Finally...

I have often wanted to get behind this gate…for many reasons. Finally…

One reason was to see the northern “mire”! It’s placed in the garden of what now is a private residence at Montmartre and which corresponds to the famous “Moulin de la Galette”. This “mire” has stood here since 1736 and is one of the two monuments you can find inside Paris to mark the French Meridian. The other one, the southern “mire” can be found in the Parc de Montsouris (see previous post).

I have already written about the French Meridian several times, e.g. after a visit to the Paris Observatory (see here). Maybe just a few words to remind you that the French Meridian (also sometimes referred to as the “Rose Line”) was defined in 1667 and later played an important role in the establishment of the metric system and the meter – introduced by the First French Republic in 1799 (and today adopted by all countries except Liberia, Myanmar… and the U.S.).  In 1884, there was an international conference to decide on one Meridian – there were tens of them - and the British Greenwich Meridian became the international reference. (When the French agreed to abandon their line, there was a compensation granted by the British - a promise to go for the metric system; it took some time.)  

In 1994 some 135 "Arago medallions" were placed along the line (many have been stolen since). François Arago (1786-1853) was a French astronomer (and much more) who - among many other things - helped determine the exactitude of the Meridian and the Meter. One of the medallions is placed in front of the “mire” and we can see that there has been a slight correction to the original line (see top picture).  

Let us also remember that between the two remaining buildings and the two wind mills, “Blute-fin” and “Radet”, the owning family Debray decided in 1870 to establish a “guinguette” (small restaurant with music and dancing) when milling by the force of wind was not profitable anymore – the “Moulin de la Galette” was opened to public and became extremely popular for some decades. 

Here we have again some illustrations by painters including one of the most famous Renoir ones and the first Paris painting sold by Picasso (see here). People could then walk around in the area and climb a platform of the “Blute-fin” mill, where later a dancing scene in “An American in Paris” with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron takes place (obviously shot in studio).  

  

Studio 28

The oldest Paris cinema still in operation is called “Studio 28” and you can find it in Montmartre, rue Tholozé.

This narrow street gives a look on “Moulin de la Galette”, one of the two remaining Montmartre windmills. The name “Moulin de la Galette” has been given much later and in the meantime it had become a cabaret (“ginguette”), but originally this mill was called “Blute Fin” and dates from 1622. It’s now on private property so you cannot reach it. The other remaining smaller windmill, “Radet” has been slightly moved and now sits more or less on top of a close-by restaurant with the name “Moulin de la Galette”. Both mills used to belong to the same family. There is a long story about the mills, the family and the origin of the name “Moulin Rouge” which I have already talked about in previous posts (1, 2). The “Moulin de la Galette” has been painted by a great number of artists, including van Gogh, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Picasso, van Dongen and perhaps especially by Utrillo.

This is thus rue Tholozé, as it looks today and as it was seen by Utrillo in 1913.

Some street views.

Let’s now come back (at last) to the cinema theatre, “Studio 28”. It was thus created in 1928 as an avant-garde cinema. In 1930 it became famous; a film by Luis Buñuel, “L’Age d’Or” ("The Golden Age"), co-written with Salvador Dalí, premiered here. A few days later a fascist group threw ink on the screen, assaulted members of the audience and also destroyed art by Dalí, Miró, Man Ray, Tanguy, Ernst (who actually also had a role in the film)... exposed in the lobby. The film was then soon banned after the Board of Censors had reviewed it. You had to wait some 50 years before it was again released. "Studio 28" survived, but with new owners. In 1950, Jean Cocteau and Abel Gance became “godfathers” of the place and Cocteau (painted by Modigliani below) designed the lampposts that you can still find in the theatre. This is also the cinema where Amélie Poulain liked to go on Friday evenings.

The cinema can only seat some 170 people, but it’s a nice place, perfectly equipped technically. A mixture of recent and avant-garde films is shown, there is a nice little bar and the lobby is still used for art exhibitions. The guest book is impressive and some actors and directors have left their footprints.

... and the trees are slowly getting green, even if yesterday the sky was a bit grey and the temperature could have been higher!

More from Montmartre (2)

I’m reverting to my post of last Friday and with some more Montmartre spots which I believe are worth a visit, if you have the time. You can revert to the Google map in the previous post.

I recently told you about a small “wild” park, close to the Père Lachaise cemetery. There is a second, similar one on the northern slope of Montmartre, “Parc Saint Vincent”, neighbour to the vineyard “Clos de Montmartre”. It’s very discrete, open for visitors only Saturday afternoons during the summer months. It’s not extremely spectacular, but if you are really interested in wild trees, bushes and flowers, this may a place to go. Two young ladies, in charge of the park, collected frogpoles in the small pond, to be shown to some visiting kids later in the afternoon. In my Friday post, I showed some pictures from some nice private homes. Here are some other examples from a small street, called Villa Léandre.One curiosity, which you can normally only see from the outside, is the present home of FEMIS, the French state film school, actually European, previously called IDHEC. The school moved in here in 1999 in what used to be “Pathé” film studios. The school has got a number of – at least in France - well-known pupils like Malle, Resnais, Sautet, Schlöndorff, Zulawski, Corneau, Costa Gavras, P.Leconte, C.Miller, Téchiné, R.Enrico, J-J Annaud, Boisset... In the studios some of the more famous French films were partly shot, e.g. some of the most famous Marcel Carné films (see below).

I have a tendency to talk about cemeteries. The most famous one here is of course the Montmartre Cemetery on which I have made several posts. There is a second, very small one, the Calvaire Cemetery, open to public only one day each year (November 1) on which I also posted. There is a third and last one at Montmartre, the Saint Vincent Cemetery. Also here you can find some celebrities buried like composer Arthur Honegger, painter Maurice Utrillo, film director Marcel Carné (Quai de Brumes/Port of Shadows, Hôtel du Nord, Le jour se lève/Daybreak, Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise...), author Marcel Aymé (Le Passe-Muraille/The Walker-Through-Walls). A sculpture of Aymé, made by Jean Marais, representing him as a walker-through-walls, can be found outside his home at Montmartre. Finally, there is also another grave of the Debray family, owners of the last surviving Montmartre windmill, “Moulin de la Galette”. Four brothers of this family are buried at the Calvaire cemetery and there is a story linked to this, which I have already told, giving the background to the name “Moulin Rouge”. I know, this is again too long, but as a last souvenir from this walk around Montmartre, some flowers (and bees):

I will be away for two days. I'm sorry, but I will not have the time to visit your blogs. I promise to do it later!