The 13th Arrondissement

By Thirza Vallois

Paris Kiosque - June 2000 - Volume 7, Number 6
Copyright (c) 2000 Thirza Vallois - used with permission
Excerpted from "Around and About Paris"

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This month, author Thirza Vallois' round of the arrondissements of Paris continues in the 13th arrondissement.

If you are tired of queueing up in front of the Louvre Pyramid or the Musée d'Orsay, the 13th arrondissement will offer you a pleasant break into genuine Paris, away from all the tourists and the madding crowds. In this month's excerpt from her internationally-acclaimed Around and About Paris series, Thirza Vallois unfolds some of its secrets, which are at their best at this time of year, when everything is in bloom.

Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, in the 13th also affords a pleasant sight. Its picturesque kiosk, motley, cheerful flower-beds and boules players create a touch of small-town provincialism. A market is held along the Boulevard on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday mornings, adding extra colour to the place. Many of the vendors are North Africans, some afr Far East Asians, both groups bearing witness to the ethnic evolution of French society. If you are interested in the sculptor Rodin, you may wish to walk down the Boulevard to no. 68, the site of his studio, where Camille Claudel used to visit him during their passionate love affair. It was located in a charming 18th-century folie, which had been built for one of the King's councillors, but has unfortunately been demolished, like the other folies, that embellished these once bucolic parts.

Turn right into rue Abel Hovelacque and left into the dismal rue des Reculettes, whose winding course will take you to Rue de Croulebarbe, where you will turn right.

The windmill of the Croulebarbe family (whose picturesque name probably referred to the overblown beard of an ancestor) is mentioned way back in 1214 and appears on all the maps of pre-Revolution Paris. The street ran along the river Biévre, an obvious location for the family's windmill, which disappeared only in 1840. By 1243 this prosperous familiy is known also to have owned a substantial, profitable vineyard and, by the following century, another property which was `located along the road that leads from Saint-Marcel to Gentilly'. Nobody knows, though, how it came into the hands of the Order of Saint-Martin-des-Champs a few years later, all the stranger since their domain was situated at the other end of town. It still belonged to the Order at the time of Louis-Philippe, which explains why Fieschi, who, on 28 July 1835 had made an attempt on the latter's life on Boulevard du Temple (in the 11th arr.) went into hiding here - he was the concierge of Saint-Martin!

In 1826 rue de Croulebarbe made the headlines when the goat girl of Ivry, Aimée Millot, was stabbed to death by the mentally unbalanced Honoré Ulbach in the middle of a thunderstorm - an appropriate setting for a melodrama. Aimée would come here every day with her goats and sit reading a book, looking lovely in her straw hat. Her murder aroused outraged compassion all over Paris: even the sensational arrival of the first giraffe in the Jardin des Plantes - the first ever to tread French soil - was overshadowed by the crime. Ulbach was among the lsat convicts to be put to death on Place de Grève (now Hôtel-de-Ville), the traditional place of public executions in Paris up to the reign of Louis-Philippe. However, after the three-day riots of July 1830 that brought Louis-Philippe to the throne, the new King vowed never again to carry out executions on Place de Grève as a token of gratitude to the people of Paris, who had supported him heroically on that site.

Rue de Croulebarbe runs along Square René Le Gall. At the back of the garden a row of poplar trees denotes the subterranean course of the Bièvre. The street and the garden make for a peaceful, provincial atmosphere, a blessed retreat on a hot summer day, just off the busy main arteries of the arrondissement, a villagey atmosphere enhanced by the presence of the Basque restaurant Etchegorry, at no. 41, a well-known old-timer, and the provincial in Chez Angèle, at no. 29. In the last century a countrified tavern stood here. It belonged to Madame Grègoire and was a fovourite with the Romantic writers, especially Victor Hugo. At no. 33 stands Paris's first skyscraper, 21-stories high. Square René Le Gall was opened in 1938 on land that used to belong to the Gobelins workshops, situated to the north-east, and was divided up as kitchen gardens among its craftsmen. It is now named after a member of the Resistance who was shot by the Germans.

