INCREDIBLE PARIS !
History of Paris France

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A bridge fitting to the circumstances

If France had remained a monarchy, the "Pont de la Concorde" bridge would still bear the name of Louis XVI. In 1792, before holding the much softer name of "Pont de la Concorde" it was called Bridge of the Revolution. Victim of history fluctuations, the bridge was renamed "Pont Louis XVI" in 1814 and kept it until 1830, before getting back to its conciliatory identity. People using the bridge do not always know that, original stones coming from the Bastille demolition, were used to its building.

The finder of the mail box

Jean-Jacques Renouard de Villayer is today long forgotten. However, everyday hundreds of people in Paris should be grateful to him. In fact, this bright finding belongs to a Parliament Counselor. In 1653, while there were only four post offices in Paris to exchange with the provincial towns and abroad, this man had boxes fixed onto walls at the corners of certain, well strategically placed streets. Everybody could post letters; three collections a day were made. But the postage problem had to be sorted out. Who was to pay? Up to that time, when a letter was sent, postage was paid upon receipt and not upon sending. Jean-Jacques Renouard de Villayer then considered the possibility of a postage ticket to stick on the mail. It was the precursor of the postage stamp. In 1692 six mail boxes appeared in Paris. In 1780, their number increased to five hundreds!

To avoid infant killings

Between 1827 and 1861, there was once in Paris, an “Infant turning shed”. It was a sort of wooden receptacle set in the wall’s thickness of a hospital for abandoned infants. The mother who wished to give up her newly-born, placed the infant on the street side of the turning shed and swiveled it around. The infant was then picked up from the inside. Following a Napoleonian decree, this clever system of Italian origin, was widened in France. It was located in Paris, rue “Denfer” (now Boulevard Denfert-Rochereau) in the wall of the Hospital for Found and Orphan Children, which was to become later “Hôpital Saint-Vincent de Paul”. The “Infant Turning Shed” kept the abandonment secret and restricted the killing risks. But it also deprived forever, the child’s identity because it became practically impossible ever to find the parents again. This system completely disappeared in 1861.

An old bell

The oldest bell in Paris has been ringing since 1331. It is positioned in a small turret of the Sainte-Merri Church, the one of an old chapel remaining from the old church rebuilt in the gothic style. But, apart from that museum art piece there is also, in this sacred place, one of the oldest holy water fonts of Paris ; its sculpted sides are ornate with the Passion instruments bearing Anne de Bretagne’s arms.

Vintage trees

The oldest trees in Paris date back to 1601! They are white acacias, also called locust trees, that the Botanist Jean Robin, brought back from one of his trips to North America during the reign of Henri IV. One of these precious trees can be seen in the Jardin Des Plantes’s enclosure, on the way in to the Museum of Orleans. The other is in the little square of Saint-Julien le Pauvre, against the North side. At the “Père Lachaise” cemetery there is a tree which deserves to be mentioned. It stands almost facing the vast chapel in the Countess Demidoff’s spot. It has practically swamped over a sepulture and, according to the legend, with its sap, it could have carried along to the upper branches, the bones of the dead. That is why, according to people, familiar with the necropolis, one says that, from the top of that tree, tibias and skulls spring up. As for the inscriptions engraved in its trunk many years ago, they are meant to be restored epitaphs.

A street for posthuman renters

The street "Emile-richard", located between “Boulevard Edgar Quinet” and “Rue Froidevaux” in the XIVth district, covers 382 meters. Humble mortals have, however, only one address number for their residence which is not a residence place… it is Number 1. This address also opens on “Boulevard Edgar Quinet” at Number 1bis and it is nothing else but also the address of a monumental mason who also sells flowers in a vast boutique. This street, one of the most peculiar ones in Paris, runs alongside great high walls from one end to the other and is lined by slender trees, which cuts through the Montparnasse Cemetery. It bears no windows and no balconies. Its discretion tends to shade secret embraces.

Its name Avenue is only a word

An avenue is, by definition, a wide urban road lined with trees. In Paris there is, however, one, which does not stick to the rule. It is the "Avenue de l’Opera".

A clinic for perambulators

A unique trading shop, a clinic for repairing perambulators and push-chairs, can be found at 16, "Rue du Chalet", in the Xth district, behind "Boulevard de la Villette", in a mixed and colorful area where there are many craft shops and grey and cracked houses. It is located in a very old cobbled courtyard. The Clinic is popular and people travel long distances to have their child’s push-chair repaired and to ask the master of the premises, Mr. Caron, to change a wheel, to replace a hood cover, to weld a frame or to restore an old type of push-chairs. Mr. and Mrs. Caron have been in the business for over forty years and push-chairs and prams are no secret to them. They work in very old premises which are used both as shed and workshop. The head surgeon of this clinic created the twin push-chair and also one for four children, two facing two.

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