In the Square René-Viviani - possibly the oldest tree but with conflicting ages.
Not Finding Paris' Oldest Tree
So You Can Go Straight To It
By Richard Erickson
Paris Kiosque - May 1999 - Volume 6, Number 5
Copyright (c) 1999 Richard Erickson - used with permission
When one of the world's earlier
tourists, Hernán Cortés, disembarked in Mexico in the late spring
of 1519, he hardly realized he was visiting a land
which had been populated for more than 4,500 years.
It
wasn't until quite recently that I learned that 7,000 year-old
pots had been dug up at Paris' Bercy redevelopment site.
In other places, I have seen 20,000 year-old pieces found
in France and some paintings in caves. But, when you
are thinking about - say 2,000 BC - there isn't
a lot of difference between the 'old' world and the
'new.'
As Rome collapsed, abandoning their nifty Cluny baths in
Paris, Mayans were flourishing and building cities. While Europe was
having its 'dark ages,' Toltecs were taking over from the
Mayans. As Europe emerged from its slump, the Aztecs founded
Mexico City - Tenochtitlán - in 1325.
Paris was already
a city then, and one house, still standing, is thought
to date to around 1300. There are older official buildings
- churches, bits of hôtels, palaces - but few of
these are relatively original. Almost everything has been through several
major renovations; which continue constantly.
Two houses are competing for
title of 'oldest.' The one mentioned above, at 5. Rue
Volta, and the house of Nicolas Flamel at 51. Rue
Montmorency, which
is dated fairly precisely to 1407. Both are
in the 3rd arrondissement and they are not too far
apart. The two houses have had their renovations too, but
they are still pretty much as they were.
Nicolas Flamel's 585 year-old house at 51. Rue Montmorency in Paris.
The ground
floor of Flamel's house is a restaurant, so you can
go inside and see how people have been treating the
place for all these years. Otherwise, it is a house;
but what I started out to look for was some
old - living - thing.
Within sight of Notre
Dame in the Latin Quarter, there is a little park
called the Square René-Viviani beside the Saint Julien-le-Pauvre church; which
began as a religious place sometime in the sixth century.
I was led to believe the propped-up tree in the
park beside the church was Paris' oldest, but this does
not seem to be the case. If I'd done the
reading before the looking, I would have read that the
oldest tree is in the Jardin des Plantes, because I've
been there looking for the second oldest tree. So what
I saw, was the third oldest tree.
In fact, there
are different 'facts.' The information posted near the 'robinier' in
the Square René-Viviani says it was planted around 1601. It
is sort of a great-great grandfather of a tree, and
even with a lot of props holding it up, its
leaves see the sun. It was, in its prime, 15
metres high and 3.5 metres in circumference. Another 'fact' in
another place, contends it was planted in 1680.
The name
comes from Robin, the botanist, who is thought to have
brought it from America. He may have been the first
American 'tourist' to visit Paris! This Robin, was the director
of the king's apothecary garden in the Rue de l'Arbalète
- the species of tree was named after him and
it is a 'false' acacia.
By pure chance, the other,
really oldest, tree is also a 'robinier' and it is
in the botanical garden inside the Jardin des Plantes; planted
possibly in 1636 between what are now the mineralogical and
botanical galleries. This is news to me and I
haven't seen it - because of looking for another oldest
tree in these gardens - a very healthy-looking and huge
cedar.
At age 265, this cedar is not the 'oldest' tree in the Jardin des Plantes.
This was planted quite recently, in 1734. Its
story is that it was planted by Bernard de Jussieu,
from seeds given to him by an English colleague named
Collinson, after a round-about trip from the Lebanon.
The three De Jussieu brothers, a
nephew and a great-nephew, sort of invented botany in France.
None were born before the 'first' tree, and the others
would have been young within their lifetimes and therefore unremarkable;
so I don't think we can blame this family for
the 'first' tree confusion.
But before this 'oldest-tree' dispute gets
out of hand, there is a verifiable 'oldest' tree in
Paris; although it is dead. This is a 2,000 year-old
California Sequoia, also in the Jardin des Plantes. Cross-sectioned, its
rings are marked to correspond to dates in history. The
only thing that seems clear about this 'oldest' tree business,
is none of them are French.
