Public clocks

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."
(William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor)

Your watch has stopped, your phone’s battery is dead, and you’re not sure if you’re on time for that train… 

Fear not: Paris boasts no fewer than 14 000 public clocks!

You’ll find them on churches, town halls, public libraries, train stations. Most of them are simple, functional instruments, but some are works of art.

Oldest public clock in Paris,
Palais de Justice

The oldest public clock in Paris is on the façade of the Palais de Justice. Built in 1371, its square face is 1.5 metres across. The hands are in moulded copper, the minute hand in the shape of a lance, the hour hand ending in a fleur-de-lis.

Mairie du 1er Arrondissement

Just across the Seine, next to the Louvre, the clock on the belfry of the district town hall of the 1st Arrondissement is decorated with the signs of the zodiac. On the other faces of the tower are a barometer and a thermometer. Built in 1858, it was fully restored in 2004.

Musée d'Orsay

The Musée d’Orsay was once a train station, so you’d expect to find a clock there. In fact there are several on the outside, but none match the splendid gilded clock on the inside. You’ll have to pay the entrance price to see it.

Central Téléphonique,
Rue Bergère

The telephone exchange on Rue Bergère is an early 20th century construction. High up on the side of the building a splendid wrought iron clock breaks the plainness of the redbrick façade.

Le Défenseur du Temps,
Quartier de l'Horloge

Near the Pompidou Centre is a rather dull concrete pedestrian zone called the Quartier de l'Horloge. Its drabness is spectacularly interrupted by the elaborate clock called le Défenseur du Temps. Originally, the automata that make up the clock went into action and a man fights against a bird, a dragon, and a crab which respectively represent air, earth, and water. Sadly, the clock has been out of order for some years now, but is still worth seeing.

L’Heure de Tous
St Lazare station

If you really need to know the time when you’re near St Lazare station, the mound of clocks in the sculpture called l’Heure de Tous won’t really help you. But just behind, on the main façade of the station, you’ll find a real clock.

I hope you make that train!




Map

Find these clocks here: https://goo.gl/WxZ6C3



Copyright © 2018 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Stones in Paris

The great icons of Paris are all above your head. But one of the enduring symbols of the city can be found at your feet: cobbled streets.

Philippe II (Augustus)
(Wikimedia Commons)

Philip II (Philippe-Auguste) is remembered as the king who transformed Paris into one of the major cities of Europe.

He granted the charter to the university of Paris at the Sorbonne; he moved the outlying food markets to a protected site, Les Halles, in the centre of the city

To defend the city, he constructed the Louvre as a fortress and had a great defensive stone wall erected around the city.

Less well known is the fact that and he had the main streets paved with granite stones to replace the dilapidated paving laid by the Romans several hundred years before.

Later governments extended the cobblestones, and by the middle of the 20th century, almost all the streets in the city were paved in this way.

Cobblestone as missile in May 68
(AFP)

Then came the "Events" of May 1968. The protests of students and workers in the city turned into a violent confrontation with riot police.

Behind the barricades in the Latin Quarter, protesters dug up the cobblestones and used them as missiles.

Beneath the stones they discovered a bed of sand, which gave rise to one of the enduring slogans of May 68: "Sous les pavés, la plage!" — "Beneath the cobblestones, lies the beach!"

From then on, the city authorities switched their preference from quaint (but potentially dangerous) cobblestones to boring (but durable) tarmacadam, a mix of tar, sand and gravel.

This type of surface is much cheaper, easier to lay, and more difficult to use a weapon.

Copyright © 2018 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Gare du Nord

Seven-hundred-thousand people pass through Gare du Nord every day. Of these, around 699 990 don’t stop to look at the building itself. Their loss!

It is the busiest train station in Europe and, if you exclude the monster-sized stations in Japan, the busiest in the world.

Built in 1846 with just two platforms, it served as the terminus of the Paris-Lille line. It was soon found to be too small and was completely rebuilt in 1866. The original façade was dismantled and moved to Lille where it can be seen today at the front of Lille-Flandres station.

