A Walk in The Eighth Arrondissement

By Thirza Vallois

The month of May is a delicious time for outdoor strolls. Flowers are in bloom and spring is in the air. Just inhaling the exquisite smells of the gardens of Paris iw worth a detour, if nothing else.

The 8th arrondissement is blessed with two exquisite gardens - those of the lower Champs-Elysées and the very upper-class Parc Monceau. Both are described by Thirza Vallois in her internationally acclaimed series Around and About Paris.

The following is an excerpt from her chapter on the 8th arrondissement, describing Parc Montceau and the surrounding streets:

Retrace your steps and continue on rue de Lisbonne. You will come to its junction with rue de Miromesnil. Geneviève Halévy, the daughter of the composer of La Juive, and the wife of Georges Bizet, later Madame Emile Straus, was living round the corner at 104 rue de Miromesnil, at the junction of rue de Messine and Boulevard Haussmann, where she held one of the most celebrated salons of Belle Epoque Paris. Her large round drawing-room, decorated with paintings by Nattier, de La Tour and Monet and with her own famous portrait by Delaunay, was the gathering-place of extraordinary eclectic assemply, whose members ranged from such left-wingers as Léon Blum to reactionary anti-Semites such as Degas. In the wake of the Dreyfus Case, a rift became inevitable. At the instigation of the family's friend and staunch supporter of Dreyfus, Joseph Reinach, the first petition to l'Aurore was written here by a group of friends, among them Marcel Proust, one of her close friends. Madame Straus was, as a matter of fact, one of Proust's models for the Duchesse de Guermantes, and it was also at her salon that he first met Charles Haas, the model for Swann. Although she moved in circles of assimilated Jews, Madame Straus would not convert to Catholicism. When this was suggested to her before she died in 1925, she is reported to have answered, J'ai trop peu de religion pour en changer ("I have too little religion to change it"). Her son, Jacques Bizet, was living at no. 72 Boulevard Malesherbes. He was one of the pioneers of small cars, but his cars were snubbed at a time when parking space was not an issue and in the end, broken-hearted, he committed suicide.

Continue along rue de Lisbonne, then turn right into rue de Vézelay. An opulent 19th-century hôtel, embellished by wrought iron, stands at no. 11bis, a reminder of past glories, of which much more on rue de Monceau. This was a mere dirt track when it was laid out in the 17th century to connect the villages of Roule and Monceau, but in the latter part of the 19th century the streets around Parc de Monceau became the home of wealthy people. Today this is still an enclave of splendour, exuding an air of self-confident prosperity, unimpaired by modern developments.

Turn left on rue de Monceau. At no. 63 the Musée Nissim de Camondo is a beautiful relatively unknown museum with a gorgeous collection of works of arts disposed in an 18th-century setting, offering the visitor a rare opportunity to recapture the interior of an aristocratic mansion of that time. To achieve this effect, in 1911 the owner, the wealthy banker Moïse de Camondo, simply tore down his hôtel, which had been put up in 1866, and replaced it with a lovely copy of an 18th-century hôtel. Moïse de Camondo bequeathed the house, the garden and the art collection to the Union des Arts décoratifs, his only condition being that it should be named after his son Nissim,k who had been killed in 1917 in the Great War - a generous patriotic act overlooked by Vichy France, which deported to Auschwitz his daughter Bétrice Reinach and her children, his only descendants, who never came back.

Another magnificent dwelling was situated at no. 45/47, the home of the Rothschilds, scandalously torn down to make room for the present modern building. Turn right into the magnificent avenue Ruysdael which leads to Parc de Monceau through regal wrought-iron gates, the work of Davioud. Before entering the park, you might turn left into rue Murillo, where on a wall at no. 9 you will see some vestiges of the Palais des Tuileries and the Hôtel de Ville, which were rescued when they were set on fire during the Commune. By whom and why they were brought to this spot has never been unravelled. One arcade from the Renaissance building of the Hôtel de Ville now stands inside the park.

Parc de Monceau is certainly one of the most beautiful parks of Paris. Unfortunately, considerable parts of it were amputated during the Second Empire. In the 18th century, the area, which extended well into what is now the 17th arrondissement, was basically a hunting-ground and belonged to the Farmer General Grimod de La Reynière, the Lord of Monceau. In 1778 Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, Duc de Chartres and future Philippe Egalité, bought part of the territory and transformed it into a magical park, La Folie de Chartres. A contemporary peot spoke of enchanting grottos, of magical bowers, of the marvel of roses bravely growning among ice (more prosaically, the park had a greenhouse). When the toll walls were built round Paris in 1787, the section that corresponds to today's Boulevard de Courcelles was surrounded by a ditch instead of a wall so as not to obstruct the pleasant pastoral view to the north that pleased the Duke. Similarly, an elegant rotunda was put up instead of an observation post so as not to spoil the environment of the park, with its lakes and islands, vines, water lilies, Greek temples, Chinese pagodas, windmills and fake ruins. Louis-Philippe built himself a sitting-room in the dome of the rotunda, known as the Pavillon Philippe-Egalité, where he would come to enjoy the extensive view.

The Revolution maltreated the park, and it was only at the time of Louis-Philippe that it reverted to its former splendour and became the King's favourite park. With the advent of the Second Empire, however, Paris was handed over to developers and speculators. Over half its area was given over to Pereire who opened up the streets adjoining it; what remained was handed over to Alphand, to lay out an English garden as elsewhere in Paris. Alphand rescued a considerable number of features from the 18th-century garden, which still ornament the park. The most impressive is a Corinthian colonnade around an oval pool known as the Naumachie. It may have been part of a rotunda that was built by Catherine de Medici, north of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, as a sepulchre for her husband Henri II and for herself.

Exit the park through avenue Valasquez, a centre of wealth and splendor in Bell Epoque Paris: the head (régent) of the Banque de France, Jean Gouin, lived at no 4, the owner of the Louvre department store, Monsieur Chauchard, also nicknamed l'Empereur du blanc (household linen), at no. 5 and the Milanese financier, Cernuschi, at no 7. The latter two were great art collectors, which redounded to France's benefit: Chauchard bequeathed 200 paintings to the Louvre, including Millet's famous Angélus, which Cernuschi bequeathed to the City of Paris his collection of Far Eastern art. His hôtel on Avenue Valasquez was turned into a gem of a museum in 1895 - Musée Cernuschi - to house this fabulous collection and many acquisitions that have been added since.

Re-enter the park and leave it through avenue van Dyck, which leads to Avenue Hoche. Turn round once more for a final look at the magnificent gates, and exquisite sight, particularly in spring, when the trees are in full bloom. Turn right into rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and walk past the concert hall of Salle Pleyel, where the Ochestre de Paris is based, in a home unworthy of a major European capital. Turn right into rue de la Néva and right again into rue Pierre-Le-Grand where a stunning unexpected sight will meet your eyes: ahead (on rue Daru) is the Russian cathedral Saind Alexander Nevsky, with its golden domes glittering, hopefully, on your visit, against a cloudless, blue sky. It was built by Strohm and designed by Keuzmine, members of the St. Petersburg Fine Arts Academy (1859-1861) to replace a small chapel that could no longer accommodate the growing Russian colony at the time of Napoleom III. It was here that Picasso celebrated his first wedding ceremony in 1921, when he was married by Orthodox rites to Olga Khoklova, a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The fact that she was the daughter of an officer in the Czar's army heightened her prestige in the eyes of the Spanish painter. The Russian restaurant opposite the cathedral used to host such people as Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nabokov.

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.