The
vistas of the Rue de Varenne are not everybody's idea
of a postcard.
An Oasis In The 7th
Stone Palaces and a Park
By Richard Erickson
Paris Kiosque - March 2002 - Volume 9, Number 3
Copyright (c) 2002 Richard Erickson - used with permission
Many visitors
seem to choose to stay in hotels in the 7th
arrondissement, in the area around the Ecole Militaire. If I
ask why, they say their guide books recommend the neighborhood
around the Rue Cler.
My French guide book barely mentions
the Rue Cler. It is noted within a listing for
one hotel and in another for the Café du Marché.
Otherwise it says, 'the seventh hides itself behind high walls
and heavy doors.'
The church owns a quarter of
the property and a lot of the rest is occupied
by French government ministries and international institutions, like UNESCO. My
guidebook also says that the civilians living in the area
have been doing so for centuries, and you can see
them every Sunday going to or from mass.
The
seventh is also the location of the Ecole Militaire,
the Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay, the Foreign Affairs ministry, the
National Assembly and the Prime Minister's townhouse which is called
the Hôtel Matignon. After the Champ de Mars is subtracted
along with its Tour Eiffel, there is little left over
for street-like highlife.
Rodin's 'The Thinker' seems to inspire curiousity.
My guide book says there is one lively bar, in
an area known mainly for 'zzzzzzzz.' But there is also
a 'Club des Poètes,' and not every arrondissement in Paris
has one of these. In all, the book has 24
pages for the seventh because of its attractions - while
the 14th has five pages more, with only the Tour
Montparnasse for a 'big' attraction.
Some readers are not content
that I am not a big fan of the seventh
and they keep trying to sell its charms to me.
They refuse to believe I have been in it more
than once and remain unenchanted.
In this season of neither
here nor there, while keeping in mind that the customer
is always right, even under an overcast sky, I decide
the Rue de Varenne may be prototypical for the whole
arrondissment and set out for it from the métro Gaité.
This starting place may be lucky.
Daylight appears again at
the métro station Varenne, which is located near the geographic
centre of the 7th arrondissement - beside a blank wall,
opposite the fairly unexciting east side of the Invalides. The
dome of the church adds its bit of gilded lining
to the somber sky.
Half a block away, the Rue
de Varenne ends, after starting its 930-metre slice through the
seventh from the Rue de la Chaise to
the Boulevard des Invalides. For Paris, this is an exceeding
straight street. If you have long-range zoom-vision you can see
of it at once.
But the first thing that attracts
my attention is the Hôtel de Biron, right at the
corner. It was built over four years until 1731, for
Abraham Peyrenc, a one-time wig-maker from the Langueduc who had
struck it lucky by participating in Law's banking combine. He
died young though, leaving a wealthy widow.
She sold the
place to the Duchesse du Maine, Louise de Bourbon, who
entertained writers in it until she dropped dead in 1753
at 78. Then Louis-Antoine de Gontaut, the Duc de Biron,
bought it and made it famous by giving parties for
all his friends.
When he died happy at 88 in
1788, his wife got half and his brother Charles-Antoine de
Gontaut the other half, until he got beheaded on Friday,
27. June 1794.
His nephew, who nearly had the
same problem, signed a deal with his uncle to take
over the whole property - what happened to Mrs. Duc
de Biron? - for the tidy sum of 4.2 million
livres. How the deal was signed in September 1795, 14
months after the sudden demise of his uncle, the Maréchal
Duc de Biron, is unexplained.
This new Duc de Charout,
who was also the mayor of the 10th arrondissement, died
prematurely here on Monday, 27. October 1800, aged 72. His
widow stayed on but rented out part of the place
to people like Napoléon - the King-of-Italy-Bonaparte one - and
Prince Kourakine, the Russian ambassador, and part of the garden
was renamed the 'Jardin de Psyché,' for parties and balls.
In 1820 the Duchesse de Charout sold the whole thing
to the Dames de Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, who were the
minders of Louis XVIII. Led by Sophie Barat, both the
'dames' and the tenants were all blue-bloods, but she had
the nice pictures and the gilding taken out anyway.
For
these good works, the 25th of May was given to
Sophie by Pope Pious X in 1908 when she became
Sainte-Sophie, four years after the congregation was dissolved, and after
the property served for a short time as a municipal
school.
Following the school episode, new tenants included Rilke, Isadora
Duncan and Matisse's academy. The state bought the property in
1910 and Auguste Rodin was allowed to stay on, by
donating all of his works to France in 1916, on
the condition that they stay in the Hôtel de Biron
- and this is today's Musée Rodin - which is
mentioned in more detail below.
But first, there is the
rest of the Rue de Varenne. For the next bit
there are many buildings belonging to the ministry of Agriculture,
Fish and Food. Some of these hide in front of
'hôtels' with considerable histories or are themselves housed in these
grand, old buildings.
