Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
The busy Gare d’Orléans, so prominent a modern structure along the quay,
covers the site of the old Palais d’Orsay, and an ancient barracks burnt
to the ground in 1871. In an inner courtyard at No. 1 we find the
remains of the ancient hôtel de Robert de Cotte, royal architect-in-chief,
in the early years of the eighteenth century.
Quai Voltaire was known in part of its course in eighteenth-century days
as Quai des Théatins. It was constructed under Mazarin, restored in
1751. Many names of historic note are associated with the handsome house
at No. 27, built in or about 1712, for Nicolas de Bragelonne, Treasurer
of France. Its chief point of interest is connected with Voltaire. Here
he died in 1778; here his heart was kept till 1791. No. 25 was the home
of Alfred de Musset. The ground between 25 and 15 was occupied from the
days of Mazarin till 1791 by the convent of the Théatins. The short Rue
de Beaume close here shows us many interesting old-time houses. No. 1
was the hôtel of the Marquis de Villette, who became a member of the
Convention, and called his son Voltaire. At No. 3 were his stables.
Boissy d’Anglas lived at No. 5, in 1793, and Chateaubriand stayed here
in 1804. No. 17, dating from about 1670, was the house of the Carnot
family. At No. 10 we see vestiges of a house belonging to the
Mousquetaires Gris, for this was their headquarters. No. 2 was built for
the Marquis de Mailly-Nesle. Nos. 11 to 9, along the _quai_, formed the
habitation of Président de Perrault, secretary to the Grand Condé. The
duchess of Portsmouth lived here in 1690, and here the great painter,
Ingres, died in 1867.
Quai Malaquais began as Quai de la Reine Marguerite, but was nicknamed
forthwith Quai Mal-acquet (_Mal-acquis_) because the Queen, Henri IV’s
light-lived, divorced wife, had taken the abbey grounds of the Petit
Pré-aux-Clercs whereon to build her garden-surrounded mansion. At No. 1
the architect Visconti died in 1818. In 1820 Humboldt lived at No. 3.
The statue of Voltaire by Caillé was set up opposite No. 5 in 1885. The
house at No. 9 was built about 1624 on the ground _mal-acquis_ by
Margaret de Valois. No. 11, École des Beaux-Arts, is on the site of the
ancient hôtel de Brienne, Louis XIV’s Secretary of State. Joined later
to the house next door it became the home of Mazarin, by and by of
Fouché, and was made to communicate with the police offices at a little
distance. Nos. 15 and 17, built by Mansart in 1640, restored a century
later, after long habitation by persons of noted name, was taken over by
the State, and in 1885 annexed to the Beaux-Arts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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