The other day I took a walk along the streets you can see traced on the map. Nothing extremely spectacular about this (nice) area, but thanks to a friend, Rodolphe Trouilleux, who just published a new version of his bestseller “Paris Secret et Insolite”, I paid attention to a few buildings.
The first one is definitely not to be remarked among the others, except for a bird, a duke, on the facade. The very special thing is that it was built and inhabited by a very famous architect, Eugène Viollet le Duc (which explains the duke), who built it in 1862 and lived and worked here most of his last 17 years. Eugène is especially well-known as the person who was responsible for the restoration of more particularly Notre Dame, but also of the Vézelay basilica, the Sainte Chapelle (see previous post), the Saint Denis basilica (see previous post), a number of castles, the Avignon ramparts... and a lot more. His practical and theoretical works inspired many of the art nouveau architects (Gaudi, Guimard, Horta...).
A bit further on I observed two extremely decorated buildings. One, from 1901, is abundant of leaves, flowers, birds, made in ceramics by Alexandre Bigot, who participated in the decoration of a number of the most famous art nouveau buildings in Paris and collaborated with e.g. Guimard, Lavirotte.... (If you are interested you can check some of my previous posts on Guimard here and here and on Lavirotte here and here.)
The other building is two years older, in a completely different style. Obviously the architect and the sculptor have taken a lot of pleasure and I presume that there were no serious budget restrictions.
My goal was close to Place Franz Liszt. Franz spent many years in Paris (but not here), was the friend of Chopin, George Sand, Balzac, Berlioz, Delacroix... and especially of the countess Marie d’Agoult. They had three children; Cosima married Wagner.
Here is the church Saint-Vincent-de Paul (1844), surrounded by a small park. Around the church, the streets give the impression of another century (see top picture), very calm, but there are also two or three nice small restaurants.
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