Thus I pass the Petit Hôtel de
Broglie, the Hôtel de Villeroi, the Petit Hôtel de Castries,
the Hôtel de Châtillon, the Grand Hôtel de Broglie -
also known as the 'Hôtel Juillet' - and the Hôtel
de Castries, the Ancien Hôtel de Clermont - also
known as the Hôtel Seissac or d'Orsay, the Hôtel of
the Marquise de La Rochefoucauld, the embassy of Holland in
the one-time Vielle Auberge du Bourbon, the Hôtel de la
Marquise de Jaucourt, the Hôtel de Prat, an address with
dual hôtels, both with many names, the Hôtel d'Ourouer, the
Hôtel de Gouffier de Thoix, the Hôtel de Matignon, the
Hôtel de Gallifet, the Hôtel de Boisgelin, the Hôtel de
Narbonne, another Hôtel de Biron, the Hôtel de Narbonne-Pelet, and
the location of the tapestry factory once owned by Raphaël
de la Planche.
Typical for the Rue de Varenne, the
entry of the Hôtel de Gouffier de Thoix.
At about
where the Rue de Bourgogne comes from the left, from
the rear of the National Assembly, into the Rue de
Varenne, I begin to see the obvious signs of the
government - national police are scattered about, keeping watch on
these 'hôtels.'
This makes me think one I am looking
at is the Prime Minister's headquarters, but it is probably
either the Hôtel Seissac or the Hôtel of the Marquise
de La Rochefoucauld.
Except for the police, there are not
many pedestrians. Every couple of minutes a small burst of
traffic comes along, mostly from the direction of the Invalides.
Occasionally a big state Renault glides into or out of
one of the 'hôtels.' When these are gone, there is
only me, the police and the video cameras.
Finally
I am across the street and facing the front of
the Hôtel Matignon. It doesn't look a great deal different
from some of the others - a high wall, a
big entry door, a pop-up steel column to discourage the
vehicles of uninvited visitors, and beyond, a cobbled courtyard for
the state cars and facing it, a building with a
modest front similar to many others in this street.
But,
my guide says, 'without doubt, the most magnificent residence in
the Faubourg Saint-Germain.'
It was built, starting in 1721, by
Jean Courtonne for the fourth son of the Maréchal de
Luxembourg, who was known as Notre-Dame's carpet-layer. His son's real
name was Christian-Louis de Montmorency, who was also known as
the Prince de Tingry on account of being a 'Maréchal
de France' who did good stuff for Louis XIV in
his time.
But he didn't get a promotion he wanted
- he won battles but didn't realize promotions came by
other means, namely by being at court and amusing certain
ladies - so he sold the place in a snit
to Goyon de Matignon and moved to the Rue Saint-Dominique.
Goyon de Matignon, Count of Thorigny and governor of Normandy,
died two years after moving in and his son finished
its building. When he died in turn, 26 years later,
the hôtel passed to Honoré-Camille, recognized as the sovereign Prince
of Monaco, and Duke of Valentinois.
The place was seized
by the state in 1793, then returned to the family
and they sold it in 1804, and the new owner sold it to Talleyrand in 1808. He
was under orders from the emperor to give receptions four
times a week, so he sold it to the state
in 1811 and went to find peace and serenity in
the Rue Saint-Florentin.
Even though you can see 'Les Bourgeois
de Calais' for free, try the park anyway.
In 1816,
Louis XVIII traded the Hôtel Matignon for the Elysée Palace,
which was owned by the Duchess de Bourbon. She had
Brongniart fix up the Matignon a bit, and died in
1822, leaving it to her niece, Louise-Eugénie who was also
known as Princess Adélaïde d'Orléans because she was a sister
of Louis-Philippe.
The Duke de Montpensier was the next owner,
with tenants such as General Cavaignac and Baroche, who was
president of the Council of State.
The following owner,
the ultra-rich Duke of Galliéra passed it on to his
wife and she let out the ground floor to the
Count of Paris, Philippe VII, who was chief of the
royal house of France after the death of Henri V,
who was also known as the Duke of Chambord.
Anyway,
the Count of Paris gave one party too many -
this was in Republican France after all - and there
was a 'reactionary' agitation by those who thought the republican
laws making princes illegal in France, should be enforced. So
the Duchess de Galliéra willed the place to the Emperor
Franz-Joseph who used it as the embassy of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, until the unfortunate episode that began in the summer
of 1914.
In 1920 the Hôtel Matignon was loaned to
the arbitration committee created by the Treaty of Versailles, and
in 1935 it became what it is today - a
republican building functioning as the Prime Minister's office.
My
guide also says it has the 'biggest private park in
Paris.' It goes all the way through to the Rue
de Babylone, but an ordinary pedestrian cannot see this from
the Rue de Varenne's sidewalk, like one can see the
front door of 10. Downing Street.
There are number of
'historic site' signs posted along the street, but these become
fewer after passing the Rue de Bellechasse. The 380 metres
of walls since leaving the Boulevard des Invalides have made
me thirsty, so here is the first opportunity for a
refreshment, and a game of pinball if I were in
the mood.