Gare du Nord
with Eurostar (yellow), Thalys (red), TGV (silver & blue), and regional (silver & red) trains
photo: Wikimedia Commons (WiNG)

Gare du Nord has been expanded several times since, and today it is a major hub serving the suburbs of Paris and the north of France. It is also the terminus of several international services, including the Eurostar to London, and Thalys to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne.

The main halls of the station are rather modestly decorated compared to some of the other great railway stations of Europe, and the platforms are covered with a plain glass roof.

Gare du Nord, main façade
photo: Wikimedia Commons (Nord794ub)

The façade, in contrast, is a grand affair, designed by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff. It is adorned with no fewer than 23 statues, representing the main cities served by the station.

The most prominent statues, along the line of the roof, are the international destinations: Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Brussels, London, Vienna, Berlin and Cologne, with Paris taking pride of place in the centre.

On a lower level are the major towns of northern France: Boulogne, Compiègne, Saint-Quentin, Cambrai, Beauvais, Lille, Amiens, Rouen, Arras, Laon, Calais, Valenciennes, Douai, Dunkirk.

The inside of the station was for many years quite a dreary place. However, development has taken place in recent years to brighten the place up and improve the services offered to passengers, including a shopping arcade, a brasserie, and several cafés.

Future Gare du Nord
photo: © Gares et Connexion

There is an even more ambitious plan underway to prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The future Gare du Nord will include an open-air garden, an office complex, a five-star hotel and a complete redesign of the interior layout.

It promises to become an area worth going to see, rather than simply passing through on your way to somewhere else.

Copyright © 2018 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

The Paris Meridian

Paris is full of wonderful sights: historical monuments, museums, art galleries, the River Seine, many parks and gardens. But one interesting historical feature of the city is more virtual than physical: the Paris Meridian.

The Paris Merdian on the floor of the
Paris Observatory
(Photo: FredA, via Wikimedia Commons)

Lines of longitude go from pole to pole, through the equator. The prime meridian is the line arbitrarily chosen to be 0° longitude and is used as the basis for drawing maps and calculating the local time. The Paris meridian, which goes through the Paris Observatory, was established in the 17th century. François Arago used this line as a starting point for his precise calculation of the French prime meridian.

Historically, each country had its own prime meridian, which made international navigation confusing. This problem was solved in the 19th century, when an international committee selected the Greenwich meridian to be the common zero of longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the world.

Most of Europe and North America aligned their clocks with Greenwich, but France maintained Paris time until 1911 when it at last fell into line with the international community.

Arago medallion, part of the
"imaginary monument"
created by Jan Dibbets

So, the Paris meridian, used for over 200 years, was no longer relevant. But it didn't disappear entirely. It can be traced today thanks to a work of art by Dutch conceptual artist, Jan Dibbets.

Homage to Arago is an "imaginary monument on an imaginary line" – a series of 135 bronze medallions planted in the ground along the line of the meridian.  They run right across the city from Porte de Montmartre in the north, through the Louvre, the Luxembourg Gardens, and the observatory, to Cité Universitaire in the south. Each medallion is 12cm in diameter and marked with the name ARAGO plus N and S pointers.

Missing!

Sadly, some of the medallions have vanished over the years; some were stolen, others removed during roadworks and never replaced, or simply covered over.

One of them is appropriately placed at the point where the meridian crosses the Boulevard Arago.  It is on the plinth where a statue of the astronomer once stood until it was removed by the occupying powers in 1942.

Arago’s statue has disappeared, but the Paris meridian remains.

Copyright © 2017 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Liberty in Paris

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité!

Unveiling the Statue of Liberty, 1886
photo: Wikimedia Commons

Everyone knows the motto of the French Republic, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," which has been used since the days of the French Revolution in the 18th century.

And Liberty was one of the most famous gifts in history: from the people of France to the people of the United States on the occasion of the centenary of the American Revolution.

The Statue of Liberty was sculpted and cast by Auguste Bartholdi in France and shipped to New York in 1885, and erected on a frame designed by Gustave Eiffel.

