Hôtel Gaillard

I already mentioned this remarkable building in some previous posts, see here and here. Already from the outside it’s really amazing and it certainly has some of nicest gutters you’ve ever seen (see top picture).

It’s a very large mansion (hôtel particulier) built around 1880 for a banker, Emile Gaillard (1821-1902), and it’s still referred to as Hôtel Gaillard. It may be interesting to know that he was the banker of many of France’s richest dynasties, of Victor Hugo… and that he once was one of Chopin’s best pupils – Chopin even, in 1840, when Emile was 19, dedicated one of his mazurkas to him (Mazurka in A minor, B. 140 – you can listen to it on the net) !

Emile was married, there were children… , but the vast space was obviously especially requested to make place for a fantastic art collection, mostly from previous centuries. He asked the architect, Jules Février (1842-1937) to take inspiration from the Loire Valley renaissance castles (Blois, Gien…).

After Emile’s death, the art collection was sold, but it took until after WWI before the building was acquired by the Bank of France, who after much work, opened a branch office here, closed in 2006. 

A lot of the original architecture is fortunately still there, however we must of course remember that it had become a bank during some 85 years before closing with e.g. an important bank vault surrounded by heavy walls (temporarily closed when I visited – I “stole” a photo from the net).

On one of the walls you can find some caricatures in relief, one of Gaillard, holding a purse and one of the architect, Février, holding a compass.

It took then some time for the Bank to decide what to do with this building. There were some ideas to make it into some kind of a “Dumas Centre”, the three Dumas (grand-father, father, son) are all represented on the Square in front of the hotel (as, you can see on one of the photos, is Sarah Bernhardt who lived around the corner for a couple of years. I talked about all this in the posts I referred to above.) 

Finally, the decision was taken to make the place to a “Cité de l’Economie”, dedicated to economics, moneys… and, after a few years of restoration, it opened to public mid-June this year. If you want to learn something about economics there is now plenty of information - screens all over, of all sizes… documentation… Despite my education in economics, I was personally much more interested in the building itself.  

    

Tram

The first part of the Paris circular tram line opened in 2007. I wrote about it in my previous blog, see here and here. Since a couple of days, 11 years later, you can now consider that about three quarters of the circle has been achieved. I took a walk along the additional part of the line the day before the opening, last weekend, from “Porte  de la Chapelle” to “Porte d’Asnières”.  (This should mean the end of a couple of years’ traffic jams – until the work with the next extension, probably bringing the line to "Porte Dauphine", will commence.)

A number of empty trams were to be seen, testing was ongoing, the last details were taken care of… We are in the northern part of Paris, perhaps not where too many tourists find their way. The tram line follows the “Boulevards of the Marshals” (here Berthier, Bessières, Ney – all Napoleonic ones).

Most buildings along the line are rather uninteresting, just “normal”… We have the contrast between the old Opera warehouses (with Charles Garnier as architect – I talked about these buildings here) in front of the newly opened Palace of Justice (see my post here) with Renzo Piano as architect. … and I could see at least one “Morris Column” and one “Wallace Fountain”…

The trams are running over nice green grass – I wish I could reach the same result in my little garden.

The tram line has honoured a number of ladies by giving their names to different stops. These already existed: Maryse Bastié, Alexandra David-Néel, Séverine, Adreinne Bolland, Delphine Seyrig, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosa Parks, Colette Besson. Two new names appear on this prolongation: Not much to be found on (Jeanne) Angélique Compoint except that she lived 1826-1907, was a farmer’s daughter… and that her family for some reason has given the names to several Paris streets. Easier to find information about the famous photographer Diane Arbus (1923-71).  

The circular tram line is quite often more or less following the trace of the circular railway abandoned in 1934 – “La Petite Ceinture”, on which I posted a number of times, e.g. here. One could ask, why not use the existing tracks? The answer given is mostly that the connections to different metro and bus lines would be too difficult to ensure.

... and some street art again

The Batignolles area in the 17^th arrondissement used to have a covered market of the old Baltard type. It was replaced in the 1970’s by this quite dull building. Well, the building – in addition to the market - now also offers a number of flats for older people and via Google Earth and the site “Le Jardin des Moines”, we can see that there is a calm and nice space on top of the market roof. I talked to some people who live there and they seem to be satisfied, so maybe I shouldn’t be too upset about the destruction of the old building.