The houses though, are
not only French, but Parisian. And since Paris is Paris,
the title for 'oldest' seems to be in dispute too.
The dating of the house in the Rue Volta is
based largely on architectural deductions. It is believed the lease-holder
of the rural domain of the Bourg Saint-Martin-des-Champs, was registered
in 1292 in the Rue Frépillon - but, hmm, there
is only supposition here. No text links the house to
the date or to this leaseholder.
Certainly it was built
in the time of Philippe le Bel. The house is
odd, because it has no cellar. There were two shops
at street level, and there are four floors above, plus
a mansard roof, with a gable; now gone and replaced
with another mansard. The interior ceilings are two metres high,
floors are tiled, and wood beams are used throughout.
This
wood construction was forbidden after 1560, for fear of fire.
A height-limitation introduced in 1667, required the gable to be
removed.
This may be Paris' 'oldest' house - around 700
years old.
The two shops indicate how business was done
in the 14th century. The shop-front was open and the
merchant stood outside. The law at the time required transactions
to be in public and in daylight. Selling fish by
candlelight was forbidden. Paris probably smelt so strongly, it was
impossible to buy fish by odor - so seeing them
in daylight was essential.
At the end of the day,
the shop became the rudimentary kitchen and then the bedroom.
The shopfront changed a bit in the 15th century, but
it was not until the 17th that glass windows were
installed.
Today, the left-hand shop has 'Pho' written on one
window-pane and the right-hand shop is a hairdresser's salon. The
Rue Volta, between Rue Réaumur and Rue au Maire, has
five Chinese or Thai restaurants, one with two outlets; a
jewelry shop and a bistro, all within its less-than 100
metre length.
Nicolas Flamel's 'Maison du Grand-Pignon' at 51. Rue
Montmorency is believed to have been constructed in 1407 because
'1407' is chiseled into its stone front.
In 1909,
renovation plaster was removed to reveal carved figures in the
stone and an inscription, "Nous hômes et fèmes laboureurs demeurans
au porche de ceste maison qui fu fée l'an de
grace mil quatre cens et sept: sommes tennus chacû en
droit son dire tous les jours une pastrenote et un
ave maria en priant dieu q de sa grace face
perdô aux poures pescheurs trespassez, amen."
At the time, the
idea was to build a house and rent out the
ground floor to a business for a high rent, and
let out living space on the floors above for free,
to poor daily laborers who worked in nearby fields.
The
'big gable' fell in the 17th century when the others
did in Paris. Nicolas Flamel did not live in the
house and when he died, he willed it to the
Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie church. His figure is carved on the front of
the house, surrounded by praying workers. As these prayers were
their 'rent,' maybe the phrase 'getting by with a prayer
and a song' comes from this time.
The ground floor
of the house is now a restaurant which bills itself
as Paris 'oldest auberge,' although it apparently opened in 1993
after the premises had been abandoned for a lengthy time.
The food is not as old as the house, but
the operator's decorator decided diners should sit on copies of
Louis XIV chairs for some unknown reason. The reviews I've
read generally agree the food is good, the prices are
fair, even for expensive wines, and from what I saw
it is a cozy place. Closed Saturday midday and Sundays.
Tel.: 01 42 71 77 78.
A man in the rain, coming out
of the 750 year-old Rue Cloche-Perce.
At the 'Pho' in
the Rue Volta, there are no Louis XIV chairs, probably
no fine wines, and you needn't bother with a reservation.
If it is full, just try the next place; about
five metres away.
One of my sources
thinks that you will have to go to Nicolas Flamel's
to see Paris' oldest house if the one at 5.
Rue Volta succumbs to drastic 'renovation,' but he was writing
in the late '50's and I think 5. Rue Volta
will be with us for a long time to come
- maybe propped up like the 'robinier' in the Square
René-Viviani, but not dead like the Sequoia in the Jardin
des Plantes.
And not dead in 1547, and virtually forgotten
in his own time, like Hernán Cortés.
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.