Replica on Île aux Cygnes
photo: H. Zell
(Wikimedia Commons)

For the centenary of the French Revolution, a group of US citizens living in Paris reciprocated and made a gift of a replica of the statue to the people of France. It is on an island in the Seine, the Île aux Cygnes, and is about a quarter of the size of the original.

It's not an exact replica, though: the inscription on the book in Liberty's left hand shows not only the date of the US Declaration of Independence in 1776, but also the date of the storming of the Bastille in Paris in 1789.

Replica of Bartholdi's
bronze model
Luxembourg Garden
photo: Páraic Maguire

In 1900, Bartholdi donated the bronze model he had used to make the statue to the Musée du Luxembourg. It stood in the garden until 2012 when it was removed for conservation reasons and replaced by a bronze replica. The original can now be found in the Musée d'Orsay.

After the death of the sculptor, his family bequeathed the original plaster maquette to the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. A bronze cast from this plaster can be seen in the grounds of the museum.

Many other replicas exist throughout France and, indeed, the world. Some are scale models, others are variations on the original.

Can you find Liberty?
Centaur, Carrefour Croix-Rouge
photo: Páraic Maguire

The smallest is well hidden on the centaur statue at the Croix-Rouge crossroad (officially: Place Michel-Debré). It takes a keen eye to spot it.

Flamme de la Liberté
photo: Ignis
(Wikimedia Commons)

The most misunderstood is an exact, full-scale replica of the torch flame, the Flame of Liberty, at the intersection of Avenue de New-York and Place de l'Alma. It happens to be near the spot where a former princess died tragically in 1997 and has been hijacked as a memorial to her.

The Flamme de la Liberté was in fact another gift to the people of France, organised by the International Herald Tribune on behalf of donors throughout the world, as a symbol of Franco-American friendship and in gratitude for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, carried out by two French companies in 1986.

Vive la France! Vivent les États-Unis! Vive la Liberté!

Copyright © 2017 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés 
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Morris columns

Along with the Wallace fountain, the Morris column is an icon of Paris that everyone knows to see, but whose name is known by few.  Its main function is to advertise theatrical shows.

The original advertising column was designed by a German printer, Ernst Litfaß (or Litfass) and the first models were installed in Berlin in 1855.

The French version was created by Gabriel Morris, also a printer, in 1868.  Some served a dual purpose, for example to store cleaning equipment for street cleaners.

Before its introduction, advertising for theatrical events was a haphazard affair, with posters being hung on trees, lampposts and the walls of public urinals.  The city authorities decided to standardise the business and granted an exclusive contract to Morris.

Colonne Morris, Paris
21st century

Colonne Morris, Paris
circa 1885

The design has changed little in the century and a half since their introduction. The cylindrical column is topped by a hexagonal dome bearing the arms of the City of Paris.  There are several hundred installations in the city.

Many of the older models have been replaced and they are now maintained by JCDecaux, the same company that installs the city's bus shelters, advertising billboards and runs the self-service bicycle system, Vélib.


(Image source: Wikimedia Commons.)

 Copyright © 2015 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Industrial Architecture (video)

This is Episode 4 of "Sytyk Paris - the Series": Industrial Architecture

Copyright © 2012 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Wallace Fountains (video)

This is Episode 3 of "Sytyk Paris - the Series": Wallace Fountains.

Copyright © 2012 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Jardin Villemin (video)

Here's episode 2 of "Sytyk - the Series" - Le Jardin Villemin:

Copyright © — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Rotonde de la Villette (video - version 2)

We've made some minor changes to the video — here is the final version.  You can see subtitles in English, French or Spanish by clicking on CC on the YouTube control line, then choosing the language.

Don't hesitate to share with your friends!


Copyright ©  — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Rotonde de la Villette (video)

Here's the first video clip of the blog: Rotonde de la Villette.  Filmed and edited by Devrim Alpöge.

[replaced — see post of 14 July]

Copyright © 2012 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Wallace fountain

Wallace fountain ("large" model)
(photo: Wikimedia Commons)

When you think of Paris, you think of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Champs Élysées. These are certainly very powerful images and recognised throughout the world. There is, however, a more modest symbol, nonetheless typical of this great city, that deserves recognition: the Wallace fountain.  Or rather, fountains, as there are over 100 of them scattered throughout the city in all 20 arrondissements.

