One of my favorite districts of Paris is the 16éme arrondissement ; you perhaps have notice my mentioning in my blog, I have gone there on business and to visit friends as well as sightseeing with the family, Even thus written on districts before, let me tell you about some curiosities of this 16éme arrondissement of Paris. Of course, this will be on my black and white series,no pictures.
I start you off with a bang to take you to the Aerodynamic Laboratory of Eiffel, this is at 67 rue Boileau nearest metro is Exelmans line 9, Here you will see intact the thanks to the thinking ahead of Gustave Eiffel that stated in 1920 the lab cannot be destroyed as long as the blower was active, The lab opened in 1912 and still in activity ! It gives a testing spot for the automobile industry, as was here that were tested the Citroën ZX of Paris-Dakar, the football stadium of Amiens, and the CNT of La Défense, It has a huge hangar and shops to build models, handle the blower and see results, The smallest blower has been discontinue but the bigger one are still in operation that can be tested on winds of 100 kph, You can see small models of automobiles, airplanes, or blowers, The visit is done in groups of 10 with rdv on Saturdays and Sundays.
One of the nice things to see here as in all of Paris is to walk. However, you will see beautiful mansions and very expensive, The Villa Mulhouse with Villas Dietz-Monin, Villa Emile Meyer and Villa Cheysson, Located between rue Parent de Rossan and rue Claude Lorrain, you entered by 84 and 86 rue Boileau, metro line 9 Exelmans. Around the above you can see the hameau or hamlet Boileau, Villa Molitor,and Villa de la Réunion respectively at 38 rue Boileau, 7 rue Molitor, and 29 rue Chardon-Lagache, Nearest metro Chardon-Lagache line 10 and Michel-Ange Molitor,line 9 and 10, All in a pocket and guarded but you can see by the grille door.
Near see the nice Church de tous les Saints de la Terre Russe or of all the saints of mother Russia, 19 rue Claude-Lorrain, metro Exelmans line 9. Done in bricks with an armature kokochnik but is not related to the patriarch of Moscow or Constantinople and depend of the Russian church outside the frontiers, near you see another Russian church, the Church de l’Apparition de la Vierge, or apparition of the Virgin, at 87 Bd Exelmans, again not far the White Russians have a church at 39 rue François Gérard that houses a Russian Catholic of the Byzantine rite.
You can walk to see the Castel Béranger, 14 rue La Fontaine, metro Ranelagh, and Jasmin linr 9, Héctor Guimard did no think of his talent when he built a house in the heart of the village of Auteuil built between 1897-98 it won the prize organised by the city of Paris in 1899, and made him famous, The building has 36 apartments with stone and brick rose, wood, and metal in the Art Nouveau style, It was occupied in awe by painter Paul Signac, Nearby at 45 rue Ribera see the bulding done by architect Boussard from the end of the 19C and pretty caricatures on a house at 1 rue d’Yvette.
Héctor Guimard was born in Lyon in 1867 and is the French reference of Art Nouveau. The most famous are the entrances to the metro that he designed from 1899 to 1904, They were 380 in all buildings, now last count were 66. In addition to the above he has in the 16éme arrondissement the following buildings (well not all just my favorites ok) Hôtel Mezzara 60 rue La Fontaine, Hôtel Jassedé, 41 rue Chardon-Lagache, Villa Flore, 120 avenue Mozart, Hôtel Guimard, 122 avenue Mozart, and Hôtel Delfau, 1 rue Molitor. The term Art Nouveau comes from the Hambourg native Samuel Bing that open an art gallery in Paris in 1895 and called it Art Nouveau. It then spread out big time, It gave a new way of thinking and living in rupture with the then current model, The discovery of erotism and sexuality never thought of until then. The liberation of the working world and the liberation of women and the church. He had its golden age between the end of the 19C and 1914.
We have quite a bit of artesan wells in this district, one nice one started in 1855 and opened in 1866 the wells of Passy, the last artesan well still in activity in Paris, the water is drinkable ! Even with a trickle of water today, It is 587 meters deep ! Located at the Square Lamartine.
