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Historic Paris by Jetta Sophia Wolff

CHAPTER XXXI

405 words  |  Chapter 43

LES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES This wonderful avenue stretching through the whole length of the arrondissement reached in olden days only to the rural district of Chaillot, and was known as the Grande Allée-du-Roule, later as Avenue des Tuileries. Colbert, Louis XIV’s great minister, first made it a tree-planted avenue. The gardens bordering it on either side between Place de la Concorde and Avenue d’Antin, were laid out by Le Nôtre, 1670, as Crown land. Cafés, restaurants, toy-stalls, etc., were set up there from the first. The Palais de Glace is on the site of a Panorama which existed till its destruction by fire in 1855. The far-famed Café des Ambassadeurs, set up in the eighteenth century, was rebuilt in 1841. The no less famous cirque de l’Impératrice was razed in 1900. The Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées was first laid out in 1670, but the houses we see there now are all modern. Avenue d’Antin stretching on either side of it, old only in the part leading from Cours-la-Reine, was planted in 1723 by the duc d’Orléans. Marguerite Gauthier (la Dame aux Camélias) lived at No. 9. At No. 3 Avenue Matignon Heine died in his room on the fifth story (1856). Avenue Montaigne was known in 1731 as Allée des Veuves. It remained an alley--Allée Montaigne--till 1852. The thatched dwelling of Mme Tallien stood at its starting-point, near the Seine. There her divorced and destitute husband was forced to accept a shelter at the hands of his ex-wife, become princesse de Chimay; there the Revolutionist died in 1820. We see only modern houses along the Avenue of to-day. Rue Matignon was opened across the ancient Jardin d’hiver where fine tropical plants erewhile had flourished. No. 12 was the Vénerie Impériale. Avenue des Champs-Élysées is bordered on both sides by modern mansions. No. 25, hôtel de la Païve, of late years the Traveller’s Club, during the war an ambulance, represents the style of the Second Empire. Avenue Gabriel with its grand mansions was formed in 1818 on the Marais-des-Gourdes--marshy land. The Rue Marbeuf was in the eighteenth century Ruelle des Marais, then Rue des Gourdes. Its present name recalls the Louis XV Folie Marbœuf once there. Few and far between are the ancient vestiges to be found among the modern structures we see on every side around us here. Rue Chaillot, in bygone days the chief street of the village of Chaillot, was taken within the Paris bounds in
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1. Chapter 1 2. CHAPTER I 3. 1784. They were burnt down in 1828 and replaced by the Galerie 4. CHAPTER II 5. CHAPTER III 6. 1790. More than a million bodies are said to have been buried in that 7. 1850. The beautiful portal of the ancient bureau des Marchandes-lingères 8. CHAPTER IV 9. CHAPTER V 10. 1899. Rue d’Uzès crosses the site of the ancient hôtel d’Uzès. Rue de 11. 1823. Four short streets of ancient date cross Rue de la Lune: Rue 12. CHAPTER VI 13. CHAPTER VII 14. 1882. At No. 153 was the eighteenth-century _bureau des 15. CHAPTER VIII 16. CHAPTER IX 17. CHAPTER X 18. CHAPTER XI 19. 1855. The short Rue de la Tâcherie (from _tâche_: task, work) crossing 20. 1320. Its name shortened from _mauvaise buée_, i.e. _mauvaise fumée_, is 21. CHAPTER XII 22. CHAPTER XIII 23. 1802. Here Fouquet and his son, Mme de Chantal, and the Marquis de 24. CHAPTER XIV 25. CHAPTER XV 26. CHAPTER XVI 27. CHAPTER XVII 28. CHAPTER XVIII 29. CHAPTER XIX 30. CHAPTER XX 31. CHAPTER XXI 32. CHAPTER XXII 33. CHAPTER XXIII 34. 25. Sardou in his youth at No. 26. Augustin Thierry lived for ten years 35. CHAPTER XXIV 36. CHAPTER XXV 37. CHAPTER XXVI 38. 1851. Nos. 85, 87, 89, eighteenth century, belonged to a branch of the 39. CHAPTER XXVII 40. CHAPTER XXVIII 41. CHAPTER XXIX 42. CHAPTER XXX 43. CHAPTER XXXI 44. 1860. It was a favourite street for residence in the nineteenth century. 45. CHAPTER XXXII 46. 122. Eugène Sue at No. 55. Comtesse de la Valette at No. 44, a _hôtel_ 47. CHAPTER XXXIII 48. CHAPTER XXXIV 49. CHAPTER XXXV 50. 1898. Marshal Ney lived at No. 12. In Rue de la Tour des Dames a 51. CHAPTER XXXVI 52. CHAPTER XXXVII 53. CHAPTER XXXVIII 54. CHAPTER XXXIX 55. 1852. No. 73 is the Hospice des Vieillards, worked by the Petites 56. CHAPTER XL 57. CHAPTER XLI 58. 1710. That first convent and church were razed in 1797. The Carmelites 59. 1713. Rue de Vanves, leading to what was in olden days the village of 60. CHAPTER XLII 61. CHAPTER XLIII 62. 1879. She had planned filling it with her magnificent collection of 63. CHAPTER XLIV 64. 20. Rue de l’Annonciation began in the early years of the eighteenth 65. CHAPTER XLV 66. 1898. Avenue de Wagram in its course from the Arc de Triomphe to Place 67. CHAPTER XLVI 68. CHAPTER XLVII 69. CHAPTER XLVIII 70. CHAPTER XLIX 71. 1783. This name was changed more than once in subsequent years. After 72. 1850. The novelist Paul de Kock lived at No 8. No. 17 was the abode of 73. CHAPTER L 74. CHAPTER LI 75. 1751. Many names of historic note are associated with the handsome house 76. CHAPTER LII 77. 1718. It was then rebuilt minus its wooden houses. The present structure 78. 1786. Pont Notre-Dame was the “bridge of honour.” Sovereigns coming to

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