These small cast-iron sculptures were installed in the 19th century by the British philanthropist Sir Richard Wallace and designed by the French sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg.  Wallace, who inherited a fortune from his father, was already well known for his acts of charity.

Paris was in a bad state at the time.  During the Siege of Paris and the Commune the water supply infrastructure had been severely damaged.  Prices rose so high that many poor people could not afford clean drinking water.  Wallace, who was a genuine believer in good old fashioned Christian charity, felt morally bound to save the poor from turning to cheap alcohol.  By funding the installation of water fountains he provided Parisians, rich and poor, with a reliable source of clean drinking water.  Even today, his fountains are a valuable amenity to homeless people in the city.

Parisians drinking from a
Wallace fountain (1911)

The original ("large") model stands 2.71 metres tall and weighs 610 kilograms.  Standing on the solid base are four caryatids, representing the virtues of kindness, simplicity, charity and sobriety, who hold the dome of the fountain aloft.  If you look carefully you'll notice that the four maidens are not identical; each has a slightly different pose and folds the bodice of her dress in her own way.  The water flows in a single stream from the dome.  Originally there were metal cups attached to chains to facilitate drinking from the fountain, but these were removed in the 1950s for hygiene reasons.  The water supply is switched off in the winter months to avoid the risk of damage due to freezing.

There are other models of Wallace fountain, but this one is by far the most common.

The fountains were manufactured in Sommevoire, a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.

Richard Wallace, the philanthropist who gave Paris these precious and practical monuments, is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. 

Copyright © 2012 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Bathing in Paris

The rather unkind stereotype of the French as a nation unfamiliar with the daily shower is a persistent one. I suppose those who cling to it also believe the French chew garlic, drink red wine for breakfast and wear strings of onions around their necks.

There was a time, however, when indoor washing facilities were basic and the bathroom, as we know it today, a rarity. So what did people do when washing "up as far as possible, and down as far as possible" at the kitchen sink wasn't enough? They went to the public baths, les bains-douches. These were baths in the sense of personal hygiene and were provided as a public service, often in the same establishment as the local swimming pool.  (If you read French, you'll find a very interesting article with photos here: Le Zinc: Bains Douches de Paris.)

Thermes de Cluny

Public baths go back to at least Roman times in Paris — the ruins of the Thermes de Cluny in the centre of the city testify — then were forgotten for a few hundred years before making a comeback in the 18th century. At around the same time the notion of bathing as a leisure activity emerged. The first "swimming pool" in Paris was built in 1785 by Barthélemy Turquin on a floating jetty on the Seine. A few years later the Piscine Deligny opened, also on the Seine, and was a popular feature of public life in Paris until it sank in a storm in 1993.

The first indoor pool was built in 1884 and is still in use today in the 10th arrondissement, Piscine Château-Landon (see below). It wasn't until the building of the swimming pool at the Buttes aux Cailles (13th) (see below) in 1924 that the functions of public hygiene and leisure were strictly separated.

In 1946 the Piscine Molitor was the scene of the birth of an icon: the bikini. It was considered so scandalous that they had difficulty finding models for the presentation, so they got a dancer from the Casino de Paris — who was used to dancing nude — to strut her semi-naked stuff for the occasion. The bikini is of course still with us, but sadly the fabulous Art Deco Piscine Molitor closed in 1989.

Today Paris has 38 municipal swimming pools and 18 bains-douches. The latter are free so if you're in Paris and you need a scrub, you've no excuse. Bring your own towel!

Some of the municipal swimming pools of Paris deserve special mention:

Piscine Château-Landon (10th)

Piscine Château-Landon
(photo: Mairie de Paris)

Built in the Art Deco style, it consists of two pools: 25×10m and 10×6m. The dressing rooms and showers are on a double-level gallery surrounding the pools. The pool is partly lit by natural light thanks to a large glazed wall at one end. If you're around during the Nuit Blanche — an annual all-night arts festival, usually in early October, when many museums, art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge — try a psychedelic night-time swim accompanied by classical music and multi-coloured lights.