You can see the ideal modern city at rue Mallet-Stevens, metro Ranelagh line 9, built by Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1926, It sits around five mansions, At no 12 hôtel de l’Agence ; no 10 House shop of sculpteurs Joël and Jean Martell , no 8 mansion of pianist Mme Reifenberg, no 7 house of Daniel Dreyfus, and no 3 / 5 house of Mme Allatini at the end you found the house of the guardian, All houses have white plain cubes with towers and terraces, Near here see the wonderful Villa La Roche, 8 et10 square Docteur Blanche that can be visited ! It is the HQ of the Fondation Le Corbusier.
You will be curious to marvel of beautiful architeture to walk into Auteuil neighborhood, Other than the above mansions, see Henri Sauvage at 65 rue La Fontaine, Ginsberg a 42 Avenue de Versailles, brothers Perret, 25bis rue Franklin and 51-55 rue Raynouard where the brothers lived,
You can marvel at the entrance to the metro de la Porte Dauphine facing 90 avenue Foch metro porte Dauphine line 2, It opened in 1900 with a glass enclosure inverse and panels with enamel of color orange, As a curiosity en plus, go by the Square des Poétes, avenue du Général Sarrail, metro Porte d’Auteuil line 9, see 48 small stone and bronzd steles where some verses of French poets are to be read. Near the Porte Dauphine, in the bois de Boulogne by 45 avenue du Maréchal Fayolle see a blockhouse of WWII, there is a scout group there today last I heard.
You come into the Maison Balzac, 47 rue Raynouard today a museum of Honoré Balzac lived in it from 1840 to 1847, It has two entrances one by rue Raynouard and another one by rue Berton where he only opened this latter door to friend that knew the word pass « i bring lace from belgium »!
Nearby the above see musée du vin at Rue des Eaux corner of 5 square Charles Dickens, opened in 1984, Here in the subterranean galleries of the 16C and 17C the brothers of convent of Minimes de Passy already produced white wine, chase out by the French revolution the galleries were abandoned, Nice little museum visited and tastings available.
You come now to the marvelous Villa Beauséjour, 7 bd Beauséjour metro Muette line 9, It is a miniature village of wooden isbas taken from the Universal Expo of 1867, only one of the four comes from Russia the others were build in Paris, They are still inhabitée today, Near the above, see the Hameau de Passy, 48 rue de Passy, a small passage that can link to the rue Vital, There are vegetable gardens by rue de la Manutention created in 2002, the terrain are next to the museum of modern art of Paris managed by the Palais de Tokyo and includes 16 parcels.
A curiosity here, by the jardins du Trocadéro you can see the remnants of the Palais des Tuileries and Hôtel de Ville of Paris, On the side of Passy you can see the remains of the Hôtel de Ville built under François I, they were transported here after the fire of these buildings during the communard uprisings of 1871, The Hôtel de Ville survive as today, the Palais des Tuileries were finally razed by the city in 1883. They closed the Louvre side of the Jardin des Tuileries between the Pavillon Flore and Mansan.
You see the Obelisk de Benjamin Franklin ,66 rue Raynouard corner of rue Singer. This is where Franklin installed the first lighting rod in France. In the gardens of the former Hôtel de Valentinois that he stayed while his visits to Paris that he installed this instrument, in 1756. The Collége (middle school) Saint Louis Gonzague is popularly known as Franklin and a bit further in the rue Franklin corner of avenue Paul Doumer you see his statue.
You can visit one of my former stumping ground the former Mona Bismarck Foundation (today the American Center for Art and Culture), 34 Avenue New York, metro Iéna line 9, There are beautiful gardens, Salon Chinois or Chinese room, and a portrait of Mona Bismarck by Salvador Dali in 1943! She was an American from Kentucky died in Paris who married (one of five) the grandson of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Germany. By the avenue d’Iéna no 19 see the garden of the Buddhist Pantheon an annex to the Guimet museum.
The Paris tourist office on exploring the 16: https://en.parisinfo.com/discovering-paris/arrondissements-paris/a-la-decouverte-du-16e-arrondissement-de-paris
There you go folks, another dandy district of my eternal Paris, the 16 is chic, awesome, nice, still the way Paris was. Need to discover it fast, I will again soon. Hope you enjoy the post and see more of my Paris.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 
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