28.1.16

Passing in front of d’Artagnan…


The area referred to as “Plaine-Monceau”, north of the “Parc Monceau” (see previous posts), used to be more or less hunting grounds until the second half of the 19th century. There was just a little castle and the village Monceau. In 1860, when the area was incorporated in Paris and became part of the 17th arrondissement, it developed rapidly. The brothers Péreire - bankers (and railways, shipping lines, insurance…) - were heavily involved in land and real estate business. It was also the case in this area, which was rapidly transformed to a fashionable district, with elegant housing including a number of “hôtels particuliers” (private mansions) for wealthy people. It was also where you then found some of the more successful artists, who possibly wished to live close to their clientele – I already talked about some of them, e.g. here on my previous blog.

The other day I just made a short walk along two of these streets (there are many), rue Henri-Rochefort and rue Jacques-Bingen, crossing Place du Général-Catroux (“the place of the 3 Dumas”) on which I also have posted and where you find d’Artagnan, as illustrated by Gustave Doré on the monument to Alexandre Dumas “père”. 
          
Here are some examples of the buildings, today mostly occupied by offices, institutions, consulates…





… and some examples of decorative details.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The area around La Place du Général Catroux looks so charming! Loved the statue of that leader of "Les Trois Mousquetaires"
The buildings in this place are so beautiful. They reminded me of those (yes, I dare compare) in Albany, N.Y, that always left me spellbound.

A thousand thanks, dear Peter for this wonderful tour! An area of Paris completely unknown to me.

Maria O. Russell

Anonymous said...


Some years ago, I became intrigued by something I read in The New York Times Magazine.
A novel called Georges by Alexander Dumas, pere. Never before I had heard of such a book! The said newspaper was referring to a new translation by Tina Kover, edited by Werner Sollors and with an introduction by Jamaica Kincaid. It was published by Random House, Inc./Modern Library in May 2007.

Anything written by M. Dumas is of course of enourmous importance. In the case of the novel Georges, even more so, as many pundits asseverate it is largely autobiographical.

From Wikipedia

Georges is a short novel by Alexandre Dumas, père set on the island of Mauritius, from 1810 to 1824. This novel is of particular interest to scholars because Dumas reused many of the ideas and plot devices later in The Count of Monte Cristo, and because race and racism are at the center of this novel, and this was a topic on which Dumas, despite his part-African ancestry, rarely wrote.[1] Georges was first published in 1843.[2] It has been republished in English as George; or, the Planter of the Isle of France.

Thank you, M. Peter for such an interesting post. We learn so much from your blog.
Maria O. Russell

Studio at the Farm said...

Beautiful buildings in the area, Peter. Thank you for the tour!!
Kathryn