To make the building look a bit less dull also from the outside, I was pleased to see that it recently has been decorated by four street artists. One has realised that the arrondissement was lacking street art, and this project is obviously at least partly sponsored by a popularly voted City of Paris “participatory budget”. 

I was especially pleased to see that one of my favourite street artists, Seth, has made some remarkable illustrations (see also top picture), obviously referring to kids and reading - just opposite the street where he has painted, there is a library, specializing in youth literature. I have already written about Seth here and here.

The other - excellent - artists are Pastel FD…

… Ratur…

… and Jaw. 

You can see read more about the artists here: Seth, Pastel FD, Ratur, Jaw.

Square de l'Amérique Latine

Waiting for a bus the other day, I discovered this little square, "Square de l’Amérique Latine”. We are in the extreme north-west of the 17^th arrondissement, close to the Paris border. Actually, we are on a space close to where the last Paris defense wall, the “Thiers wall”, could be found. (Most of it was demolished in the 1920's, but I showed some remaining parts of the wall in a recent post, see here.)  If you are interested in visiting the square, it’s easy to go there, the close by Place de Champerret can be reached by metro (line 3) and some six bus lines.

The “Square de l’Amérique Latine” was created in 1931. It’s a small, very modest square, but it has room for nine sculptures honouring different Latin American personalities. Actually there are eight busts, spread in a half-circle with flowers in between… and with in the middle a more full size statue – see top picture.

This is the opportunity to learn something about the different personalities that are represented. I just wrote a few words.. 

... but if you wish to learn more… you can click: Justo Sierra, José Martí, José Henrique Rodó, Ricardo Palma, BenjamínVicuña Mackenna, Rubén Darió, Juan Montalvo and Andrés Bello. 

Maybe a special remark about José Marti, who wrote the text to the famous Cuban patriotic song “Guantanamera”… “Yo soy un hombre sincero…”, interpreted by Pete Seeger, The Sandpipers, Joan Baez, Julio Iglesias, Nana Mouskouri, Trini Lopez, Gipsy Kings… and of course by the Bueana Vista Social Club. You can listen to a recent Cuban version here.... or just below.

In the square you could originally find the statue of Simón Bolívar, “El Libertador” of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama. In 1980, 150 years after his death, the statue was transferred to its present place on the “Cours de la Reine” (The Queen’s Promenade), see previous post. Two years later Bolívar was replaced in this square by Francisco de Miranda, who also was a revolutionary military and somehow a predecessor to Bolívar.

You can also find here the entrance to the – underground - discotheque “La Main Jaune”, very popular during the 1980’s and 90’s, now forgotten.  

            

Yes, at last... !!

YES, at last… Some trees have taken on green colours…

I found the way back to “my” old park, Square des Batignolles, and got it confirmed – the spring signs are at last here.

The ducks could even take their siesta without standing on one leg as they do when it’s cold (see previous post).

What do these gentlemen have in common?

What do these gentlemen have in common? They are Swedish and they have a street or a square named after them in Paris. After the recent inauguration of Place Strindberg (see previous post), a friend asked me who are the other Swedes who have been honoured? So here I try to answer.  Have I forgotten someone?
   

Alfred Nobel, 1833-96, may not need any long biography here… dynamite of course, but as an inventor he held 355 different patents. He lived in Paris 1873-91, was fluent in French (and a number of other languages) and kept his Paris home until his death – in San Remo in 1896. His will was written in Paris in 1895 - on a desk that you may still find at the Swedish Club in Paris (see previous post). To honour his name, he has got a very modest little street, rather some stairs, on the northern slopes of Montmartre. Why there and why so modest? (Paris 18)

Raoul Wallenberg, 1912 - ??, was an architect, diplomat … and is especially known for having saved tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary, while working in Budapest as a Swedish special envoy. He was arrested by a Red Army intelligence service in January 1945 and what happened to him then is still unknown.  Considering the number of avenues, streets, places, monuments that you can find worldwide to his honour, it may be a bit surprising that he has got a street named after him in Paris only in 2007 and far from the city centre, even on the other side of the “périphérique”. (Paris 19)

