* the site of the old morgue
From 1804 located on Quai du Marché-Neuf‚ it moved in 1864 to a new building on Quai de l’Archevêché‚ behind Notre-Dame. The Morgue became a veritable tourist attraction in the 19th century‚ even included in the Thomas Cook tour of the city‚ offering the spectacle of cadavers of unknown persons laid out on slabs that they might be identified and claimed for burial. It figures large in Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin‚ in which the murderer is daily drawn to the place to see if his victim has been discovered. It was eventually closed to the public in 1907.
* La Tournelle
The Quai de la Tournelle runs between the Pont de l’Archevêché and the Pont de la Tournelle that connect the Left Bank to the Ile de la Cité and the Ile St-Louis. It takes its name from a tower in the City walls built by Philip Augustus at the beginning of the 13th century‚ from which a chain running across to the Tour Loriot on the right bank could block the river passage for the protection of the City. The Tournelle tower was demolished in 1787.
* Boult-sur-Suippe
Village in the Marne‚ occupied by the Germans on 10 June 1940.
* the Ghetto‚ behind the Hotel de Ville
More a Jewish neighbourhood than a ghetto‚ this is the area round Rue des Rosiers‚ Rue des Ecouffes and Rue Ferdinand-Duval‚ formerly Rue des Juifs‚ where the Jewish community settled in the early 13th century. There had been an earlier Jewish neighbourhood round Rue de la Juiverie‚ now part of Rue de la Cité on the Ile de la Cité‚ with a Jewish synagogue that was torn down in the 12th century and replaced with a church.
* Rue des Grands-Degrés
Between Place Maubert and the Seine‚ near the Pont de l’Archevêché.
* La Maube
Place Maubert‚ one of the places of public execution in Paris’s turbulent past‚ famous for its barricades during the Fronde‚ the anti- royalist insurrection of the mid-17th century‚ and the Revolutionary period.
* Château-Rouge
(Also known as La Guillotine‚ on rue de Galande) and Père Lunette‚ so called because of the glasses worn by its proprietor that were replicated as this establishment’s shop-sign‚ were notoriously squalid entertainment-halls-cum-doss-houses. Both places are graphically described by J.K. Huysmans in his description of the St Séverin neighbourhood‚ in La Bièvre et St Séverin‚ 1898.
* Rue Lagrange
Opened in 1887‚ running north off Place Maubert towards the Pont-au-Double.
* Austerlitz
Napoleon’s great victory against the Russian and Austrian armies on 2 December 1805‚ the first anniversary of his coronation as Emperor‚ in which the French suffered losses of 1305 dead and 6940 wounded against 11000 Russian and 4000 Austrian casualties.
* Robert Desnos
Leading Surrealist poet (1900–45)‚ active in the Resistance‚ arrested by the Gestapo in February 1944‚ he died of typhus at Terezin concentration camp on 8 June 1945.
* Privat d’Anglemont
Born in Guadaloupe 1815‚ died in Paris 1859. Paris Anecdote‚ his recorded observations of Paris life‚ culled from night-time wanderings round the City‚ caused a sensation on its first publication‚ generally given as 1854. Extract quoted p.184.
* Arrests Memorables du Parlement de Paris
Case law studies that started to be published from the mid-16th century‚ establishing legal precedents and reflecting social mores.
* Nationale‚ Arsenal‚ Ste-Geneviève‚ Archives
Bibliothèque Nationale: could be said to date back to the 14th century and the first royal library of Charles V‚ whose inventoried collection of 917 manuscripts was housed in what came to be called the Library Tower of the Louvre‚ which could be consulted by scholars‚ but as this collection was dispersed on his death the real founder of what came to be the National Library was Louis XI who ruled 1461–83. Legislation requiring a copy of all books published for sale in France to be deposited in the Royal Library was passed in 1537. The royal collections were transferred in the early 18th century to Rue de Richelieu and renamed the National Library after the Revolution. Constant acquisitions and the need for more space led to the decision taken in 1988 by President François Mitterand to build new library premises. Designed by Dominique Perrault‚ this controversial edifice‚ comprising four towers‚ is located on the Left Bank between Pont de Bercy and Pont de Tolbiac.
Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal: rebuilt several times over the centuries‚ destined for demolition by Louis XVI‚ a part of the old Arsenal‚ on Rue Sully between the river and Place de la Bastille‚ now houses a library of books and manuscripts relating to the history of Paris.
Bibliotheque Ste-Geneviève: 8 Place du Panthéon.
Archives Nationales: Hôtel Soubise‚ 60 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois.
* Charles the Bold
Charles the Bold‚ who succeeded to the Duchy of Burgundy in 1467‚ led an alliance of nobles‚ known as the League of the Public Good‚ including the Duke of Britanny and the King’s brother Charles‚ Duke of Berry‚ in a feudal revolt against royal authority. The humiliation of Louis XI was achieved by the Peace of Peronne in 1468‚ but the king survived long enough to see the ambitions of the Duke of Burgundy‚ who died on the battlefield in 1477‚ completely thwarted. The Duchy of Maine was united with the Crown in 1328 when Philippe of Valois became Philippe VI of France‚ the title having been assumed by then by the Counts of Valois.
* La Montagne
Mont Ste-Geneviève. The hill on the Left Bank‚ rising from Place Maubert to Rue Mouffetard‚ that under the Romans was called the Hill of Lutetius.