Piscine Pontoise (5th)

Piscine Pontoise
(photo: Mairie de Paris)

This is one of the most aesthetically pleasing pools in Paris and is registered as an official historic monument.  Built in 1933 in the Art Deco style in a striking red-brick building, its opaque glass ceiling allows the natural light come in.  You may have seen Juliette Binoche doing her lengths in the Piscine Pontoise in the film Trois Couleurs: Bleu.  It is one of the city's biggest pools (its main pool is 33×15m) and it has a 1m diving board. The building also houses a gym, two saunas and four squash courts.

Piscine de la Butte-aux-Cailles (13th)

When it was built in the 1920s it was only the fourth public swimming pool in Paris.  It was innovative in that it separated the functions of washing and swimming into two separate sections of the establishment.  Designed by the architect Louis Bonnier, its façade in red brick is in elegant curves with hardly a straight line to be seen.  It is also registered as a historical monument.  The building is lit mainly by natural light: a series of  small windows to light the old bains-douches, and great arching windows for the main building.  The pool's water comes from a natural spring 580m below ground and arrives at a perfect 28°C.

Open-air pools

Six swimming pools in Paris have roofs that open, weather permitting:

• Roger le Gall (12th)
• La Butte aux Cailles (13th)
• Keller (15th)
• Auteuil (16th)
• Hébert (18th)
• Georges Vallerey (20th).

50m pools

Most municipal pools are 25m long, a few are 33m. There are six Olympic-sized pools:

• Suzanne Berlioux (Les Halles) (1st)
• Roger Le Gall (12th)
• Blomet (15th)
• Keller (15th)
• Georges Hermant (19th)
• Georges-Vallerey (19th — built for the 1924 Olympics, this is where Johnny Weissmuller won three gold medals before going on to become a model and then to play Tarzan in twelve films.

Getting there

Addresses, opening times and rates of the municipal swimming pools of Paris: http://piscine.equipement.paris.fr/

Copyright © 2012 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Industrial architecture

Paris is often called the City of Light, a name that refers to its reputation as a place of learning and ideas, especially during the Age of Enlightenment.  It's also well known as a centre of art and culture, and as a city for lovers.  Perhaps a less well-known side of Paris is its former reputation as an industrial city.

For example, the Sentier neighbourhood was until recently famous for its textile industry; the alleyways off Rue de Charonne were once filled with cabinetmakers' workshops; and the banks of the Canal Saint Martin were lined with factories and warehouses.  In recent decades industries have tended to flee to the suburbs (or to China!), and Paris has become more and more residential, but there are many signs of the city's former industrial glory for those who look hard enough.

Towards the end of the 19th century there was a rapid growth in the use of electricity in industry, and with this growth came the need for electrical power stations throughout the city.  Many of these plants were designed by Paul Friesé (1851-1917), a civil engineer and architect from Alsace.

He built his first on Rue des Dames (17th) near Place de Clichy.  Its great façade is rather classical in style, topped with a red-brick pediment bearing the inscription "Anno 1890", while the use of steel and glass gives it a modern industrial touch.  His masterpiece — alas no longer standing — was the power station on the Quai de la Rapée, between Gare de Lyon and Bercy, which was comparable in size with the famous Battersea Power Station in London.

Perhaps Friesé's finest industrial construction still in existence is the power station he designed for the Paris Compressed Air Company on Quai de Jemmapes (10th).  The administration building on the waterfront is in red and ochre brick, supported by visible steel girders.  The gable end of the main building — which contained the machinery and was once dominated by tall chimney stacks — can be seen behind. Its steel structure is more clearly visible, including the elegant cross-shaped supports above the windows on the upper level.  The complex is now occupied by the paper manufacturer Exacompta Clairefontaine.

With the opening of the Paris metro in 1900 — to coincide with the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) of that year — and its rapid expansion in the first decades of the 20th century, several electrical sub-stations (transformers) had to be built to supply the network with power; all were designed by Friesé and several are still standing today.  The most impressive of the sub-stations is situated on boulevard Bourdon, near Place de la Bastille.  It is built on a metal structure with a brick façade.  On one side there is a massive semi-circular metal-framed window, its form repeated in miniature in the row of arched windows above, and in the patterns on the brickwork.

