Historic Paris by Jetta Sophia Wolff

Montmorency--knew successive inhabitants of historic fame and illustrious name. A fine fountain is seen in the Cour des Vieilles-Tuileries at No. 86. Several old shorter streets lead out of this long one. In Rue St-Romain, named after an old-time Prior of St-Germain-des-Prés, we see the fine old hôtel de M. de Choiseul, now the headquarters of the National Savings Bank. Rue St-Placide, seventeenth century, recording the name of a celebrated Benedictine monk, shows some ancient vestiges. Huysmans died at No. 31 in 1907. In Rue Dupin, once Petite Rue du Bac, we see ancient houses at Nos. 19-12, in the latter a carved wood Louis XIII staircase. Rue du Regard, another “Chemin Herbu” of past days, records by its present name the existence of an old fountain once here, now placed near the fountain Médici of the Luxembourg gardens. The publishing house Didot at No. 3 is on the site of a handsome ancient mansion once the home of the children of Mme de Montespan, sacrificed to the boulevard Raspail in 1907. Nos. 5-7 date from the first years of the eighteenth century. The doors of the Mont de Pitié are all that is left of hôtel de la Guiche once on the site. Rue de Sèvres, forming in the greater part of its course the boundary between arrondissements VI and VII, running on into arrondissement XV, was known familiarly in old days as Rue de la Maladrerie, on account of its numerous hospitals. They are numerous still. At No. 11 and No. 13 we find remains of the couvent des Prémontrés Réformés founded by Anne d’Autriche, 1661. Rue Récamier was recently opened on the site of the famous Abbaye-aux-Bois, where for thirty years Mme de Récamier lived the “simple life,” courted none the less by a crowd of ardent admirers--the _tout Paris_ of that day. The Abbaye, as a convent, counted notable women among its abbesses; at the Revolution it was suppressed and let out in flats till its regrettable demolition in 1908. The Square Potain close by, now known as Square du Bon Marché, is on the site of a leper-house which dated from the reign of Philippe-Auguste. A convent and adjoining buildings of ancient date were destroyed to allow boulevard Raspail to pursue its course. An old house still stands at No. 26; vestiges at No. 31. At No. 42 we see the Hospice des Incurables, founded in 1634 by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld and known since 1878 as l’Hospice Laennec. Here in 1819 died the woman Simon, the jailer of the little dauphin “Louis XVII,” after a sojourn of twenty-five years. The minister Turgot and other persons of note lie buried in the chapel. The Egyptian fountain dates from 1806. At No. 84 we see very recently erected houses let out in flats on the site of the couvent des Oiseaux, dating from the early years of the eighteenth century--the prison du Bonnet Rouge during the Revolution, a convent school and _pension_ in 1818 till its suppression in 1906. The “Oiseaux”--birds--were perhaps those of an aviary, or maybe those painted by Pigalle on the walls of one of the rooms. The Lazarist convent at No. 95 was previously a private mansion dating from the time of Louis XV. The chapel dates from 1827 and sheltered for some years the remains of St-Vincent-de-Paul. In the eighteenth century, on the site of No. 125, wild beast fights took place. The last numbers of the street are in arrondissement XV. There we see the ancient Benedictine convent, suppressed in 1779--become l’Hôpital Necker. The hospital at No. 149 began life in 1676 as a community of “_gentilshommes_”; seventy years later it was the “Maison Royale de l’Enfant-Jésus” under the patronage of Marie Leczinska, enlarged by the gift of an adjoining mansion. Closed at the Revolution, it served for a time as a coal-store, then became a National orphanage, and in 1802 the “Enfants Malades”; its ancient chapel was replaced by the chapel we see under Napoléon III.