* Vieux-Chêne
69 Rue Mouffetard.
* Africa Disciplinary Battalions
The so-called Bat’ d’Af’ were special units for recruits with a previous criminal record.
* La Mouffe
Rue Mouffetard‚ which runs through the middle of the 5th arrondissement‚ lying between Place Maubert and Les Gobelins.
* ‘quickening peg’
Quotation from Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel‚ Author’s Prologue to Book Three: ‘on nom … des quatre fesses qui vous engendrerent‚ et de la vivificque cheville qui pour lors les coupploit’ [in the name of … the four buttocks that engendered you and the quickening peg that served to join them].
* Xavier Privas
Born Antoine Paul Taravel in Lyon 1863. Poet and celebrated singer who made his debut in Paris cabarets around 1890. Rue Zacharie is now known by the name of Rue Xavier-Privas.
* Petit-Châtelet
Originally a defensive structure dating back to Roman times that stood at the end of the Petit-Pont on the site of today’s Place du Petit-Pont‚ it was rebuilt several times‚ later serving as a tollgate‚ and then from the 14th century as a prison until it was demolished in 1782.
* St Louis
Ruled France as Louis IX 1226–1270. He led the Seventh Crusade to recover Jerusalem in 1248‚ and died in Tunis at the start of the Eighth Crusade. After his death and canonization in 1297‚ a record of his saintly life was written by his devoted subject and crusading companion Jean de Joinville.
* Sorbonne and Irish College
In the mid-13th century Louis IX’s chaplain Robert de Sorbon (the name of his native village in Picardy) founded a small theological college for poor students‚ at the time just one of the many colleges‚ most of them attached to the great abbeys and churches of the City‚ that came into being from the 9th century on and attracted students from all over France and Europe‚ so great was the renown of their teachers. (The most celebrated of whom was Peter Abelard (1079–1142)‚ who taught first at the Cathedral school and then at the school of St Geneviève). It eventually established itself as the great court of appeal on matters theological‚ and became synonomous with the university of Paris. By the 17th century there were 65 colleges in Paris. The various schools were incorporated into a single body designated the université in 1212‚ with statutes regulating who was entitled to teach. Students enjoyed considerable privileges and freedoms that led to violent clashes with the ecclesiastical authorities and with the townspeople.
The Irish college was founded by two Irish priests‚ Patrick Maginn and Michael Kelly‚ who in 1671 and 1681 received letters patent from the King authorizing them to take over the Lombard college on Rue des Carmes‚ founded in 1334 for students from Italy‚ which by the 17th century was falling into ruin.
* Tour Pointue
A popular name for the Prefecture of Police‚ dating from the 19th century‚ and deriving from the shape of the tower on the corner of Rue de Jerusalem‚ on which the Prefecture was originally located‚ a street on Ile de la Cité that no longer exists‚ and so called because pilgrims to the Holy Land used to stay there. After these original premises were set on fire by the Communards in 1871‚ the Prefecture moved into a new building‚ the Caserne de la Cité‚ constructed as part of Baron Haussmann’s scheme for the remodelling of Paris.
* Henri Vergnolle
Author’s note: Henri Vergnolle was to become Chairman of the City Council after the Liberation.
* La Source and D’Harcourt
Two cafés in the Latin quarter‚ the Source at 35 Boulevard St Michel‚ D’Harcourt at Place de la Sorbonne. D’Harcourt was the name of a canon from an old Normandy family who in 1280 founded a college in Rue de la Harpe for poor students from the dioceses of Coutances (where his brother was bishop)‚ Bayeux‚ Evreux and Rouen. In 1820 the Lycée St-Louis was erected on the site of D’Harcourt’s college.
* Fréhel
Marguerite Boulc’h (1891–1951)‚ music-hall star‚ born in Paris of Breton origin‚ who began her career under the patronage of La Belle Otero‚ singing first under the name of Pervenche and later Fréhel (after Cap Fréhel in Britanny). Her most famous song is ‘La Java Bleue’‚ recorded in 1939. She also appeared in a number of films including Julien Duvivier’s Pépé le Moko‚ starring Jean Gabin as a French gangster. Personal tragedy and unhappiness led to attempted suicide‚ drug addiction and alcoholism‚ and she ended her days in misery.
* Georges Darien
Anarchist writer (1862–1921)‚ whose scathing exposé of military justice and the army’s Bat’ d’Af’ disciplinary units in North Africa (referred to in popular parlance as Biribi) was published in 1890.
* Montehus
Born Gaston Mordachée Brunswick (1872–1952)‚ popular songwriter‚ whose anti-militarism and socialist sentiments won him the admiration of Lenin during the latter’s four-year exile in Paris 1909–12. Awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1947.
* beauceron
A type of sheep-dog of ancient origins‚ used on the agricultural plains round Paris‚ with the same sort of colouring as a rottweiler. Also called a bas-rouge (literally‚ ‘red sock’) or a Berger de Beauce (literally‚ ‘Beauce sheepdog’).
* Hôtel-Dieu
Literally‚ Hostel of God. Hospital dating back to the 7th century‚ when St Landry‚ Bishop of Paris‚ began treating the sick in the monastery of St Christopher‚ on the site of which the Hotel-Dieu was built during the 8th century. Under Louis IX the hospital was restored‚ enlarged and richly endowed. Rebuilt in 1878‚ it now stands on the north side of the Ile de la Cité between the Pont Notre-Dame and the Pont d’Arcole.