Friesé also designed schools, banks, apartment blocks and other buildings, but it is for his work in industrial architecture that he deserves to be remembered.  Most of his surviving buildings are registered as historical monuments.

Sub-station Bastille 31 Boulevard Bourdon (4th) (photo credit: Gérard Métron www.structurae.de)	Sub-station Sèvres 6 rue Récamier (7th) (now Fondation EDF)	Power station Quai de Jemmapes (10th) (now Exacompta Clairefontaine)
Sub-station Temple 36 rue Jacques-Louvel-Tessier (10th)	Sub-station Auteuil 2b rue Michel-Ange (16th)	Power station 53 rue des Dames (17th)

Copyright © 2011 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Cinema architecture in Paris

France is the birthplace of cinema and has played a major role in the history of film: from the time of the world's first public showing of motion pictures by the Lumière brothers in 1895, through the Nouvelle Vague of the 1950s and 60s, to today with its healthy indigenous film industry.

France is the world's third largest film market, behind the US and India, and Paris is the city with the biggest number of cinemas per inhabitant in the world.  These are mostly multiplexes run by large corporations, but some of the auditoriums where cinematic chefs d'oeuvre  are shown are themselves works of art.  Among the best known are La Pagode, Le Grand Rex, and Le Louxor, all three registered as historic monuments of France.  They deserve a visit, whether to watch a film or just to admire the architecture.

La Pagode

La Pagode (the pagoda) is an independent cinema which was originally built as a gift from the manager of the nearby department store Le Bon Marché to his wife! Built in 1896 in the style of a Japanese pagoda, it served as a ballroom and a banquet hall until it closed in 1927.  Four years late it reopened as a cinema — the only one in the 7th arrondissement — serving up reruns of hit films to the local community.  In the 1960s it started to specialise in "art" films and quickly became a temple for cinema enthusiasts. With the advent of the multi-screen cinemas in the 1970s La Pagode was one of the few small cinemas to resist closure.  It is now run as part of a small network of independent cinemas, Étoile Cinémas.

Uniquely in Paris, La Pagode has a small garden attached where you can enjoy tea, coffee or cocktails surrounded by Japanese greenery.

Le Grand Rex

Le Grand Rex was built in the 1930s in the Art déco style, inspired by great American entertainment venues such as Radio City Music Hall in New York. Originally designed to hold 3300 spectators it has a current capacity of 2650.  The décor of the main auditorium is in a neo-baroque style with antique sculptures, pergolas and a starry ceiling. Three smaller auditoriums were added in the basement in the 1970s.

Guided tours are held every day (for info: http://www.legrandrex.com/)

Le Louxor

Le Louxor, named after the city of Luxor in Egypt, is a remarkable example of ancient-style architecture from the 1920s.  Its neo-Egyptian façade is decorated with mosaics in blue, gold and black.  The auditorium was modified several times in an attempt to keep up with the changing trends in cinema — including a phase where it specialised in "exotic" films in the 1970s — but was sold in the 1980s and converted into a night club. In 1987 it became the biggest gay club in Paris called Megatown. When that club closed in 1990 the Louxor was abandoned and fell into dereliction. Threatened with destruction, local associations fought to save it from ruin and the City of Paris bought the building in 2003.  A project to restore the roof, façade and interior began in 2010 and is expected to be completed by 2013.

The Louxor will be reopened as a cinema with its main auditorium reduced in size, but with the addition of two new screens, an exhibition room and a café.  However, the cultural programme is still under discussion between the City authorities and several associations.

Getting there

La Pagode: 57 rue de Babylone, 75007 Paris

• Metro: Saint-François-Xavier (line 13); Sèvres-Babylone (lines 10/12); Vaneau (line 10)

Le Grand Rex: 1 boulevard Poissonnière, 75002 Paris

• Metro: Bonne Nouvelle (lines 8/9)

Le Louxor: 170 boulevard Magenta, 75010 Paris

• Metro: Barbès-Rochechouart (lines 2/4)

Copyright © 2011 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Jardin Villemin

Jardin Villemin

Along the banks of the Canal Saint Martin, on the corner of Rue des Récollets and Quai de Valmy, stands one of the biggest areas of greenery in the 10th arrondissement. Together with the canal itself, it is a haven of peace in an otherwise hectic built-up area.

