The Paris Statue of Liberty

Posted on 20/04/2021 by Mayken

The Statue of Liberty was created by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with the metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel. It was a gift of the French people to the United States of America and was inaugurated on October 28, 1886.

Bartholdi first created a reduced-size model in plaster which you can now find a the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. In the courtyard of the museum, there is a bronze made from this plaster made by the museum.

The first bronze model made from the plaster was given by Bartholdi to the Musée du Luxembourg in 1900. The statue was set up in the Luxemburg Gardens but in 2012, it was transferred to the Musée d’Orsay and replaced in the park by a copy.

The Statue of Liberty replica in the Luxemburg Gardens

In 1885, another bronze copy was made and given to France by the Committee of Americans in Paris at the centennial of the Revolution. It was set onto the Île aux Cygnes (an artificial island in the Seine that was created to support, among others, the Pont de Grenelle bridge) at the height of the Pont de Grenelle, near the place where Bartholdi’s workshop was.

The Statue of Liberty on the tip of Cygnes Island as seen from the Eiffel Tower

It was inaugurated by President Carnot on July 4, 1889, three years after the original statue in New York, and in the presence of its creator. The statue looked eastwards so that the president didn’t have to inaugurate it from a boat and to inaugurate a statue that turns its back on the Elysée (the presidential palace) despite Bartholdi having asked that it look towards New York. The statue was finally turned to look towards its big sister for the 1937 World Fair.

Since 1989, there is also a replica of the flame in its original size. It is located on the Place de l’Alma, a gift from the United States to the City of Paris. It is best known nowadays as the remembrance site from Princess Diana who died in 1997 ins car crash in the Tunnel de l’Alma just below the monument.

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Modern Paris city limits

Posted on 13/04/2021 by Mayken

Today, the limits of the city of Paris which is at the same time the département of Paris (n° 75) coincide with the expressway Boulevard Périphérique (“le Périph’” or “BP”), a 35km-long dual carriageway with the particular rule that entrants have priority over those already on the expressway. The speed limit is 70km/h but most of the time traffic jams don’t allow for that speed anyway.
The Périphérique intérieur runs clockwise, the Périphérique extérieur counter-clockwise.

The strip between the boulevards des Maréchaux (“les Maréchaux”) and the Périph’ is occupied by social housing, schools, and sports equipment.

There are three “extensions” to the surface of the city of Paris that lie outside of this limit: the Bois de Boulogne park to the west, the Bois de Vincennes park to the east, and the Paris heliport in the southwest near the Seine river, belonging to the 15^th arrondissement.

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The Adolphe Thiers Wall

Posted on 06/04/2021 by Mayken

The final city wall that was an actual wall was built between 1841 and 1844 on the orders of Adolphe Thiers, President of the Council, a position that corresponded to that of Prime Minister. It ran around the entire city, a space of almost 80km² and followed the boulevards des Maréchaux, a 33,7km-long ring road named after Marshals of the First French Empire that circles Paris and can today be traced by the PC (Petite Ceinture) buses (west) and the tram lines T3A (south and east) and T3B (east and north).

It was destroyed between 1919 and 1929, and only very few short sections remain, such as Bastion 44 in the rue du Bastion in the 17^th arrondissement, the Poterne des Peupliers (a postern) in the 13^th arrondissement or Bastion 1 at Porte de Bercy in the 12^th arrondissement, in the middle of the Bercy interchange.

The Adolphe Thiers wall (in light green) and the location of Bastion n° 1

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The General Farmers city wall

Posted on 23/03/2021 by Mayken

The Ferme Générale was an outsourced customs, excise and tax collection operation created under King Louis XIV in 1681. It taxed goods coming into the city in the name of the king. Between 1784 and 1791, it built a 5m-high and 25 long wall around the city that was not meant to protect against invaders but to prevent any merchandise to enter the city without paying taxes. However, smugglers used the old quarries running under the wall in what is today the 14^th arrondissement.

The Barrière d’Enfer lodges at Place Denfert-Rochereau

Two entry points of this tax wall can still be seen today: the lodges of the barrière d’Enfer at Denfert-Rochereau in the south (14^th arrondissement), and the barrière du Trône at Place de la Nation (11^th/12^th arrondissements) to the east.

The Barrière du Trôme at Place de la Nation

The General Farmers Wall (in purple) and the location of the d’Enfer and Trône lodges

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The Charles V Wall

Posted on 16/03/2021 by Mayken

In the 14^th century, King Charles V had a new wall built on the right bank but the Philippe Auguste wall was not demolished for all that, since it was considered so solid and wide that a cart could run on top of it.

Charles V was king of France from 1364 to 1380. His reign marks the end of the first part of the Hundred Years War, as he recovered almost all of the lands lost by his predecessors. He was a learned king who founded the first royal library, predecessor to the French National Library (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).

In 1356, Étienne Marcel, Prévôt des Marchands (a position similar to that of a mayor) had a new wall constructed on the right bank, however, he died before the works were completed. Charles V continued the fortification works following his tactics of terre déserte (“better a crushed land than a lost land”) and reinforced the Philippe Auguste wall on the left bank while creating a whole new wall on the right bank that was 5km long and consisted of a combination of ditches and earth-filled ramparts, the last of which was crowned by a small wall. The fortification extended beyond the Louvre Castle to the west, which made the castle lose its protective function. In the east, however, the residence of the king, the Hôtel Saint Pol, was poorly protected and therefore another small bastion was built: the Bastille. It protected against invasions through the Porte Sainte Antoine gate, and in case of an insurrection within Paris, it covered the road leading to the Château de Vincennes, the king’s residence outside of Paris.

