Paris1972-Versailles2003

And here I am again finding new pictures of streets of Paris. An ever ending job I imagine, they are all over my vault but each time harder to find, even in my blog after 3012 posts! Anyway, here is another one for you at my eternal Paris.  This one I even walk to from work as could get on it and cut by place de la Madeleine or place de la Concorde. Let me tell you a bit more on rue Royale. Hope you enjoy it

The rue Royale is in the 8éme arrondissement of Paris with 282 meters long, the street begins at Place de la Concorde and ends at Place de la Madeleine. It measures 22.80 meters wide between Place de la Concorde and Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré and 43 meters elsewhere. This street is served, at its northern end, by Metro lines 8, 12, 14 at the Madeleine station and, at its southern end, by Metro lines 1,8, 12 at the Alma – Marceau station, as well as by the RATP bus line 84. Its name comes from the fact that this route was opened to give access to Place Louis-XV, current Place de la Concorde.

This rue Royale replaced the Saint-Honoré gate, which was at the corner of the rue Saint-Honoré , built under Louis XIII and destroyed in 1733, and the rampart which extended to the jardin des Tuileries. The rue Royale des Tuileries was built from 1758 on a uniform facade drawing given by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. This drawing was prescribed, for the part of the street located between Place de la Concorde and the crossroads with Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré and Rue Saint-Honoré. On the street, the elevations have five levels, the first floor being the noble floor. On the courtyard, the L-shaped main building offers the traditional look of a Parisian mansion. The main staircase, common to the two main buildings, is at the junction of the wing in return of the building on the courtyard and the building on the street. Two identical hotels, works of Gabriel, whose colonnaded facades overlook the square, frame its southern end, ending at Place de la Concorde.

Around 1792, during the French revolution,rue Royale was renamed “rue de la Révolution”. It then became “rue Royale Saint-Honoré” then, in 1795, “rue de la Concorde”. It resumed its name by prefectural decree of April 27, 1814.   After the Restoration, the rue Royale gradually lost its residential character and became one of the high places of the Parisian luxury trade, particularly from the end of the 19C. The buildings were erected by Étienne-Louis Boullée (no 3) or Louis Le Tellier (nos 6, 8, 9, 11, 13). Some of them have kept original decorations (nos. 6, 7, 8, 11, 13).

Some of my favorites mansions to see while walking by are

At No 1: Hôtel de Coislin on the corner of Place de la Concorde where, on February 6, 1778, Conrad Alexandre Gérard in the name of King Louis XVI, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, Arthur Lee signed the treaties by which France was the first country to recognize the independence of the United States of America. Yeah!

Between Place de la Concorde and Maxim’s restaurant, on the south pilaster of the entrance to No. 1, you can see the facsimile of a poster of the French mobilization of 1914. The original poster having been forgotten long after the start of hostilities, the city of Paris decided to perpetuate this oversight, by replacing the poster that had become illegible by a new one, protected by a glass formwork.

At No 2: Hôtel de la Marine, also known as the Garde-Meuble hotel. Today headquarters of the staff of the French National Navy.

No 3: Hôtel Richelieu. Maxim’s restaurant established at this address since 1893 is remarkable for its storefront and its Art Nouveau interior decor of 1899.

At No 9: hotel built after 1781. François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt died there on March 27, 1827.

At No 11: hotel built after 1781. The large cut-out living room was reassembled in Paris at the Musée Nissim-de-Camondo museum and the bedroom at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires Argentina. Queen Nathalie of Serbia lived there, and was later call the Brunner Exhibition Hall in 1910.

At No 13: hotel built after 1781. The writer Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard, perpetual secretary of the French Academy, died in this building on July 20, 1817. A living room of the apartment on the street was reassembled at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

At No 16: Boulangerie Ladurée bakery founded in 1862. In 1871, when Baron Haussmann gave Paris a new face, a fire allowed the transformation of the bakery into a pastry shop. Ernest Ladurée had the idea of mixing genres: Parisian coffee and pastry, and thus gave birth to one of the first tea salons in the capital. Ladurée remained a pastry famous for its macaroons.

At No 21: the famous Brasserie Weber was installed in this building from 1899 to 1961. Before 1914, it was the meeting place for writers, journalists and artists, frequented by the designers Forain and Caran d’Ache, the writers Paul- Jean Toulet, Léon Daudet, Marcel Proust, the editorial offices of Le Temps and Le Figaro, actors like Marguerite Deval. After the riots of February 6, 1934, the wounded were transported to Weber’s home while waiting for first aid. It was from 1905 the property of the hotelier Arthur Millon then of his son-in-law René Kieffer.