Around 1870, at the time of the Franco-Prussian War, a military hospital was established in a former convent, le Couvent des Récollets. The hospital was installed in this location, strategically close to Gare de l’Est, so the wounded soldiers returning from the front could be treated quickly. The convent building now houses the Order of Architects of the Paris region; the grounds are now the Jardin de Villemin.

The garden has four entrances: two on Quai de Valmy; one on Rue des Récollets (through the entrance of the former hospital); and one on Avenue de Verdun (next to Gare de l’Est).

For such a relatively small garden, the number of species of tree is impressive: Chestnut, Acacia, Plane, Oak, Birch; and if you look carefully you’ll find several different varieties of Maple. There are also Blackberry bushes, Sophora, a seven-metre-tall Paper Mulberry tree, Cherry trees, an Apple tree and an eight-metre-tall Weeping Willow. A grand old White Mulberry is stretched out across the ground having been laid low by a storm, but it thrives nonetheless. Near it are Rose trees, a Mexican orange tree and numerous decorative bushes: Hibiscus, Abelia, Lavender, Rosemary, Cistus.

Récollets entrance (old military hospital gate)

Next to the Rue des Récollets entrance – the only remaining vestige of the old military hospital – there is a community garden managed by a local association. It covers a total area of around 220 square metres and is divided into 50 lots where they grow over 150 varieties of vegetables and flowers. Many local schoolchildren get their introduction to horticulture here, instructed by volunteers, mainly retired people from the area. Special raised boxes allow handicapped people to participate in the experience.

The splendid variety of flora is not the only amenity in the garden. There is a playground for children, a sports area for grown-ups, a pond for the birds, a water fountain for the thirsty, a bandstand for musicians, and a large area of gently hilly lawn for picnickers and sunbathers along the canal side of the garden. Something for everyone!

Fountain, Jardin Villemin

This lawn area was added to the garden in 2000 – but it almost wasn't! There had been a plan to build apartments on the Quai de Valmy, but following a campaign by local residents and associations, the City of Paris bought the plot and cancelled the construction project. This allowed an extension of the garden to its current size with its access to the Canal Saint Martin.

There are several pleasant café-bars and restaurants on Rue des Récollets, and a larger brasserie with a terrace facing the Avenue Verdun entrance.

Getting there

• Metro: Gare de l’Est (lines 4/5/7)

Copyright © 2011 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

Canal Saint Martin

Of all the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the 10th is the one with the smallest proportion of green space. This is hardly surprising when you think it is home to two of the biggest train stations in the city (Gare de l'Est and Gare du Nord) and two big hospitals (Hôpital Lariboisière and Hôpital Saint Louis). The hospitals have small gardens within, but the train stations take up huge amounts of space, not only with the terminal buildings but also a considerable chunk of territory with their tracks that spread out north and north-east through the arrondissement on the start of their journeys to exotic places from Bondy to Brussels, Sarcelles to Strasbourg, from Livry to London.

Canal Saint Martin by night

The area has several pleasant (though small) gardens which are worth a visit. But if you really want to see the wild side of the 10th, your best bet is to take a stroll along the Canal Saint Martin. This wonderful amenity stretches over 4.5 kilometres between the Bassin de la Villette and the port de l'Arsenal, near Place de la Bastille. Part of this course is underground (covered by the Boulevard Jules Ferry and Boulevard Richard Lenoir), but most of it is open air. The visible portion of the canal is entirely in the 10th arrondissement.

The canal was built in the 19th century to provide the city of Paris with drinking water and also to serve as a means of transport for heavy merchandise in and out of the city. Its golden age was from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th. During this period many factories and warehouses were built along its banks and the population of the 10th was principally made up of working class families. With the growth in road and rail transport the canal fell into disuse and almost disappeared in the 1970s when a plan was proposed to cover in the canal and build a four-lane highway along its route. Fortunately this plan was never put into action and the canal and its banks remain today a source of pleasure to inhabitants and visitors alike.