So far the only overtly commercial establishment has
been the cultural service of the Italian embassy. The next,
I think, is an old laundry, and then life picks
up as the Rue de Bac is neared. The last
long block is eventually intersected by the Boulevard Raspail, and
then there's only one little block on the other side
of it.
Luckily this is near Sèvres-Babylone, where there a
métro station, life, shopping - the Bon Marché - the
big hotel, buses and Raspail's traffic. It is like arriving
in an open town on a market day after being
in another one on a Sunday.
A lot of the
residents and owners of the long list of 'hôtels' above
were definitely not republicans. My guide book says they still
are not. They were here before the Révolution and if
they survived it, or emigration, and they returned from either,
they chose to return here.
In the 19th century, while
'les nouveaux riches' were moving into Haussmann's sanitized Paris, or
inhabiting new property developments like 'Nouvelle Athénes,' the old gang
were sitting behind their walls in the 7th, hoping to
be invited to one of the Count of Paris' little
parties.
The Assembly National, for example, sits in the Palais
Bourbon. This was originally built in 1728 for Louise-Françoise de
Bourbon, who was known as the 'Mademoiselle de Nantes.'
The imposing part you can see on the Quai d'Orsay
facing the Pont de la Concorde, was ordered to be
built by Napoléon, to be kind of a match for
the Madeleine church. It is a false-front.
The real entry
is in the back, in the Place du Palais-Bourbon. The
palace was owned by the Bourbons, in the form of
the Prince de Condé, before the Révolution. Then it was
confiscated, but when things cooled down - after Napoléon's departure
- it was returned to the Bourbon-Condés.
The République rented
it from this family, then bought part of it in
1827 - so the deputies could continue using it. After
the last Prince de Condé, who was living in the
other part of the palace, died mysteriously in 1830, the
state bought the remainder.
In all, the state paid
the Bourbon-Condés 10,547,475 francs for a property it had seized
it from the same family during the Révolution.
France is
famous for its symbolism and its symbols, but I am
having a bit of difficulty trying to figure out how
the République has its deputies sit in a palace, its
Prime Minister sitting in a 'hôtel' once owned by the
Duchess de Bourbon, and its Président's official residence is a
'palace.'
Just to round things off, you might remember that
the Hôtel Matignon was 'traded' for the Elysée palace. On
the right bank, this was built for the Count d'Evreux
and bought by the Marquise de Pompadour in 1753. When
she died it was a while before it was bought
again and fixed up by the court's banker, Beaujon.
This
fellow had the palace laid out so he could wheel-chair
around in it, while confining his diet to spinach. His
doctor was paid 12000 livres per year, but only so
long as he kept his patient alive. This terrific incentive
worked fine and Beaujon sold the Elysée, before croaking, to
the king, who bought it for the Duchess de Bourbon-Condé.
This 'Elysée-Bourbon,' my guide says, was confiscated by the
Révolution. But the Directoire let the Duchess remain in a
part of it until she went into exile in 1798.
It's park was turned into a pleasure garden called the
'Hameau Chantilly,' and the palace was subdivided into apartments, until
Murat bought it in 1805 and kept it until he
became the King of Naples.
The Rue de Varenne is
also a street with few or no coin laundries.
Josephine
lived in it before moving to Malmaison and Czar Alexander
stayed in the Elysée in 1814, and even Napoléon 'the
First' passed a couple of nights there before taking a
one-way trip to Sainte-Hélène in 1815. Then it was given
back to Duchess de Bourbon-Condé who traded it for the
Matignon.
This all tends to proves that even in a
republic history doesn't have to make perfect sense - or
it proves that French republicans can be very pragmatic about
mere buildings even if they are palaces.
However, all of
this is off the point of the 'prototypical' Rue de
Varennes being long and boring. If you will recall, the
first building I have seen today, and the last one
in the street, has been one of the two Hôtels
de Biron.
This is the home of the splendid Musée
Rodin. Although you can see his 'Les Bourgeois de Calais'
set of figures from the sidewalk - through the only
glass in the entire street's walls - it costs the
modest fee of only 1euro to enter and tour the park.
In the big
garden behind the hôtel there is also a café with
outside tables near a modern toilet facility. Other pieces of
Rodin's major works are scattered about, such as the 'Thinker'
and 'La Port d'Enfer,' and there is a neat oval
pond to reflect the hôtel.
If you find the deserted
walls of the 7th arrondissement lack much interest, here is
an oasis of major proportions. If you can find the
Rue de Varennes, just off the Boulevard des Invalides, the
7th can give you its money's worth for less than
a dollar.
Additional information about the Musée Rodin available
here.
Richard Erickson, living in Paris for the last twenty years, has been putting
Paris online as long as anyone. More of his writings can be found in
Metropole Paris
where this article first appeared.
He can be contacted via
erickso@world-net.sct.fr.