* St-Louis
Hospital specializing in dermatology‚ in the 10th arrondissement on Place Dr-Alfred-Fournier.
* Laughter is proper to the man
Reference to Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel‚ dedication To the Readers: ‘Rire est le propre de l’homme.’
* Glacière
A district to the west of Les Gobelins‚ in the 13th arrondissement.
* François Villon
Author of one of the most celebrated lines of poetry – ‘Où sont les neiges d’antan’ [Where are the snows of yesteryear?]. (Another of his lines ‘autant en emporte le vent’ was adopted as the French title of Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind). Born in Paris in 1431‚ date of death unknown. Villon’s small body of surviving work reflects his disreputable life and criminal associations that earned him arrest‚ imprisonment‚ and eventually a death sentence commuted to ten years’ exile from Paris.
* ‘the days of wanton youth’
Villon’s ‘Testament’ verse XXVI: Hé! Dieu‚ se j’eusse étudié&/Ou temps de ma jeunesse folle‚&/Et à bonnes moeurs dédié‚&/J’eusse maison et couche molle. Oh God! If only I’d studied&/In the days of my wanton youth&/And cultivated good behaviour‚&/I’d have a house and a soft bed.
* Auteuil
The southern part of the wealthy 16th arrondissement in south- west Paris.
* prohibited zone
Under German occupation‚ France was divided into Vichy France in the south and Occupied France in the north. Furthermore‚ Alsace-Lorraine was incorporated into the Reich‚ while the very north and the Pas de Calais were put under the administration of Occupied Belgium. In the north-east‚ from Picardie to Lorraine‚ there was a so-called prohibited zone‚ where the population that had fled during the exodus was not allowed to return‚ and land belonging to these exiles was appropriated for cultivation by German farmers.
* Argonne trenches
To the west of Verdun‚ where some of the fiercest fighting of WWI took place.
* Fort St-Jean
At the mouth of the harbour in Marseilles.
* Sidi-bel-Abbès
From 1832–1962 headquarters of the French Foreign Legion‚ founded in 1831 by King Louis-Philippe for the conquest of Algeria.
* Monastir
The name by which present-day Bitola‚ in southern Macedonia‚ was known under Turkish rule.
* Hendaye
On the border between France and Spain‚ at the mouth of the Bidassoa estuary on the Atlantic coast.
* Kharkov
Also in the Ukraine‚ west of Kiev.
* Marquis de Ste-Croix and Brinvilliers
Notorious murderers of the 17th century‚ Marie-Madeleine d’Aubray‚ wife of the Marquis de Brinvilliers‚ and her lover Gaudin de Ste-Croix‚ conspired to murder her father and her two brothers‚ who were scandalized by their liaison and tried to oppose it. Ste- Croix died in his laboratory‚ overcome by the fumes of a poison he was developing‚ which prompted an investigation that led to Brinvilliers being brought to trial and sentenced to death. Mme de Sevigné (1626–96)‚ whose famous Letters were published in the 18th century‚ saw her taken to be executed‚ in 1676‚ and Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870)‚ author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo‚ recorded the affair in his Celebrated Crimes‚ published in four volumes‚ 1839–41.
* St-Denis plain
To the north of Paris‚ beyond Porte de la Chapelle‚ where the basilica of St Denis is located.
* Lariboisière
Hospital on Rue Ambroise-Paré near the Gare du Nord in the 10th arrondissement‚ completed in 1854 to a pavilion plan that won the approval of Florence Nightingale‚ who came to see it when it was newly opened.
* Tell me who you haunt …
Nadja‚ an ‘anti-literary’ prose work published in 1928 by poet and author of the Surrealist Manifesto André Breton (1896–1966)‚ opens with following words: Qui suis-je? Si par exception je m’en rapportais à un adage: pourquoi tout ne reviendrait-il pas à savoir qui je ‘hante’? [Who am I? Suppose I were to make an exception and fall back on an old adage: why shouldn’t all be explained by knowing whom I ‘haunt’?]
* Jehan de Chelles
One of the masons of Notre-Dame‚ who has left his name on the south portal of the cathedral‚ together with the date‚ 12 February 1257‚ on which building work began.
* Gentilly
On the southern outskirts of Paris.
* Salle Adyar
Assembly room at 4 Square Rapp in the 7th arrondissement.
* Les Halles
The central market in Paris originated in the early 12th century when Louis VI established a market on land belonging to the priory of St Denis-le-Chartre (on a site where even in Roman times there had been a market). It expanded under subsequent monarchs‚ with new halls added for the various goods sold. When the market was moved out of cenral Paris in the 1970s‚ the twelve enormous glass- and-iron pavilions of which it consisted by then‚ ten of which erected under Napoleon III‚ the others dating from 1937‚ were demolished and replaced by the shopping centre known as the Forum des Halles. A classic 19th-century description of Les Halles is to be found in Zola’s Le Ventre de Paris‚ 1873.
* Brétigny
The aerodrome at Brétigny-sur-Orge‚ some thirty kilometres to the south of Paris. (Also the site of the Treaty of Brétigny signed in 1360‚ during the Hundred Years War‚ under the terms of which King Jean II of France was exchanged for an enormous ransom.)
