Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
Rue Montorgueil, beginning here and leading to the higher ground called
when the Romans ruled in Gaul “Mons Superbus,” now the levelled
boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle and its surrounding streets, was known in the
thirteenth century as Mont Orgueilleux. In bygone days, the Parisians
strolled out to the Mont Orgueilleux to eat oysters. There was a famous
oyster-bed on the site of the house now razed where, in 1780, was born
that exquisite song and ballad writer, Béranger. The ancient house, No.
32, is said to have been the home of the architect, Jean Goujon. The
little side-street Rue Mauconseil dates from 1250, and tradition says
its name is due to the _mauvais conseil_ given within the walls of the
hôtel de Bourgoyne, close by, which led to the assassination of the duc
d’Orléans by Jean Sans Peur. In Revolution days, therefore, it was
promptly renamed for the nonce Rue du Bon Conseil! At No. 48 we find a
famous tripe-eating house. No. 47 was once the Central Sedan Chair
Office. At No. 51 we see interesting signs over the door, and painted
panels signed by Paul Baudry within (1864). Nos. 64, 72 is the old
sixteenth-century inn, the “Compas d’Or,” and the famous restaurant
Philippe. The coachyard of the inn is little changed from the days when
coaches plied between that starting-place and Dreux. The restaurant du
Rocher de Cancale, at No. 78, dating from 1820, where the most
celebrated men of letters and art of the nineteenth century met and
dined, was at first “Le Petit Rocher,” then the successor of the ancient
restaurant at No. 59 dating from the eighteenth century, where the
_dîners du Caveau_ and the _dîners du Vaudeville_ were eaten by gay
literary and artistic _dîneurs_ of olden time.
Rue Turbigo is modern and makes us think regretfully of ancient streets
and of the apse of the church St-Elisabeth demolished to make way for
it. Turning down Rue St-Denis, the famous “Grande Chaussée de Monsieur
St-Denis” of ancient days, the road along which legend tells us the
saint, coming from the heights above, walked carrying his head after
decapitation, we find it, from this point to the vicinity of the
Châtelet, rich in historic buildings and vestiges of a past age. Kings
on their way to Notre-Dame entered Paris in state along this old road;
it was connected more or less closely with every political event of
bygone times, with Parisian pleasures too, for there of old the mystery
plays went on. Curious old streets and passages open out of it: at 279
the quaint Rue Ste-Foy. In the court of No. 222 we see the hôtel St.
Chaumont, its façade on boulevard Sebastopol, dating from 1630.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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