Industrial transport barge on Canal Saint Martin

Most of the traffic on the canal today consists of tourist barges and private pleasure vessels, though the occasional industrial cargo can be seen negotiating the nine locks.

The banks of the canal along the Quai de Jemmapes and the Quai de Valmy are a much-used amenity. The quays are closed to motor traffic on Sundays and national holidays to make way for pedestrians, cyclists and skaters: from 10am to 8pm in summer (April-September) and 10am to 6pm in winter (October-March). On summer evenings the quays are thronged with picnickers and musicians.

Film buffs will already know the canal scenery from the 1938 film Hôtel du Nord by Marcel Carné, or the more recent Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2001).

The range of wildlife in and around the canal may surprise. In the water itself there are several varieties of fish. If you're not in a hurry, set up your rod, park yourself on a stool and wait for the roach, carp, tench, bream, trout, pike, eels or perch to bite. If you're lucky you might even catch some crayfish. If you look hard you may also spot a muskrat.

The flora along the banks is also quite varied. You'll find poplar, sycamore, plane, cherry, chestnut, beech, some of them over 100 years old. While you're looking up at these wonderful trees you will no doubt see lots of pigeons and sparrows, and also the occasional visitor from the coast – seagulls. Yes, at over 100km from the sea. But look down too! Under your feet you'll find various grasses, dandelions, plantains (not the variety of banana!), groundsel, wild chamomile.

For a wider variety of flora, take a detour into the Jardin Villemin, at the corner of Rue des Récollets and Quai de Valmy. (There will be a more detailed description of this garden in a future post.)

Getting there

Northern end (Bassin de La Villette, locks 1 & 2):

• Metro: Stalingrad (lines 2/5/7); Jaurès (lines 2/5)
• Bus: 26/48/54

Centre (locks 3 & 4):

• Bus: 46

Southern end (before the tunnel, locks 7 & 8):

• Metro: République (lines 3/5/8/9/11); Goncourt (line 11)
• Bus: 75

Copyright © 2011 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)

La Rotonde de la Villette

La Rotonde de La Villette

Paris has had many different sets of “walls” that marked the limits of the city, built successively by the Gauls, the Romans and various French kings, up to the modern Boulevard Périphérique which more or less follows the current boundary.

Most were built for defence reasons, but one in particular had a different purpose. The “Wall of the Farmers-General” was built between 1784 and 1791 and roughly followed the route now occupied by lines 2 and 6 of the metro. It wasn’t meant to repel invaders, but to ensure that any merchants who wanted to enter Paris to do business paid a toll on their goods.

The wall had 61 magnificent toll barriers designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. All have disappeared except four: the Barrière du Trône (now Place de la Nation); the Barrière d’Enfer (now Place Denfert-Rochereau); Barrière de Chartres in the Rotonde du Parc Monceau; and the most impressive of them all, the Barrière Saint-Martin in the Rotonde de la Villette (on what is now Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad).

The rotunda is built in the neo-classical style. On the ground-floor level each of its four façades comprises eight pillars topped by a triangular pediment. The upper level is the rotunda proper, composed of 20 pairs of Doric pillars. Unfortunately, the view of one side of the rotunda is rather spoilt by the curved viaduct of the metro, but the newly-restored building can be admired in its glory from the side facing the basin.

The Rotonde de la Villette is no longer a place where tolls are extracted from passing merchants. However, those who enter are expected to contribute to the coffers of the State by other means: through tax on alcohol! It now houses a trendy bar/brasserie.

Getting there

• Address: 6-8, Place de la Bataille Stalingrad, 75019 Paris
• Phone: 01 80 48 33 40
• Metro: Stalingrad (lines 2/5/7); Jaurès (lines 2/5)
• Bus: 26/48/54

Copyright © 2011 — All Rights Reserved — Tous droits réservés
Paraic Maguire (sytykparis@eblana.eu)