* Marolles-en-Hurepoix
A village a few kilometres south of the aerodrome.
* Quatre-Sergents
In September 1822‚ during a period of great political instability in France and Europe‚ four young army officers‚ Goubin‚ Pommier‚ Raoulx and Bories‚ who were members of a Republican secret society‚ were executed on the Place de Grève for conspiring to subvert their regiment‚ which deployed from Paris to La Rochelle‚ and for taking part in an abortive insurrection led by General Berton at Saumur. Because of their youth‚ courage and defiance‚ they came to be regarded as martyrs for the liberal cause.
* Belle-Ile
Island off the south coast of Britanny with two notoriously grim detention centres for young offenders‚ one housed in what was originally a military prison‚ which were closed in 1979. Offenders would sometimes graduate directly from Belle-Ile to the Bat’ d’Af’.
* Casque d’Or
The nickame of a golden-haired beauty for whose favours two rival gang leaders confronted each other on the streets of Paris in 1902‚ a story that inspired Jacques Becker’s film of 1952‚ in which Simone Signoret starred as Casque d’Or (‘Goldilocks’‚ or ‘Golden Marie’ as the film was titled in English)‚ Serge Reggiani her lover Manda and Claude Dauphin as the apache gangster Leca.
* Val d’Amour
The name by which Rue Glatigny (which no longer exists) on Ile de la Cité was also known. (At the beginning of the 19th century there were over 50 streets and some 20 churches or chapels on the Ile de la Cité; by the 1870s urban replanning had opened up this insalubrious warren and reduced the number of streets to no more than a dozen.)
Until the mid-12th century attempts were made to banish prostitutes from the city altogether‚ but it became clear this was never going to be achieved. In legislation attempting to control prostitution‚ Rue Glatigny and several other streets – including Tiron‚ Chapon‚ Brisemiche – were designated areas where prostitutes were allowed to ply their trade in houses dedicated to that purpose – and which were taxed – although regulations were hard to enforce and much flouted.
* Aliscans of Paris
The Aliscans‚ or Alyscamps (Elysian Fields) in Arles‚ in the South of France‚ is a large necropolis founded by the Gallo-Romans‚ renowned as a site of great spirituality. It was also the site of a crushing defeat of the Christians by the Saracens‚ recounted in a 12th-century chanson de geste. There are paintings of the Alyscamps by Gaugin and Van Gogh.
* Uncle Guillaume
Villon‚ Le Testament‚ LXXXVII: ‘mon plus que père‚&/Maître Guillaume de Villon‚&/Qui m’a été plus doux que mère&/A enfant levé de maillon’ … [more than a father to me‚&/Maitre Guillaume de Villon‚&/ who’s been kinder to me than any mother&/towards a child raised from infancy].
* Pomme-de-Pin
A tavern mentioned in Villon’s Lais‚ XIX‚ and Testament‚ CI. Also mentioned by Rabelais. According to one 19th-century historian‚ located in Rue de la Juiverie (now part of Rue de la Cité) on the Ile de la Cité.
* The Ballad of the Gallows-Birds
Sometimes called Villon’s ‘Epitaph’. See ch.12‚ pp.207 and 208.
* Melun
The prison in the prefectural town of the departement of Seine-et- Marne‚ located some forty-five kilometres to the south-east of Paris‚ occupies the entire tip of the ancient island centre of the City. There is a pun here‚ linking the prison‚ called the Maison Centrale‚ with the École Centrale‚ the State School of Engineering.
* Arbre-à-Liège
10 Rue Tiquetonne‚ running between Rue Montmartre et Boulevard St Denis.
* Alexandre Arnoux
Poet‚ novelist‚ playwright (1884–1973).
* St-Germain-l’Auxerrois
Formerly the royal chapel‚ opposite the Louvre.
* exodus
The German invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940‚ followed by the collapse of the Somme-Aisne front‚ and the withdrawal of the French government from Paris on June 10‚ led to a mass exodus of some three-quarters of the population of the City‚ around two million people‚ over a period of three days. A census carried out three weeks later indicated that around 300‚000 had returned.
* Gobelins Factory
The famous Gobelins tapestry factory established in Paris at the beginning of the 17th century by a family of that name‚ which for a brief period under Louis XIV produced other types of furnishings for royal residences. The factory premises at one time included houses and gardens for the weavers and their families.
* Bagneux
Cemetery at Chatillon-Montrouge‚ to the south-east of Paris.
* Ferdinand Lop
French humorist and writer (1891–1974)‚ a prototype Screaming Lord Sutch who repeatedly stood for President with the slogan ‘Tout pour le front Lopulaire’ (a personalized Front Populaire). The author of‚ among other works‚ Petain and History: What I would have said in my induction speech at the Académie Française had I been elected to it (1957)‚ from 1946 to 1958 he stood on an electoral platform promising the abolition of poverty after ten o’clock at night‚ the extension of the Boulevard St Michel to the sea‚ the nationalisation of brothels‚ the award of a pension to the wife of the unknown soldier‚ and the removal of Paris to the countryside so that its citizens could enjoy some fresh air.
* Au Pilori
Anti-Semitic weekly published under German Occupation with an allocation of paper that allowed a printrun of 90‚000 copies.
