Historic Paris by Jetta Sophia Wolff
1823. Four short streets of ancient date cross Rue de la Lune: Rue
406 words | Chapter 11
Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle (eighteenth century), Rue Thorel (sixteenth
century), the old Rue Ste-Barbe, Rue de la Ville-Neuve, Rue Notre-Dame
de la Recouvrance--with old houses of interest in each. At No. 8 Rue de
la Ville-Neuve we see _médaillons_ of Jean Goujon and Philibert
Delorme.
Surrounded by old streets, just off the boulevard des Italiens, is the
Opéra-Comique, originally a Salle de Spectacles, built on the park-lands
of their fine mansion by the duke and duchess de Choiseul, who reserved
for themselves and their heirs for ever the right to a _loge_ of eight
seats next to the royal box. Its name, at first, Salle Favart, has
changed many times. Burnt down twice, in 1838 and 1887, the present
building dates only from 1898. Rue Favart, named after the
eighteenth-century actor, has always been inhabited by actors and
actresses. Rue de Grammont dates from 1726, built across the site of the
fine old hôtel de Grammont. Rue de Choiseul, alongside the recently
erected Crédit Lyonnais, which has replaced several ancient mansions,
recalls the existence of another hôtel de Choiseul. At No. 21 we find
curious old attics. Passing through the short Rue de Hanovre, we find in
Rue de la Michodière, opened in 1778, on the grounds of hôtel Conti, the
house (No. 8) where Gericault, the painter, lived in 1808, and at No.
19, the home of Casabianca, member of the Convention where Buonaparte,
at one time, lodged. At No. 3, Rue d’Antin, then a private mansion,
Buonaparte married Joséphine (9 March, 1796). Though serving as a
banker’s office, the room where the marriage took place is kept exactly
as it then was. In a house in Rue Louis-le-Grand, opened in 1701, known
in Revolution days as Rue des Piques, Sophie Arnould was born. Rue
Daunou, where at No. 1 we see an ancient escutcheon, leads us into the
Rue de la Paix, opened in 1806 on the site of the ancient convent of the
Capucines and called at first Rue Napoléon. All its fine houses are
modern, as are also those of Rue Volney and Rue des Capucines, on the
even number side. In the latter street, formed in the year 1700, the
Crédit Foncier is the old hôtel de Castanier, director of the East India
Company (1726), and the hôtel Devieux of the same date. Nos. 11, 9, 7, 5
(fine vestiges at No. 5) were the stables of the duchesse d’Orléans in
1730.
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