The entry to the original tapestry factory, or
to the 'White Queen's' townhouse.
A Tapestry Factory
And the 'Hôtel of the White Queen(s)'
By Richard Erickson
Paris Kiosque - September 1999 - Volume 6, Number 9
Copyright (c) 1999 Richard Erickson - used with permission
Near the end of
July, a reader commented on my new address. He wrote,
"You're also near the Boulevard Arago - which, when I
lived in the 5th near the Place Monge, I considered
to be a most mysterious and esoteric thoroughfare. In fact,
I feel that way still."
Even earlier in the
year, server-lady Linda Thalman sent an Email which concerned the same
area. She mentioned a little-known park; while Mr. Kritz remembered
two photos by Brassaï, of the 'Crazy House' and the
boulevard in fog, both taken in the night.
It is
not night or foggy today, but it is not trying
hard to be sunny either. On my first exit I
am driven back by rain, so I sort books and
magazines for a while until the sun shines again. By
the time I come out of the wrong métro at
Campo-Formio, it is about to rain again.
A medalion on
the facade of the 'Manufacture des Gobelins.'
I shortcut down
the Rue du Banquier to the Avenue des Gobelins, and
hit it just opposite Colbert's tapestry factory. About a half-dozen
visitors are loitering around the gate at 14:10, waiting for
the guided tour scheduled for 14:00. It is spitting rain.
I have a café in the bistro at the corner
of the Rue des Gobelins, and the rain stops again.
This is a new area for me, although I have
been at the corner where Arago, the Boulevard de Port
Royal, Gobelins and the Boulevard Saint-Marcel come together before.
In
very old times, the Roman road from Lyon and Italy
came along Mouffetard here, before it was named Gobelins. Today,
the Rue Mouffetard starts further north; at the Saint-Médard church.
Mouffetard probably got its name sometime in the 13th century,
derived from the stink of the tanneries located along the
Bièvre river.
The area was also called the Faubourg-Saint-Marcel, or
the 'old town' of Saint-Marcel and it went all the
way up to the Place de l'Italie. At the time
of the Charles V fortifications it was a separate town,
just outside Paris - like the Faubourg Saint-Germain.
I go
down to the big intersection and try to imagine it
on a foggy night. It's so big it would be
easy to get lost even on a rainy day. Back
up Gobelins, I turn into the Rue des Gobelins and
step backwards several centuries.
The Rue des Gobelins is 165
metres of leftover Saint-Marcel. In 1552 it was called the
Bièvre. At the back of the courtyard at number 3-bis,
the old townhouse of the financier Mascarini was bought by
Jean Gluck on 19. February 1686 - about the time
France was bribing or kidnapping foreign artisans. Gluck had made
some money - a bribe? - by importing - borrowing?
- a new dye process from Holland.
Gluck married the
sister of his partner, François Julienne. Gluck's nephew, Jean de
Julienne, was born on 29. November of the same year.
When he grew up, Jean de Julienne perfected his uncles'
dying process and was eventually ennobled for it, in 1736
- which was a rare thing for a artisan-businessman.
Jean
de Julienne was generous and a friend to artists, principally
Watteau who came to Paris in 1702. Watteau started out
doing hack portraits of Saint-Nicolas for three livres
per week, plus an evening soup per day. In 1717
he painted the 'Embarquement Pour Cythère' which got him attention
at the Academie and his fortune was made - until
he died in 1721.
The property promotion known as the
'Château de la Reine Blanche' in the Rue Gustave Geffroy.
A little further along this short street is the location
of the townhouse of the 'White Queen.' Saint-Louis' widow, Marguerite
de Provence, had the hôtel built in 1290 and she
lived in it until she died in 1295 at the
age of about 74.
Historians think that this residence served
as a place of retirement for either Blanche de France,
widow of Ferdinand de la Cerda, or Blanche d'Evereux, wife
of Philippe VI of Valois, who died in 1350. Or
maybe this 'white queen' was Saint-Louis' mother, Blanche de Castille;
but this is out of the question because she died
in 1252, before anything was built here.
Anyhow, there are
plenty of other 'white queen' candidates, right up to Catherine
de Médicis. All the kings' widows wore white and there
were plenty of them.
So, away with all this eyewash.
What is called the 'Hôtel de la Reine Blanche' was
really owned by the Countess of Savoy, Alix de Méranie,
who died in 1279; followed by Blanche de Bourgogne -
one of the heroines of the Tour de Nesle -
and wife of Charles IV 'Le Bel.' Blanche de Bourgogne
died in 1325.