* Raymond Duncan
Artist‚ printer‚ and designer (1874–1966). Eccentric brother of the dancer Isadora Duncan‚ whom he encouraged in 1900 to join him in Paris‚ where he had already taken up residence. He accompanied her to Greece in 1903. Finding shoes obnoxious‚ he was making his own sandals and now took to wearing ancient Greek- style robes. An article written by Grace Tibbits in 1917 (which appears on the Virtual Museum of San Francisco website) refers to the stir caused when he and his wife (Penelope‚ sister of the Greek poet Sikelianos) and their young son arrived in winter on a visit to the US‚ dressed in this fashion. ‘The authorities in New York said that Mr and Mrs Duncan might dress as they pleased‚ but the small Duncan would fall into the hands of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children if he weren’t more warmly garbed.’
* as Attila was wont to say
Attila the Hun is supposed to have said‚ ‘Where my horse passes‚ grass no longer grows.’
* Roi des Aulnes
Der Erl-König (The Erl-King‚ or King of the Alders) is the title of a narrative poem written by Goethe in 1782‚ based on a folk legend about Death snatching a child. Schubert wrote a song based on this poem‚ which was orchestrated by Berlioz in 1860. There is a translation of Goethe’s poem by Sir Walter Scott.
* Kostis Palamas
Greek poet (1859–1943)‚ author of The Twelve Lays of the Gypsy‚ a long lyrical philosophical poem from which these quotations are taken‚ figuring the Gypsy-musician who is celebrated as the symbol of freedom‚ art‚ patriotism and civilisation.
* Admiral Horthy
Hungarian dictator (1868–1957)‚ who served as Admiral of the Austro-Hungarian fleet during WWI and as regent from 1920 to 1944. Allied with Germany and Italy at the beginning of the war‚ Hungary began negotiating a separate peace with the Allies in 1942‚ but was occupied by the Germans in 1944 and then invaded by the Russians.
* our own concentration camps
St Cyrien‚ Argelès-sur-Mer‚ Bacarès‚ Noe‚ Gurs‚ Vernet‚ Les Milles‚ Pithiviers‚ Rivesaltes … When the Spanish Republicans were defeated in 1939‚ thousands of refugees fled to France‚ including many who had fought with the International Brigades. They were herded into camps where conditions were appalling and kept under armed guard. After the fall of France‚ anti-Fascists of various other nationalities were interned. Many internees died in the camps‚ others in transit. Others were handed over to the Germans and deported to Germany. Jews who were rounded up in raids that began in France in 1941 were transferred to transit camps‚ such as the one at Drancy (a police barracks before the war)‚ before being deported to the death camps in Germany.
* Clamart
A village some five kilometres to the south-west of Paris.
* Panaït Istrati
Romanian writer (1884–1935)‚ who wrote in French as well as Romanian‚ and led an adventurous and peripatetic life. Kyra Kyralina was published in 1923‚ with a preface by Romain Rolland and became the first of the Adrien Zograffi cycle. A radical who became disillusioned with Soviet communism after visiting the USSR and witnessing the Stalinist regime at first hand‚ he is celebrated for remarking‚ ‘All right‚ I can see the broken eggs. Now where’s this omelette of yours?’
* Grande-Chaumière
Famous art school in Rue de la Grande-Chaumière‚ off Boulevard Montparnasse‚ that still offers the opportunity for life drawing of nude models.
* Patriotic School
During WWII the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building‚ originally an orphanage for daughters of servicemen killed in the Crimean war‚ located in Wandsworth‚ south London‚ became the so-called London Reception Centre‚ and often referred to as the Patriotic School‚ where foreign refugees were screened by British security officials from MI6 under the direction of Colonel Pinto. The reference to Duke Street‚ however‚ suggests that Yonnet is alluding to the Free French Intelligence headquarters (see note p.275 on BCRA‚ ch.X p.174).
* Berlemont
Victor Berlemont‚ who in 1916 took over the York Minster at 49 Dean Street in Soho‚ which he ran as a pub and restaurant and which became known as the French Pub. In 1947 his son Gaston took over the management of it‚ eventually retiring on Bastille Day‚ 1989.
* West Norwood‚ Harold Road and Convent Hill
In Croydon‚ South London.
* Huysmans
French writer of Dutch descent (1848–1907)‚ author of A Rebours‚ whose central character Des Esseintes embodies the fin-de- siècle spirit of decadence with its horror of banality and glorification of life as art‚ and Là-Bas‚ an investigation into the 15th-century sadist and child murderer Gilles de Rais‚ which leads the narrator into satanic circles in contemporary Paris. Huysmans‚ who became a devout Roman Catholic‚ was particularly fond of the church of St Séverin‚ of which he gives a fascinating historical account in La Bièvre et St-Séverin‚ 1898.
* Henry V
Following a period of bitter civil strife between the factions of Burgundy and Orleans‚ by the Treaty of Troyes signed in 1420 Henry V of England took Catherine‚ daughter of Charles VI of France‚ for his wife‚ and was himself named heir to the French throne in preference to the King’s son Charles‚ the young Dauphin. Charles VI and Henry V entered Paris together to celebrate this agreement. However‚ Henry died in August1422‚ leaving a nine-month-old child as his heir‚ and Charles VI followed him two months later. Inspired by Joan of Arc‚ the Dauphin pressed his claim‚ and the English were eventually driven out of France.