A chic address with wonderful high fashion stores is the Village Royale at no 25 rue Royale , for your shopping pleasure in style. More here: Village Royale

At No 24: home of humorist Alphonse Allais. And finally, at No 27 and no 3 place de la Madeleine: building which housed the  Brasserie Autrichienne or austrian brewery, badly damaged by projectiles fired during the Commune, in the second half of May 1871; the Larue restaurant, opened at the same location in 1886, hosted Proust in the early 1900s, and from 1924 the monthly meeting called “Bixio Dinner” made to host men of letters, writers and journalists, and men of influence in political, economic and cultural circles.

You have a wonderful street in a sublime area of my eternal Paris, walks galore, I love it still do and so will you guaranteed. Hope you enjoy the rue Royale of Paris

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

And so my saga continues, as said, Paris is eternal, never tired of writing about it. Lucky me have a huge library of photos, sometimes hard to find with some going back to 1990. 30 years of glorious Paris, and I want more!!!

This one is seldom mentioned, yet a very nice neighborhood of the Champs-Élysées, but not on the avenue off of it in a more chic quant area of my eternal Paris. You can walk to the square from avenue des Champs-Elysées at the rond-point des Champs-Elysées (1) take right on Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt make right on rue Jean Goujon to the square or Place François I for the more scenic walk or take the more direct but nice too off avenue des Champs Elysées (2) on Rue de Marignan to Rue François I passing rue de Montaigne continue , and turn left into the square.  Still another way is to get off again at ave des Champs Elysées (3) and go on rue de Montaigne and go left onto rue François I and the square. The (1) you passed the theâtre du Rond Point and the showing of a piece of the Berlin Wall and the back of the Palais de la Découverte in a more Parisian walk, me think. The (2) you passed by several restaurant we had enjoyed over the years such as the L’Entrecôte de Paris and Pizza Pino, and the main Dior jewerly watches store. The (3) you passed on one of the most chic exclusive shopping street in Paris as well as my company legal representation…at the corner you see one of our nice restos Restaurant l’Avenue. Enjoy the walks in chic Paris!

The Place François-Ier is served nearby by Metro lines 1 and 13 at Champs-Élysées – Clemenceau station, as well as metro lines 1 and 9 at Franklin Roosevelt station, and by RATP bus lines 42 ,73 and 80.stop Montaigne/François I stop/arrét

The Place François-Ier as I want to tell you is located in the Champs-Élysées neighborhood or quartier of the 8éme arrondissement or district of Paris. This square bears the name of the king of France François Ier, because of the installation on the square of the house known as Maison de François Ier (c 1527). The house was later dismantled and set up at Moret sur Loing  in 1957 (Seine-et-Marne dept 77), now is part of a real estate agency who agree to keep the same facade!

The Place François I was located at the intersection of Rue François 1er, rue Bayard and rue Jean Goujon. It had a diameter of 54 meters. This square was part of the streets that were opened in 1823.  The thing to see here is the fountain, very nice worth the detour me think

The fountain of the Place François-Ier also called the fountain of the Place de la Madeleine. This fountain and its twin were built by architect Gabriel Davioud and sculpted by François-Théophile Murguet in 1865 to be installed initially on Place de la Madeleine. The Place de la Madeleine had the two twin fountains, but was found disturbing for traffic (even then already as said nothing new in Paris), one of the fountains located in front of no. 7 was moved in 1903 to the center of Place Salvador Allende (formerly pl Santiago-du-Chili) in the 7éme arrondissement near the Invalides, to be replaced by a statue. The other fountain, located on the other side of the square was transferred around 1909 to the center of Place François-Ier.

The basin is wide and circular with a pedestal of white marble supporting the basin. The pedestal is made up of four elegant and winged griffins. The basin is decorated with a small gallery of braces and twelve heads of lions which distribute the water in the basin. A cylindrical, flared column at the top rises from the center of the basin. It is decorated with four faces of women.

Some other, interesting buildings here are at No 5 , the former U.S. Embassy where President Théodore Roosevelt stayed in 1910. no 8 Hotel building from the second half of the 19C, the composition of the elevated façades of two square floors on the ground floor, made of dressed stone, is an important element in the unity of the composition of the square. At no 9 private mansion in Vilgruy, built by Henri Labrouste in 1865.

Hope you enjoy this wonderful walking tour, of a gorgeous area of my eternal Paris, not even in the Paris tourist office! Enjoy the Place François Ier as we do.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!