There is some argument about whether the
'Bal des Arpents' took place at this hôtel or at
the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the king's residence. Froissant says so, but
in 1430 Juvénal des Ursins wrote that the party took
place in the evening at the 'Hostel de la Reyne-Blanche
à Saint-Marcel prés Paris...' Froissart had Charles V dying at
Saint-Pol, when everybody knows he died at the Château de
Beauté-sur-Marne.
On Tuesday, 28. February 1393, on the occasion of
the remarriage of Catherine de Hainserville, Isabeau de Bavière gave
a ball, for which the costumes appropriate for the remarriage
of a widow were worn. This caused some racket -
either of noise or lifted-eyebrows - at the time.
Charles
VI had the idea to get himself and five pals
disguised as 'savages,' with masks and tunics plastered with tar,
feathers and cotton balls.
Louis d'Orléans, Charles' brother, got
too close to the fire in trying to figure out
which one was Charles. He set one on fire and
it spread to the others, four of whom burned to
death, including Louis. Charles' young aunt, the Duchess du Berry,
saved him by wrapping him up in her coat and
the fifth 'savage' jumped into a handy horse trough and
survived.
After this drama, the demolition of the hôtel was
ordered in 1404. It was rebuilt at the end of
the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century.
In
the middle of the 15th century there were two interrelated
families of scarlet-dyers; the Gobelins and the Canayes. Jean Gobelin
set up shop on the edge of the Bièvre in
1443. The two families owned the hôtel and the one
next door at number 19, until they were sold in
1572.
The townhouse of the 'white queen' was restored
in the 18th century, becoming a brasserie and a Jacobin
club in 1790 - but afterwards it was a tannery.
At the back of its courtyard, there is a old
house, now being turned into luxo apartments.
The hôtel at
number 19 was built at the end of the 15th
century and is said to have remarkable
architectural features, including an unique spiral staircase of wood like
that of the larger one in number 17. To me
it looks like it is about to fall down. It
is thought number 17 was the dye-works and number 19
the lodgings - which might have figured as the 'Follie-Goubelin'
in Rabelais' 'Pantagruel.'
This is how the 'hôtel' at number
19 looks today.
Near the end of the Rue des
Gobelins, there is the Rue des Marmousettes. It is 17
metres long and 10 wide, and there is nothing to
it today except it is very short. It has had
this name since 1540 and is not to be confused
with the other one, on the Ile de la Cité.
The Boulevard Arago cut it half off it in 1859.
The Saint-Hippolyte chapel was erected here in 1158 for the
needs of parishioners on the western side of the Faubourg
Saint-Marcel.
Before becoming a saint, Hippolyte was a Roman
soldier who Valerian had guarding the soon-to-be-saint, Laurent. Hippolyte made
the mistake of letting Laurent baptize him in prison, which
irritated Valerian enough to have him torn to shreds on
13. August 258 in the arena along with 19 close
family members, including his wet-nurse, Concordia. Laurent was merely hacked
to pieces.
This chapel inspired a considerable parish, which included
part of Notre-Dame-des-Champs in 1630. The church was re-edified in
1520 by the patrimony of Jean Gobelin and again in
1728, by Jean de Julienne. It was the parish church
of the Gobelin dye-empire, and was extremely rich with its
decor augmented by the Gobelins artisans
As such it was
the burial place of many of the artisans and workers
until 1757. After this date, a second underground burial place
was opened, then a third - and now the Boulevard
Arago covers it all. The first Jean Gobelin went into
it in 1476, and Jean de Julienne took up residence
in 1766.
The church was suppressed in 1791, rented
in 1792, sold in 1793 and demolished in 1798. If
this had not happened to so many churches back then,
there wouldn't be room in Paris for all of the
cafés and bistros today.
Of course, there is nothing of
this to see today in the 17 metres left of
the Rue des Marmousettes. I walk the few metres remaining
of the Rue des Gobelins, then return and go right
into the Rue Gustave Geffroy, where there is nothing to
see except the real estate-promotion area of the 'Hôtel de
la Reine Blanche,' and what I assume is the rear
of number 17 in the Rue des Gobelins.
At
the end, the Rue Berbier-du-Mets, ex-Ruelle des Gobelins, was named
after the first 'keeper of the crown's furniture' - and
today where it joins the Rue de Croulebarde it is
the location of the present keeper of the République's furniture.
The Bièvre flows underneath it. Before it was covered
over and when it overflowed in the area to the
west in winter and iced over, it was given the
name Glacière by ice-skaters.