* I.G. Farben
German company that originally specialized in producing paints and dyes and expanded into a huge chemicals conglomerate that closely collaborated with the Nazi regime‚ for which its directors stood trial at Nuremburg. The company had to pay compensation for its use of forced labour and was eventually liquidated.
* Sainte-Chapelle
Built on the Ile St-Louis in 1246–8 by St Louis in order to house the Crown of Thorns‚ which he acquired from Venetian merchants who had received it in exchange for a loan to the Emperor Baldwin of Constantinople‚ the Sainte-Chapelle was described by Ruskin as ‘the most precious piece of Gothic in Northern Europe’.
* Pont-au-Double
Built in 1634. So called because the toll was a double denier. All tolls on bridges were abolished in 1848.
* Rifodés and Malingreux
Cant names – along with Hubains‚ Coquillards‚ Francs-Mitous‚ Piètres – dating from the Middle Ages‚ for various types of vagabonds and scoudrels who made their living by deception and importunity‚ some of whom might be found cured of their piteous physical ailments within the precincts of the courts of miracles‚ so-called precisely because of these ‘miraculous cures’.
Rifodés: accompanied by their womanfolk and children‚ they bore a certificate attesting that their homes had been destroyed by the hand of God.
Malingreux: malingers who faked either dropsy or skin ulcers.
Hubains: bearers of a certificate testifying to them having been cured of rabies by the intercession of St Hubert‚ the patron saint of hunters and trappers in the Ardenne.
Coquillards: identified by the shells they wore (the shell being the symbol of St James of Compostella)‚ brigands posing as pilgrims who infested the highways after the Hundred Years War. Villon was associated with them and his Ballads en Jargon are written in the still impentrable cant of the Coquillards.
Francs-mitous: fraudsters so good at faking being taken ill in the street‚ even doctors were fooled by them.
Piètres: imposters who pretended to be cripples‚ and went about on crutches.
* Hector Malot’s ‘San Famille’
A classic children’s story‚ first published in 1878‚ about a little boy called Rémi‚ who discovers at the age of eight that he is a foundling. His impecunious and embittered foster father sells him to a kindly old man named Vitalis‚ who with his troupe of performing animals makes a living as a street entertainer. This picaresque novel recounts Rémi’s long and eventful life on the road until he finally discovers his real identity and finds his true home. Hector Malot (1830–1907)‚ is the author of some seventy novels‚ of which Sans Famille is by far the most enduring.
* April 1814
Napoleon’s catastrophic campaign in Russia during the winter of 1812 marked the beginning of the end of his rule‚ with declarations of war by Prussia and Austria in 1813 leading to defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in October‚ the capitulation of Paris on 30 March 1814 to the invading armies of the Czar and the Prussians‚ who were actually welcomed as liberators by the anti-Napoleonists (see following note)‚ the abdication of Napoleon on 6 April‚ and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty.
* ‘a certain lack of dignity’
Author’s Notes:
De Bordier: ‘… the conquerors blushed at such contemptible behaviour … countesses threw laurels on the Kalmuks and rode pillion behind the Cossaks …’
De Vaulabelle: ‘The saturnalia in the streets and public squares belonged that day to rich and titled ladies.’
* Truie Qui File
Literally‚ ‘the Running Sow’‚ a café near Montmartre.
* Rue aux Oües
The original medieval name of a street now called Rue aux Ours (Bear Street)‚ which runs between Rue St-Martin and Boulevard de Sebastopol‚ Oües being the old French version of Oies‚ meaning ‘geese’: the name changed as the number of roast-houses gave way in the 12th century to an influx of furriers. In 1789 a decree was passed putting an end to a centuries’ old tradition of burning a wicker man here on 3 July every year‚ supposedly the effigy of a Swiss soldier said to have desecrated a statue of the Virgin on the corner of the street.
* Panier Fleuri
There was a brothel by this name on Boulevard de la Chapelle‚ near the Gare du Nord. Legislation closing brothels was passed on 13 April 1946 which came into effect six months later.
* Luc Berimont
Pen name of André Leclercq (1915–83)‚ poet‚ novelist‚ writer and broadcaster. Active in the Resistance‚ he was awarded the Croix de Guerre‚ and made a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Domaine de la Nuit was published in 1940‚ in roneotype format‚ with a preface by Sergeant Maurice Fombeure.
* Liberation of Paris
After the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 and the successful advance of the Allies through Normandy‚ the liberation of Paris was anticipated by an insurrection of the local population in which the police played a prominent role. Fearful of German retaliation against an ill-equipped popular uprising‚ and also of losing the initiative to the Communists‚ the Allies authorized General Leclerc‚ commanding the 2nd French Armoured Division to march on Paris. The German military governor of Paris‚ General von Choltitz‚ surrendered to General Leclerc on 25 August. General De Gaulle reached Paris the following day and with his provisional government was able to claim uncontested control of the country.
* Les Eparges
Ridge some 30km from Verdun which was the scene of very heavy fighting and great loss of life during WWI.
* Propaganda-Staffel
The occupying forces’ Propaganda Department under the control of the German military commander of Paris (and therefore not directly under the control of the German propaganda minister‚ Dr Goebbels). Also called the Propaganda Abteilung.
