Centre Pompidou

The architecture of Centre Pompidou (or Beaubourg, as it’s often called locally) is more or less appreciated. You may have understood that I’m rather fond of old buildings, but I like very much also this one. Of course you should also go inside and visit the Modern Art Museum with Europe’s biggest collection of modern art – some 60.000 works from the 20th and 21st centuries. There is also an important library, a cinema, bookshops, a restaurant... and a lot of other more or less hidden activities. The Centre receives some 6-7 million visitors per year, more or less on the same level as the Eiffel Tower.

The Centre opened in 1977 and was designed by Renzo Piano, Richard and Sue Rogers, Edmund Happold and Peter Rice. What is particular is of course that the supporting structure, escalators etc. are all outside, making the interior totally free.

 

 If you go to the backside, where it’s more visible, you get a more clear impression of a small particularity – the different colours used for different ducts; blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electricity cables and red for movement and flow. A special issue with the modern buildings is of course the need to keep them fresh-looking. Already after 20 years, the Centre had to be closed for about two years (1997-99) for renovating.

Two squares

Today, we will visit two squares, very close to each other: One bigger one, Place des Victoires, and a smaller one, Place des Petits Pères.

First - Place des Victoires:

Place des Victoires is a round square (can a square be round?) created by the end of the 17th century according to plans by J.H. Mansart, one of Louis XIV’s architects.

The original statue, glorifying Louis XIV’s war victories (far from always true), in the middle of the place was (of course) destroyed during the Revolution. The present one dates from 1828 and represents Louis XIV, dressed like a Roman emperor, sitting on a horse pulled up on its hind legs. (There is a myth saying that one hoof off ground indicated that the person on the horseback got wounded during a battle, but recovered, and that two hoofs off the ground meant that he was killed in action. This is obviously not always true. Louis XIV died in his bed at Versailles at the age of almost 77, after 72 years on the throne.)

Today, you can find a number of fashion shops here, especially a major Kenzo one.

By one of the six streets leading to and from the place, you can reach the home of the French National Bank.

Second - Place des Petits Pères: Just behind Place des Victoires, you can thus find a more modest square, Place des Petits Pères – “Small Fathers”*. The name refers to a community of (barefooted) Augustine monks. A convent was constructed for them here, but today remains only the Notre-Dames-des-Victoires Basilica. The construction of the church started in 1629 but it took some decades before it was finished in its more or less present form in 1656. The facade dates from 1740. The Revolution transformed the church into a stock exchange (1795-1809). What is especially striking inside the church is that almost all walls are covered by ex-votos, some 40.000 of them.

One of the buildings on the place has a less honourable history; it was the site for the Commissariat for Jewish Questions 1941-44.

There are some nice old shops around the place.
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*/ It’s said that the name “Small Fathers” comes from the fact that two small-sized representatives of the order met the king (Henry IV) to ask for his support to get established in Paris. The king should then have said “Qui sont ces petit pères-là?" (Who are those small fathers?)

Passages and Galleries

There are a number of (mostly) 19th century “passages” or “galleries” in Paris. They were somehow the predecessors to present shopping centres - rain and weather protected. I have already posted about some of them:
Passage Prado (1785), Passage Jouffroy (1847); Passage des Panoramas (1834), Passage Vendôme (abt. 1825), Passage Brady (1828 ), Passage Bourg l’Abbé (1828) and Passage du Grand Cerf (abt. 1830).

There are many more. This is about some of them which are quite geographically grouped (see Google map at the end).

I have no specific information about Passage Hulot – and there is not much to see - except that it’s officially closed (however still open) and that obviously Molière died in an apartment at this address (1673), soon after having collapsed on scene at the nearby theatre (Palais Royal). (No plate to be seen, but his statue is very close.) (You can find a post about Palais Royal I made last year.)

Passage des Deux Pavillons is just an opening between Palais Royal and Galérie Colbert and Galérie Vivienne (see below).

Galérie Vivienne (1826) (see also top pcture) was very much "à la mode" during a few decades after its opening, full of fashionable shops, drinking and eating places. In 1830, Berlioz led crowds here, singing “La Marseillaise” to celebrate the revolution of the July monarchy. A few decades later, games and prostitution were prohibited in the nearby Palais Royal and the number of visitors decreased. In the beginning of the 20th century, it was thought to have the Gallery demolished, but it somehow survived, was restored and in the in the 70’s and 80’s it became again fashionable, to a large extent thanks to Kenzo and J-P Gaultier who installed shops and made fashion shows here.

Galérie Colbert (1827), opening one year after Galérie Vivienne, never achieved the same popularity. It was completely rebuilt in 1985. Today it’s owned by the nearby National Library and is basically occupied by official institutions (National Institute for Art History and some Sorbonne University activities). There is also a restaurant, Le Grand Colbert, with a typical 19th century brasserie setting, and a statue, “Eurydice bitten by a snake”, by C.F.Nanteuil-Lebeuf; there is another “Eurydice-statue” by him at the Louvre.

Galérie Viro-Dodat (1826) was created by two butchers, Viro and Dodat. It was restored in the 80’s and still offers a number of quite elegant shops and a café (where Gérard de Nerval had a last drink before he hanged himself). You can find some very nice ceiling paintings.

Here is where you can find these places.

A white "M"

It seems that there is a regulation concerning the shop (restaurant etc...) signs allowed on the Champs-Elysées. They must be white - or possibly “golden”. This is the reason why you here can find what is supposed to be the only white McDonald's “M” in the world. (The "M" on the wall is golden.)

I wanted to check if the regulations are respected also more in general, and basically I can confirm that this is (more or less) the case. There are some “golden” exceptions to the white, which should be OK. However, I have a doubt concerning some other ones – see the right column. Shall I make a report to the authorities? It’s Friday again. I wish you a very nice weekend!

Saint Rita Chapel

Just across the street (Boulevard de Clichy) from Moulin Rouge, you can find a very modest chapel, devoted to Saint Rita. The chapel is actually just the ground floor of a building where the great Moulin Rouge promoter Toulouse-Lautrec seems to have lived and worked a couple of years.

Rita is the Saint of “lost cases” and obviously also adopted by prostitutes... The modest chapel, which has just been renovated, is much frequented by representatives of the local professions – we are in what commonly is called the Pigalle area.