From the Rue Berbier-du-Mets, the poplars
in the park to the west mark the location of
the former Ile aux Singes, which was between two arms
of the Bièvre. Hustlers and jugglers let their monkeys gambol
on the island, without worrying about them escaping by swimming
across the fetid river.
On 23. August 1443, the Flemish
Jean Gobelin rented a house at the sign of the
swan in what was then Rue Mouffetard. The property bordered
the Bièvre on the west side. Father of 13 kids,
he had success with the 'scarlet-dying,' and soon
added the surrounding properties to the works, in the area
of the Hippolyte church.
The 17-metre long Rue des Marmousets
has four of these signs. There are bigger streets in
Paris with none.
His eldest son, Philibert, carried on with
his eight kids. The Gobelin family continued the business successfully,
and after becoming rich and famous, family members entered other
professions, where they were equally successful.
An Italian-origin family, the
Canaye, allied and intermarried with the Gobelins. They started the
'high-warp' tapestries late in the 16th century. In 1601, Henri
IV, who wanted his own fabric works, imported two Flemish
experts who installed themselves in properties owned by the Gobelins.
In 1656, Jean Gluck from Holland replaced the first
two and he imported Jans Liansen from Bruges, who perfected
the 'high-warp' process and this attracted the notice of Jean-Baptiste
Colbert, one of the king's clerks - who was also
the brains behind the finance. He decided to buy the
whole works and all of the neighboring houses for the
crown in 1666.
The older buildings were replaced with
new ateliers and artisans were 'recruited' and lodged on the
grounds. In November 1667 the whole complex was given the
name of 'Manufacture Royale des Meubles et Tapisseries de la
Couronne.' The whole production, including furniture and decorative items, was
exclusively destined for the king's properties.
After a time the
'Manufacture' concentrated on tapestries and expanded to meet the demand
of the various Louis. Long after, the Commune of 1871
torched the place, leaving the 17th century buildings along the
Rue Berbier-du-Mets intact as well as the original chapel.
At
the beginning of the Rue Berbier-du-Mets, the 'Garde-Meuble National' overlooks
the old truck-gardens of the employees of the 'Manufacture,' now
the discrete park called the Square René-le-Gall.
The Rue
de Croulebarde also used to be the larger part of
the Reulle des Gobelins, where it followed the right bank
of the Bièvre.
Croulebarde was the name of the
owners of a moulin near Corvisart, first mentioned in 1214.
The ancient moulin was only demolished in 1840. This street
flanks the present Manufacture des Gobelins on the south side,
but bends around, sort of following the old course of
the Bièvre towards the Butte-aux-Cailles, going past the park of
the Square René-le-Gall.
The Gobelins factory takes up about 100
metres of the Avenue des Gobelins and slightly more of
the Rue Berbier-du-Mets. If the Rue des Gobelins is added,
the western Rue Berbier-du-Mets is about 300 metres in
length and is about 110 metres from the avenue. It
takes about 20 minutes to walk around all of it.
The houses in the Rue Berbier-du-Mets, on the west side
of the 'Manufacture.
I take more time than this, and
I even go into the 'Garde-Meuble National' to find out
it is basically a warehouse. After looking around the park
called the Square René-le-Gall which is beside it and which
is curiously attractive, I go up the Rue de Croulebarde.
At métro Corvisart I pass under the elevated métro
line, and climb up the Rue Eugéne Atget, which goes
halfway into a little park. The rest of the way
up leads to the Rue des Cinq-Diamants on the Butte-aux-Cailles,
which is as breezy as the last time I was
up here.
I have an idea it is an easy
walk home from here if I go around the north
side of the huge area occupied by the Sainte-Anne hospital
complex.
But it has clouded over and I go the
wrong way, ending up at the south end, on the
Rue d'Alesia. I get past the hospital known as the
'Crazy House' and go up the Avenue René Coty, to
cut across below La Rochefoucauld hospital, to the Avenue du
Général Leclerc. This is familiar and my beat feet get
me the rest of the way to my door in
five minutes.
Except for the observatory, the northeast side
of the 14th is full of hospitals, and the Santé
prison which looks anything except 'Santé.' Since the Boulevard Arago
cuts through the centre of all this, I guess it
may well be a 'mysterious and esoteric thoroughfare.'
Oddly, in
the bordering 13th arrondissement there is only one small hospital,
but no prisons, in the area of the Boulevard Arago.
If the 'history' above seems confusing to you, it is
because it is the histories of several streets, very close
together in reality. In my source, the histories are far
apart and may have not be edited very carefully. Or,
maybe they were just plain confusing. They had big families
in those days.
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.