* Aujourd’hui
Parisian daily newspaper published during the Occupation.
* The battle was gigantic
A scurrilous popular song describing an internecine conflict between crab lice.
* BCRA
Bureau Central de Renseignements et Actions‚ the Free French intelligence agency‚ under the direction of André Dewavrin (1911– 1998)‚ codenamed Colonel Passy‚ based at 10 Duke Street in Central London.
* Thiais
Cemetery south of Paris.
* Ste-Anne
Psychiatric hospital on Rue Cabanis in the 14th arrondissement.
* Heine
German poet and man of letters (1797–1856)‚ who moved to Paris in 1831‚ and died there‚ at his home in Rue d’Amsterdam. He wrote a great deal about France and French culture and his own ironic style of lyric verse had some influence on French writers. He used to say that a traveller could tell how close he was to Paris by noting the increasing intelligence of the people‚ and that even the bayonets of the soldiers there were more intelligent than those elsewhere.
* Mondor and Tabarin
In the 17th century Mondor‚ a vendor of quack medicines‚ teamed up with a street entertainer by the name of Tabarin‚ whose quick wit and comic satire drew appreciative crowds and buyers and won the admiration of Molière and La Fontaine.
* Gabriele D’Annunzio
Italian poet‚ novelist‚ dramatist‚ journalist‚ patriot and war hero (1863–1937). His home for the last seventeen years of his life‚ Villa Cargnacco at Gardone on Lake Garda‚ together with the monumental complex that he built up around it‚ he conceived of as a celebration of his ‘glorious failures’ and his legacy to the people of Italy: called the Vittoriale degli Italiani‚ it is a remarkable phenomenon.
* Guillot de Saix
Poet and playwright (1885–1964)‚ one of whose poems was set to music by Reynaldo Hahn. Among the items he left to the Bibliothèque Nationale’s Performing Arts’ Department is a collection of twenty-two 18th-century Venetian puppets.
* Cevennes
The maquis‚ which became synonymous with the French Resistance‚ is Mediterranean scrubland‚ and the expression ‘take to the maquis’ originated in Corsica‚ where bandits would go into the wild to escape the police. French resistance fighters in the south of France sought similar refuge in the mountainous landscape of the Cevennes region.
* Vincennes
Vincennes lies to the east of the 12th and 20th arrondissements‚ the Château and the Fort standing some 3km’s distance from Nation outside the Porte de Vincennes on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes‚ one of the two great wooded parks of Paris.
* Salon d’Automne
Founded in October 1903 by Franz Jourdain and Yvanhoë Rambosson‚ an annual art exhibition held (after the initial success of the first show) at the Grand Palais‚ which established itself as a showcase for all kinds of new artists. Charles De Gaulle met Yvonne Vendroux‚ who was to become his wife‚ at the 1920 Salon D’Automne. The 1945 show featured a celebration of Matisse‚ and introduced work by Nicolas de Stael and Bernard Buffet.
* Bouteille d’Or
Restaurant on the Left Bank at 9 Quai de Montebello.
* Tour d’Argent
Dating back to 1582‚ the Tour d’Argent‚ on the Left Bank at 15 Quai de la Tournelle‚ has a distinguished history. In 1947 Claude Terrail took over the management of this establishment from his father‚ André‚ who bought it in 1911. When Claude died in 2006‚ his own son‚ André‚ succeeded him. During WWII Claude Terrail walled up the cellar to keep the wine reserves from falling into the hands of the Germans. The Tour is famous for its ‘canard au sang’‚ a dish first served in 1890‚ every duck being numbered‚ and a register kept of diners to whom it was served. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII‚ see note for p.203) in 1890 consumed duck number 328‚ the Duke of Windsor‚ in 1938‚ number 147‚844.
* Vel’ d’Hiv
The Velodrome d’Hiver‚ an enclosed stadium on Rue Nélaton near the Quai de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissement‚ built in 1910 for track cycle racing. An annual six-day non-stop cycling event‚ in which pairs of riders competed (one cycling while the other rested)‚ attracted huge numbers of spectators. The Vel’ d’Hiv has become notorious for the round-up‚ carried out by French police on the 16th and 17th of July 1942‚ of thousands of Jews who were held in the stadium before being deported. Most died at Auschwitz. The stadium was demolished in 1959. In July 1994‚ a national commemoration day was instituted‚ and in 1995 President Jacques Chirac spoke officially of the nation’s collective responsibility for the deportation of French Jews.
* Mosul
City in Iraq that at one time fell within the ancient Persian empire‚ but has never been part of Persia‚ or Iran‚ proper.
* La Goulue
The French cancan dancer Louise Weber (1870–1929)‚ who performed at the Moulin Rouge 1890–95‚ until she became too overweight‚ owes her nickname (meaning ‘the Glutton’) to her enormous appetite. The subject of a number of works by Toulouse- Lautrec‚ she ended up alone and destitute‚ and died at Lariboisière Hospital.
* Moulin Rouge
Charles Zidler opened this celebrated nightclub at 90 Boulevard de Clichy in 1889.
* Valentin the Contortionist
The stage name of Etienne Renaudin (1843–1907)‚ who was La Goulue’s dance partner at the Moulin Rouge‚ and featured in works by Toulouse-Lautrec.
