and beauty”. She had some prominent lovers and collected a fortune, but she was also a friend of Molière and left part of her heritage to Voltaire’s parents for his education.

When proceeding towards La Place de la République, the boulevard changes name to “Bd des Filles du Calvaire” - named after a convent which since has disappeared - and to “Bd du Temple” - named after the “Temple”, a fortress which used to be situated close to here, especially well-known for having been a prison for the Royal family during the Revolution.

In the junction between these two boulevards you can find the “Cirque d’Hiver” (“The Winter Circus”) built in 1852, with J.I. Hittorff as architect. (He also, among many other things, designed the fountains on Place de la Concorde and the buildings around Place de l’Etoile.) The place is still in use for a lot of events, still basically circus, and can seat some 2000 people. Toulouse-Lautrec made several paintings here.

All along these three boulevards you will find a large number of shops specialised in photo equipment for professionals as well as for amateurs. Boulevard du Temple has another specific link to photography. This is where for the first time in history a person was photographed. The photo was taken by Louis Daguerre in 1838. As the exposure time was about ten minutes, only two persons involved in shoe shining and remaining fairly immobile (lower left corner) can be seen. There are also some shops specialised in music instruments, motor bikes (Harley Davidson)… … and a number of other interesting shops, cafés and restaurants.Boulevard du Temple used also to be called the Crime Boulevard, not really due to the number of crimes here, but to the type of theatre plays that were performed in a number of theatres situated in the northern part of this street. They are now all gone with the exception of a relatively small one, from which you can here see the modest entrance, Théâtre de Déjazet (from 1859). A lot of French stars have performed here and for the cinema lovers it may be interesting to know that “Les Enfants du Paradis” (“Children of Paradise”), by Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert, a French “classic”, to a large part was filmed here. When we later will proceed along the boulevards, we will find a lot of theatres, most of them private and with a fairly popular repertoire, what very appropriately is called the “Boulevard Theatre”.

You can find some of these pictures on my photo blog.

Fête de la Musique

The” Fête de la Musique” celebrated June 21, last Thursday (it did not rain), was again a great popular success in Paris. It started in the afternoon and went on the whole night. All kinds of music were represented. Thousand of “concerts” were given, by some of the most well-known artists and also by a lot of amateur musicians and singers – all free of charge.

Together with some friends we spent some ten hours in the streets. Not easy to show in pictures, but here are a few examples from small concerts around where I live, some bigger events around Trocadéro, the enormous crowd around la Bastille at midnight…

The metro worked all night, and you can see an example from a metro corridor; I have never seen the metro so full of people, all in good mood.

As this “Fête de la Musique” seems to spread around the world, you can perhaps comment on what possibly and hopefully happened at your place?