In the 7th arrondissement there is a small garden park called Square Boucicaut with some interesting buildings around.
The square is named after Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut who in 1852 launched what may obviously be considered as the first real department store in the world. It kept the name “Le Bon Marché” - which could mean “cheapness”, or maybe rather should be interpreted as the “good bargain”? - from a previous shop founded in 1838 in which they had been associated for a few years. It was a great success and in 1869 the present large main building was launched, opening in the early 1870’s. The architect (Louis-Charles Boileau) asked for help by Gustave Eiffel for the structure of the building. (The escalators have of course been added later, designed by Andrée Putman.)
The success story continued. The employees were obviously well treated with a lot of social advantages, not so common those days. Other adjacent buildings were added. Today, this is probably the most luxury oriented department store in Paris. This is the place you rather would go if you want something of a certain standard. You find also a very nice bookshop and what I believe must be the food store with the largest assortment in Paris. I checked the olive oils; there were some 50 brands to choose from.
Since 1984, Le Bon Marché belongs to the LMVH group (Bernard Arnault) and is definitely now a luxury department store, where you of course can buy what you “need” of the other brands of the group (Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Dior Perfumes, Guerlain, Chaumet, TAG Heuer...). The show window decoration is also quite special. 
One of the adjacent buildings, originally used as warehouse by “Le Bon Marché” and obviously also with Eiffel involved in the design, is today partly occupied by The Conran Shop, specialising in exclusive modern furniture and household goods.
In 1910, Mrs. Boucicaut (the husband died in 1877) had a big hotel, Lutetia, built on the other side of the square to accommodate travelling clients. This is still the only “palace” on the left bank. Considering the standard of the hotel, the customers did already then not all go to “Le Bon Marché” to buy cheap stuff.
In the immediate neighbourhood, there are some other interesting buildings including the “Missions Etrangères” (Foreign Missions) and the last home of Chateaubriand.
Someone – anonymous – asked about the remnants of the executions of communards at the Père Lachaise cemetery (see previous post) in 1871. There is an inscription on one of the walls of the cemetery (“Mur des Fédérés”) where the execution of 147 communards took place, but the wall has been rebuilt. Some of the bullet holes can however be found elsewhere; a monument has been created outside the northern wall of the cemetery (Square Samuel Champlain) where some of the original stones were a few decades later used to create a memorial (by Paul Moreau-Vauthier). I’m sorry for the abandoned look of this memorial which, in addition, I had to picture from a distance – the access to the square was closed for refreshment works (hopefully including the cleaning up of the memorial). 
I wish you a nice weekend!
Contrary to what happened with the Temple (see previous post), some of the old buildings of St.Martin were left to the posterity after the Revolution, including churches, chapels and also a refectory which now is the library of the Conservatory (same architect as the Sainte Chapelle (see previous post) – Peter de Montereau). Some new Conservatory buildings were added during the 19th century and two big new streets crossed the area, including Rue Réaumur (see previous posts), which even made its way between two of the churches, St. Martin and St.Nicolas-des-Champs (see previous post) – see the difference between the 1739 map and today. 
The St. Martin church is now part of the museum, the most spectacular from architectural point of view. It was built between the 12th and 14th centuries. This is where you can find some of the bigger objects (top picture) like steam engines, cars and even some of the early aeroplanes including one on which Louis Blériot crossed the Channel in 1909. This is also where you today find (a copy of) the Foucault Pendulum (the original is now transferred to the Panthéon – see previous post), which proves that the globe is rotating. (Umberto Eco’s book “Foucault’s Pendulum” is clearly related to the “Art et Métiers” Museum.) 
The museum has totally some 80.000 objects and some 15.000 drawings to testify how techniques of different kinds have developed during centuries. You can see the first photographic equipment (Daguerre...), the first telephones, radios, televisions, calculating machines (one of them is a copy of the one I had on my desk in my first job!), computers, satellites... There are also models of some important construction work, including the NY version of the Statue of Liberty. (In previous posts I have talked about the original statue in the Luxembourg Gardens, about the place where the NY version was constructed...). 
Of course, a great number of beautiful early precision instruments, clocks... are also exposed. 
I also found the 1948 model of my 2008 Solex (today electrically driven)!
Well... normally I don’t post on Sundays but today is the 15th of the month, meaning that it’s time for the mid-month theme “subways” which I share with bloggers from New York, Stockholm, Budapest ... and now also from London. Mo (you can see her portrait here), with a blog called “Fresh Eyes on London” kindly offered to join the team. 
It seems a bit unclear which exact areas are included in what you call the Marais (The Marsh... or referring to Market-gardens). Some indications are according to the red line on this plan, but I believe that the borders are a bit vague. Basically we talk about the major parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, which were hardly touched by the 19th century Haussmannian restructuring of Paris and which were definitely saved by laws and decrees in the 1960’s; since then this area is slowly being rehabilitated. I have taken some freedom with the more or less official borders during a walk through the northern parts of the area (partly in heavy rain – sorry for the raindrops, also on the lens!), including what is within the orange dotted line.
I have already made posts about the central parts of the Marais including Place des Vosges, of the St.Paul area and more recently about what you find just behind the Paris Town Hall. There are also things to see north of the Picasso Museum, which is housed in an old 17th century “hôtel particulier” since 1985 and which at the moment has a Daniel Buren (famous for his Columns at Palais Royal) exposition including an enormous mirror, doubling – or cutting ? – the surface of the courtyard.
Some special words about a few places (I will be back with more one day):
(No, the "temple" is not the small wooden thing with a pigeon on top you see on the photo.)
Compared to the 1739 plan, some modifications had already taken place when the Royal Family arrived in 1792. Obviously some of the walls were already demolished. The “Grosse Tour”, which had its place just behind the park corner you can see on the top picture (traces have been painted in the street just behind - in front of the local 3rd arrondissement Town Hall), was destroyed in 1808, and soon also most of the other buildings. The home of the “Grand Prior” which in the meantime had been used as home of members or “friends” of the Royal family (the young Mozart was invited to play here) remained until the middle of the 19th century and the Haussmann modifications.
What remains than today of the Temple?
The doors of the gate to a house close by (1 rue Saint-Claude) are said to come from the “Grand Prior” building. (It happens also to be the place where an impostor, Joseph Balsamo, “Count of Cagliostro”, lived in the 1780’s. He was heavily involved in an affair called the “Collier de la Reine” (Queen’s Necklace).
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