* Edward VII
Eldest son (1841–1910) of Queen Victoria‚ he succeeded to the throne in 1901. As Prince of Wales‚ he was known for his racy lifestyle and numerous mistresses. In God’s Fifth Column: a biography of the age: 1890–1940‚ William Gerhardie writes of ‘the frigid silence which greeted [Edward VII] as he drove through Paris on his arrival. “They don’t seem to like us‚” said his companion. “Why should they?” said the King. But he liked French ways and French cooking. And when on the fifth day of his stay he drove to the station through Paris‚ the crowds‚ this time‚ cheered him.’ As Gerhardie puts it‚ Edward VII ‘liked to swing a loose leg in Paris’.
* Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
Severely crippled by a congenital bone disease‚ Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) found models for his paintings among the dancers‚ actresses‚ and artistes in the world of Parisian entertainment to which he was drawn. He had his own table at the Moulin Rouge and at various times lived in a brothel. When La Goulue left the Moulin Rouge‚ he decorated the fairground stall she had at the Trône Fair on what is now Place de la Nation. He was a friend and advocate of Van Gogh‚ an admirer of Oscar Wilde and James Whistler‚ whom he met in London‚ and was greatly influenced by Japanese prints.
* Rocher de Cancale
A restaurant at 78 Rue Montorgueil‚ the successor to an earlier and very successful restaurant by the same name at no.59 that features in several of Balzac’s novels. (The actual Rocher de Cancale is a rock formation that stands in the sea off the Britanny port of Cancale‚ famous for its oysters‚ for which the original restaurant too was celebrated.)
* Gavarni
Lithographer and painter (1804–1866)‚ who specialized in genre scenes.
* Karel Kapek
Czech writer (1890–1938)‚ anti-Nazi and anti-communist‚ credited with inventing the word ‘robot’ and author of the anti- technology play RUR‚ he explored many themes taken up by later science-fiction writers and wrote pieces for Czech puppeteers‚ who were persecuted by the Nazis for their underground opposition.
* three knocks
A theatrical tradition dating back to Roman times‚ whereby it is signalled to the audience with three knocks on the boards that the performance is about to begin.
* Frères humains qui après nous vivez
This is the first line of Villon’s ‘Epitaph’‚ or ‘Ballad of the Gallows-Birds’.
* Val-de-Grâce
A military hospital‚ formerly a Benedictine convent founded in the 17th century by Anne of Austria‚ at 1 Place Alphonse-Laveran on Rue St-Jacques in the 5th arrondissement.
* Pre-war Jewish films
Yiddle with his Fiddle‚ Poland‚ 1936‚ a musical written and directed by Joseph Green‚ starring Molly Picon; The Yiddish King Lear‚ USA‚ 1935‚ adapted from a play by Jacob Gordin‚ directed by Harry Thomashefsky; The Dybbuk‚ Poland‚ 1937‚ based on the play by Sholem Ansky‚ directed by Michael Waszynski.
* Etienne Boilève
Etienne Boilève (also Boislève‚ or Boileau) was appointed Provost of Paris by Louis IX in 1254. He won a reputation for zeal and integrity‚ as Joinville recorded in his Life of St Louis. Boilève was responsible for Le Livre des Métiers (Book of Trades)‚ a compilation of the rules and regulations governing all the merchant guilds authorized to trade in the city of Paris.
* Dagobert’s Tower
At 18 Rue Chanoinesse‚ a fifteenth-century structure that served the old port of St Landry‚ named after Dagobert I‚ a Merovingian king who ruled 623–639.
* Pope Clement VI in Avignon
After the election of a Frenchman as Pope Clement V in 1305‚ the papacy settled at Avignon. This was the beginning of what is referred to as the Babylonian Exile. Clement VI was Pope 1342–52.
In 1376‚ Gregory XI returned to Rome‚ where he died. The election of an Italian successor‚ Urban VI‚ led to a schism in the church‚ with Robert of Geneva elected contemporaneously as Pope Clement VII residing in Avignon‚ which had been made over to Clement VI by the Angevin Queen Giovanna I of Naples in 1348.
* Hubains‚ Coquillards‚ Francs-Mitous‚ Piètres
See note p.272 on Rifodés and Malingreux‚ ch.ix‚ p.148.
* Mont-Fêtard
Supposedly one of the interim deformations of Mons Cetardus‚ the origin of Mouffetard.
* Oléron
Island to the south of La Rochelle‚ off the west coast of France.
* Kirity-Penmarc’h
Important fishing port on the Penmarc’h peninsula to the south- west of Quimper in Brittany.
* De profundis clamavi‚ Domine‚ Domine… Fiant aures tuae intendentes in vocem …
Out of the deep have I called unto thee‚ O Lord: Lord hear my voice./ O let thine ears consider well: the voice of my complaint … Psalm CXXX.
* Lazare
Dictionnaire administratif et historique des rues de Paris et de ses monuments‚ Felix and Louis Lazare‚ Paris‚ 1844‚ 2nd ed. 1855.
* Jehan Augier
From 1268 to1276‚ Jehan Augier was head of the ancient guild of merchant shippers an extremely powerful body in the early history of Paris‚ whose Provost was known until the late fourteenth century as the Prévôt des Marchands d’Eau and effectively acted as head of the City Council‚ based from the mid-14th century in what was to become known as the Hôtel de Ville.