Historic Paris by Jetta Sophia Wolff

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.