The Charles V wall was destroyed in the 17^th century, and there are few remains today. However, it left its imprint on the map of the city, as many boulevards run along the site of the fortification, such as boulevard Saint Denis, boulevard Saint Martin, boulevard du Temple, boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire, boulevard Beaumarchais and boulevard Bourdon, to name only a few.

The purple line shows the boulevards named above – running along the Charles V wall (see map below).

In 1672, Louis XIV, the Sun King, had a triumphal arch built on the site of one of the former wall’s gates, the Porte Saint Denis. Two years later, he had another triumphal arch built about 250m away, the Porte Saint Martin. The names are misleading since neither of them was ever meant to be a gate, but to glorify Louis XIV and his military victories.

Charles V wall (orange) and Philippe Auguste wall (brown)

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The Philippe Auguste Wall

Posted on 09/03/2021 by Mayken

In Gallo-Roman times, the population of Lutetia lived mostly on Cité Island and the south shore. There are still some remains to be seen today that will be the subject of a later blog post.

Philippe Auguste was king from 1180 to 1223 CE. He stands out among medieval kings of France for his long reign, his important military victories and his measures to reinforce the power of the king and put an end to feudalism.

He built the city wall that bears his name to defend Paris against attacks from the English Plantagenet dynasty in particular, coming from the north and the east. It was a simple wall 5km long with 77 towers.

Later he also built a second portion of the wall on the left bank, after Normandy fell into the hands of the Plantagenet, and an attack from the north-west had to be envisioned.

In order to protect Paris against invaders coming up the Seine river, Philippe Auguste had a fortress built, the Louvre Castle. (It was later demolished to make way for the Louvre Palace, but that’s a subject for another post.)

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Paris city limits

Posted on 02/03/2021 by Mayken

Since the first settlers built a fence around their settlement, the inhabitants of Paris have constructed walls around their habitat. As early as the 4^th century CE, there were walls on Cité Island. As the city grew, new walls were erected, forming concentric circles, from Gallo-Roman times to the 21^st century.
Let’s have a closer look.

The city wall of Philippe Auguste dates back to the 13^th century. Remains can be found near the Pantheon in the 5^th arrondissement on the left bank, as well as in the 4^th arrondissement on the right bank, in the Marais and near the Village Saint Paul.

The city wall of Charles V dates back to the 14^th century. It was destroyed in the 17^th century.

The General Farmers Wall was built between 1784 and 1791 by the corporation of tax farmers. It was no longer a wall to protect Paris from invaders but to collect taxes on incoming goods.

Finally, the Adolphe Thiers Wall from 1846 corresponds more or less exactly to the boulevard des Maréchaux of today.

The present-day Paris city limit lies just a little over 100m further out and is marked by the Boulevard Périphérique (“Périph” or BP) expressway, a 35km-long ring road around Paris, but also including the Bois de Boulogne to the west, the Bois de Vincennes to the east, and a heliport in the southwest, near the Seine river.

We will have a closer look at each of these walls in the following posts. Stay tuned!

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Parchment Street

Posted on 23/02/2021 by Mayken

The Latin Quarter takes its name from the shared language students from all over Europe spoke as they studied here in Medieval times. They still study at the Sorbonne and other Paris universities today, but Latin is no longer the lingua franca.

Sorbonne University in the Latin Quarter

Back in the 13^th century, when most people other than those students and their teachers couldn’t read or write, many public writers and manuscript-copying scribes lived in a street that took the name of “writers street”, rue des Écrivains.

In 1387, the street’s name changed to rue de la Parcheminenerie, for it was now home to parchment vendors. This coincided with a new kind of parchment, not as thick and coarse as the one used since the 7^th century. It became widespread, and it was in this street that universities and students stocked up on it. In the 17^th century, people still came here to stock up on books. Today the number 29 houses a Canadian bookstore.

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La Libération, August 1944

Posted on 02/02/2021 by Mayken

As first a settlement and later a city, Paris has existed for over 2,000 years. History has left its marks on the city, and traces of different time periods can be found all around Paris. In non-chronological order, let’s look at some that you might have come past during a visit without knowing.

If you have been driving on the roads of northwestern France, maybe you have noticed stone markers with a flame in addition to regular distance markers. The bornes de la liberté are set along the route of the Allied Forces from D-Day in June 1944. Liberty Road (la Voie de la Liberté) starts in Normandy, travels across northern France to Metz near the German border and then northwards to Bastogne on the border of Luxemburg and Belgium. But other markers can be found outside of this main route.

In March 1941, following the battle of Kufra in Libya, Leclerc (then a colonel) and his men swear an oath to “not put down the arm until our colours fly over the cathedral of Strasburg”. They fulfilled their oath in November of the same year. But before they could liberate Strasburg, they had to liberate Paris.

In August 1944, the Second Armored Division, in French 2^e Division Blindée shortened to 2^e DB, marched into Paris from the south. Commanded by the now General Leclerc, it was also called the Division Leclerc.

This monument commemorates not only the Oath of Kufra and the Liberation itself but also the events in this town the 2^e DB crossed.

Traces of the combat in Paris in August 1944 can be found–among other places–on the wall of the Paris School of Mines on the boulevard Saint Michel (6^th arrondissement, near the Luxemburg Gardens).

The avenue d’Orléans, in the 14^th arrondissement leading from the Porte d’Orléans to the Place Denfert-Rochereau is today called Avenue du Général Leclerc.

Map of Paris showing the Avenue du Général Leclerc (the lower point) and the wall of the Paris School of Mines (the upper point).

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Mayken Brünings

Writing Middle Grade fiction in Paris

Category Archives: History in the City

The Paris Statue of Liberty

Modern Paris city limits

The Adolphe Thiers Wall

The General Farmers city wall

The Charles V Wall

The Philippe Auguste Wall

Paris city limits

Parchment Street

La Libération, August 1944