Rue Berbier-du-Mets branches off rue de Croulebarbe to the left and follows the meandering course of the Bièvre, running parallel to the curved back of the Gobelins annex, a building of reinforced concrete put up by Auguste Perret in 1935. A neat, modern building across the street, surrounded by a green stretch of lawn, houses the new Gobelins workshops, which face the north so as to enjoy a better quality of light. A pile of stones lying round the garden by the street is all that remains of the exquisite 18th-century folie of Jean de Julienne, shamefully demolished recently for no good reason. Julienne's uncle was a famous dyer, Jean Gluck, who helped Julienne develop his workshop. The painter Watteau, a close friend of Julienne's, used the place as a base for his walks in neighbouring countryside, a source of inspiration for his paintings.

Rue Gustave Geoffroy on your right will lead you to Rue des Gobelins. At no. 3bis a courtyard with an archway on its right leads to the site of the H&ocire;tel Mascarini, the mansion of a wealthy financier in the 17th century, when members of society were attracted to these southern parts and their sunny stretches of neat vineyards. On the orangery of the hôtel still stands, an early 18th century addition. A more unexpected sight awaits you at nos 17 and 19 where, at the back of a drab courtyard, amidst a medley of shabby workshops and rickety offices, rises a genuine medieval manor, dilapidated and blackened by age, a stunning apparition from a fairytale book. This was the Hôtel or Domaine de la Reine Blanche, though no one knows for sure who the Queen was. It might have been Blanche de Castille, the mother of Saint Louis, but there are other candidates, for, up until the 16th century, when Cathernine de Medici introduced black from Spain as the colour of mourning, it had been the custom for the widowed queens of France to wear white and several queens were known as Blanche. Be that as it may, in all liklihood the manor belonged to the royal family and was the site of the tragic scene of the Bal des Ardents, a fancy-dress ball held here on 28 January 1393. The feeble-minded Charles VI and five of his friends turned up dressed as savages. The Duc d'Orléans, purportedly curious to identify his brother the King, held a torch close to the faces of the `savages' and (accidentally?) set their costumes aflame. Four of the unfortunate party perished in the fire, while of survived by jumping into a tub of water. The King was saved by the presence of mind of his aunt, the Duchesse de Berry, who rolled him in her coat, yet, while he did not lose his life, he lost the last remnants of his sanity after this traumatic experience. The mansion was promptly razed to the ground and for the next hundred years a market was held on its site every Monday as well as a fair twice a year. The present house was built some hundred years later. It is this house or the lovely one at no. 19, or both, that may correspond to `La Folie-Goubelin,' mentioned by Rabelais in Pantagruel. Until recently this medieval manor, for so long forgotten, was visible only to those who cared to seek it out, but lately it has come to the notice of the municipal authorities, who would like to turn it into a cultural centre of some sort. We hope you will have seen it in its natural state, before this ill-judged design is carried out.

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Thirza Vallois brings Paris to life in a way that enthralls her readers and provides them with a detailed knowledge of the city which exceeds that of most Parisians, while her fast moving style disguises a depth of historical fact that is normally only found in academic tomes. Writer William Boyd wrote in The Spectator: "I think we can safely toss all other Paris guidebooks aside....There can be no higher praise than when I say they come close to the world's greatest guidebook, J. Link's "Venice for Pleasure" and they should soon achieve similar legendary status." The French Ambassador to the UK wrote: "I am convinced that this guide will constitute from now on, for the British lovers of Paris, a reference book which will have the success it deserves." Around and About Paris may be ordered online here.

A long time resident of Paris, she currently lives just three hours outside of Paris in London, and may be contacted via thirzavallois@iliadbooks.demon.co.uk.

Editor's Note: Dear Readers, while our writers are always delighted to hear and to receive comments, both about their columns in the The Paris Kiosque, as well as your experiences in Paris, they are unable to answer any requests for travel information. Thank you for your understanding.