Hôtel de Monaco

I had the possibility to visit the Polish Embassy in Paris, also referred to as “Hôtel de Monaco”. The building has some origins from 1774-77, when it was constructed for Marie-Christine de Brignole (1737-1813), married to, but rather soon separated from H-C-L Grimaldi, Prince of Monaco. The Prince continued to live in the nearby “Hôtel de Matignon” – the present residence of the French Prime Minister (see previous post). The architect of this building, after all referred to as the “Hôtel de Monaco”, was A-T Brongniart (1739-1813) - who also designed some other “hôtels”, the Paris Stock Exchange … and also made the original layout of the Père Lachaise cemetery. Marie-Christine, who was the mother of two Grimaldi sons and somehow is the great-great… grandmother of the present Monaco Prince, lived then in “concubinage” with a Prince de Condé in this new home, until the 1789 Revolution, when they moved to England. The legitimate husband, Grimaldi, died in 1795 and then she could marry the Prince de Condé.

The building then changed owners a number of times. It has been the home of the Polish Ambassador since 1936, with an interruption of the Nazi occupation years.

We are thus in the more representative part of the Embassy - the consular services can be found in an adjacent street. The ground floor is fairly “private”.

Via a side entrance you arrive via some giant stairs to the more official reception parts of the Embassy – see also top picture.

When you talk about Paris and Poland, you automatically think of Chopin. Yes, he played here once, but of course well before it became a Polish Embassy. There are some concerts given here now and then, but Chopin didn’t play in this room, nor of course on this piano. In the entrance hall you can find a replica of the statue, which was placed on Chopin’s tomb in 1850 (he died in 1849) at the Père Lachaise cemetery (see previous post). It’s done by Auguste Clésinger (1814-83), who was married to George Sand’s daughter Solange.

Passage Commun

In the very fashionable 7th arrondissement, I was curious to find out what was hiding behind the curious street name “Passage Commun”. Actually, it’s just an opening to some kind of corridor, at 127, rue de l’Université. You can enter… and you discover the old cobblestones (see top picture), some 50 mailboxes, another gate and some rather typical Paris 19^th century buildings, modest, but quite decent. I met an old lady who had lived there “since ever” and she kindly showed me her nice flat. 

It seems that the name “Passage Commun” refers to the fact that you have the right to enter, although it means that you have to pass through a third party property. It’s of course rather curious to have this as your official postal address.   

Fire station

There are some 25 fire stations (“casernes”) in Paris. Many of them are beautiful buildings, often from late 19^th century, like this one from 1899 on Rue Malar in the 7^th arrondissement. Many of them have kept the old lanterns, meant to indicate “here we are” during the dark hours.  

A new Palace of Justice

I have already showed a number of times how the new Palace of Justice, with Renzo Piano as architect, has risen to become one of the highest Paris buildings – 160 m (525 ft). Well, we don’t wish for any new high buildings in Paris but… the building is as far from the centre of Paris you can be without leaving the city. (See map below.)  (The Montparnasse Tower is 210 m high (689 ft) and the Eiffel Tower 324 m (1063 ft).)

The new Palace (Le Tribunal de Paris) has now been in operation since mid-April.

Just a little comparison between the 18^th century entrance of the old Palace and the new one. (I would be curious to see the new one in some 250 years.)

Unless being part of the magistrate administration, you can visit only the lowest of the “cubes”, six stores, some 90 courtrooms…  and during this first visit I didn’t look into any courtroom, where no photo should be taken during audiences anyhow.

The large lobby, where you and your lawyer, barrister, may spend a – long - moment before it’s time to enter a courtroom, is in France referred to as “la salle des pas perdus”. Knowing a bit of French you may believe that the translation should be the “hall for lost steps”, considering the long time you may wait here, maybe walking around. However, “pas perdus” can also be translated as “not lost”, and actually this may be the real origin of the expression. In 1815, Napoleon had left for St. Helena and the royalty took over again. King Louis XVIII created a Chamber with royalists, some even more royalists than the King, and it was quickly decided to have a new election, where some lost and some didn’t. The non-losers, the “pas perdus”, met in a large hall at the Palais Bourbon (see previous posts)…which got the name. (Awaiting the results, I guess they had taken a number of steps, the 100 "pas perdus".) 

  

As a comparison this is what “la salle des pas perdus” looked like in the old Palace (see also previous post)..

The criminal investigation quarters, which were already part of the old Palace, were situated on and always referred to as “36, Quai des Orfèvres”, well known from e.g. George Simenon’s "Commissaire Maigret" novels. They have also moved to this adjacent building, which, a bit artificially, has kept its famous street number “36” – now on another street, rue du Bastion.  

Rue du Bastion refers to the last Paris defence wall, the Thiers wall, built during the 1840’s and for the largest part destroyed during the 1920’s, but here remains a rather large part, which now is brought back into light and sight. … and just behind it you can see the only old buildings which have been left untouched in this area - the opera warehouses with Charles Garnier as architect (not quite as glorious as the “Opera Garnier”, see previous posts) – today partly hosting some theatre activities. (I talked about the warehouses and the wall already here.)   

Some higher courts will still remain in the old Palace (Assize Courts, Courts of Appeal, Cassation), the “36 Quai des Orfévres” will possibly host some police museum activities… but there will be a lot of space free.  

I missed this one...

Rather recently I made a post (see here) about doorknockers, handles, knobs…  I took pictures in some of the neighbouring streets, but then missed this one, one of the most spectacular I have seen so far, 5 Avenue Sully-Prudhomme! It’s on the front door of a “hôtel particulier” from 1913, which was built for a music editor, Massacrié-Durand, with an important catalogue of especially French composers (Massenet, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Ravel…).

I discovered the story behind the doorknocker, thanks to my blogger friend “Paris-bise-art” who wrote about it here.  He wonders what the two personalities are supposed to represent… thinking especially about Bacchus / Dionysos. However, considering the profession of the original owner of the building, I wonder if it possibly could be Apollo, the God of Music (and Arts, Poetry…) overlooking, with a friendly smile, a Siren (generally represented with wings), known for their – dangerous - enchanting music and singing voices… ? I don’t know. Maybe someone will? But, somehow, the face looks more like Bacchus.... ??

The decorative relief which can be found above the entrance door is of course also clearly of musical inspiration…  

… whereas the other ones seem to be more linked to “nature”.