Carl Linnaeus, or Carl von Linné, 1707-78, is mostly known for the “binomial nomenclature” used in zoology and botany. One example is the “linnaea”, or twinflower, his favourite flower, officially with the name “Linnaea borealis”. Linné had no very close relations with Paris – he made a short visit in 1737 and then met with the French naturalist Antoine de Jussieu, member of the famous botanist Jussieu family. It is then quite “natural” that Linné has a street named after him – already in 1865, linking one of the entrances to the “Jardin des Plantes” and the “Place Jussieu”. On one street corner you can find an imposing fountain, dedicated to another naturalist, Georges Cuvier.  (Paris 6)

Jacob Berzelius, 1779-1848, was a chemist, considered to be one of the founders of modern chemistry. He worked with atomic weights and developed the modern chemical formula notation (for example CH2O for glucose, twice as many hydrogen atoms as carbon and oxygen). He was also the first person to make a distinction between organic and inorganic compounds, he invented the term "protein".... His portrait here is from just before the end of his life (1848) and is a daguerreotype, which had just been invented by Louis Daguerre. The Paris street, which had the Berzelius name already in 1864, is not in a (until further) very fancy area. It's a long street and after a bend it actually changes name to Passage Berzelius. (Paris 17)

Raoul Nordling, 1881-1962, was a businessman (basically in paper) and a diplomat - Swedish consular general in Paris since 1926. Today one remembers him especially for his role before the liberation of Paris in 1944 when he negotiated with the German commander, von Choltitz, in order to "save" Paris despite some instructions to demolish it given by Hitler. The liberation of some 3.000 political prisoners was also obtained. Orson Wells played Nordling's role in the 1966 movie "Is Paris burning?" and there is a more recent movie from 2014, "Diplomacy", adapted from a theatre play. After the fall of Nazi Germany, Choltitz spent two years in prison. Nordling was awarded a medal by the French State, which he passed over to Choltitz, recognizing him as the real hero. Nordling has a square named after him. (Paris 11)

Gustaf V, 1858-1950, was King of Sweden from 1907 until his death. There may be some thoughts about his sometimes rather pro-German and an often rather conservative attitude... but during his reign he accepted a stripped monarchy, a universal and equal suffrage (including for women from 1919). He was an avid hunter and sportsman and even represented Sweden as tennis-player ("Mr G") during younger years. He was married to Victoria (of Baden) and they had three sons. Victoria died already in 1930 after having spent many years abroad - officially for health reasons - in Italy (Capri - Axel Munthe). Gustaf's name was given to this "avenue" in 1951 - no cars around. (Paris 16)

August Strindberg, 1849-1912, very recently got his name on a Paris street sign. I wrote a lot about it already in some recent posts, here and here. (Paris 6)

Now, the question is what about Swedish women? Nobody so far... possibly with the exception of Queen Astrid, born Swedish Princess, married to the Belgian King Leopold III. She died in a car accident in 1935, 30 years old. Since 1936 she has had a square in her name, Place de la Reine Astrid. This is where you find a statue which was a gift by the Belgian State in recognition of the Belgian-French friendship during WWI. (I already wrote about it here.) (Paris 8)

    

2024 Olympics?

At least some 150 statues disappeared in Paris during the WWII occupation. Three of them were in “my” park. They were named “Belluaire” by Maurice Ferrary (1852-1904), “Circé” by Gustave Michel (1851-1924) and “Nymphe et Dauphin” by Antonin Larroux (1859-1913).

On this site, you can read more in detail about the destruction… “ of all metal monuments and statues for the purpose of remelting, unless considered to be of historical or artistic interest to the new regime….”.  After the war, it has been possible to reproduce and reinstall a few statues, but not the ones in “my” park.

I suspect the very active gardeners in the park to be behind the initiative to for a while put something back on the pedestals… and also to reproduce the throws of the discus and the javelin. It’s obvious that there is a campaign ongoing to make Paris an Olympic city in 2024 – see also my preceding post.