Barbara Cooley's Paris Journal

Paris Journal 2011 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

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When we were footsore, tired, and on our way home on Saturday, we stopped in the Lutheran church of Saint Jean on the rue de Grenelle to rest.

It isn’t old, by French standards. It was built in 1911-12 in a Gothic style. While it is not large at all, it has a generous setting on a strip of land that penetrates deeply to the south off of the rue de Grenelle.

It was created by Denis Bühler, who built for himself a modest wood-frame stucco home and workshop up at the street end of the property, on one side, and on the other he constructed a little abode for the guardian of the property. It looks like a medieval building because of its timber-and-stucco construction.

Between these two structures is a gate that opens to the depths of the narrow but deep green space, in the middle of which now sits the very pretty church. This church was preceded by an earlier Lutheran church in the 7^th arrondissement, which had been there since 1862, as part of a school for artisans who came from Germany and Alsace.

The church has a beautiful bell tower/steeple, with three bells. Woodwork in the church is lovely, too, due to German and Alsatian craftsmens’ efforts.

The stained glass windows are also attractive. Those in the choir area are Anglican, given by the Gladstone family, who had ties with the first pastor of the parish, Henri Bach. They were created by an artist by the name of Reid, who was of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

The triptych is German, and came from an earlier chapel on the rue Amélie. I’m not certain, but it may be very old.

The organ is excellent, and benefits from the church’s good acoustics. This organ, like other excellent organs, has an association of friends who raise funds for its maintenance.

The batteries in my camera were dead tired, like we were. So I have no photos of my own to show you for this church. But here are some on the web, and here are more.

In the space behind the church is another residential building, and some offices used by the American University of Paris. That’s where our friend Roy works.

To get back to the offices, one goes through a play area/park for kids. This park is the result of an agreement between the church and the City of Paris.

Our goals for Heritage Days on Sunday were the Hôtel Roquelaure and then the old National Library on the rue Vivienne in the 1^st arrondissement.

But as we approached the boulevard Saint Germain, as we made our way up the rue Bonaparte, we could tell that we’d have to put that off for a little while. We heard music, beautiful Dixieland music.

We’d tried to find and hear this group, called La Planche a Dixie, a couple times earlier in the summer, remembering that they played often late in the afternoon on Sundays. We’d had no success finding them this year. But we’ve heard them many times in prior years.

Well, this year, they’ve moved to an earlier time slot. It was almost 2PM, and they were starting the last half hour of their performance. At last, we found them.

We stood and listened there on the corner of the rue Bonaparte and the boulevard Saint Germain, next to the church of Saint Germain des Prés. These musicians are amazing. Most amazing is their leader, the percussionist Christian Giovanardi, who plays the washboard. (Click here to listen to some of their music.)

When they finished playing, Tom went up to talk to them and to figure out which of the group’s CDs we didn’t already own. He bought two CDs, and we had a nice conversation with the saxophone player, who is American. (All the other guys in the band are French.)

One CD we plan to give to Christina, a friend from Sanibel and Columbus who plays the washboard in a band in Ohio.

A little later at the Hôtel Roquelaure, headquarters of the Ministry for Sustainable Development (developpement durable, in French). Another hôtel particulier (stately home) of the 18^th century, it become, like so many others, a government administrative building in the 19^th century.

It has, like so many of the others, been beautifully restored and preserved, and it has a great garden behind it, as well as a cour d’honneur (cobblestoned courtyard) in front.

This great house came about after the Duke of Roquelaure, Antoine Gaston, decided to move to the faubourg Saint Germain. He purchased an older house, the Hôtel de Villetaneuse, which dated back to the 17^th century. He bought more adjacent land and in 1722, started a grand transformation of the entire property, including the construction of the Hôtel Roquelaure. He sold it all to Mathieu-François Molé, the first president of the Parliament of Paris, in 1740.

Molé was a very rich man who made the home even grander, with beautiful woodwork and paintings. About him, the Marquis d’Argenson said: “a dandy, bothersome, disgraceful, and particularly ignorant . . . it is only his name and his wealth that people speak well of; of his heart there’s nothing great to say; but for his spirit and his knowledge, it is a great pity.”

One must remember that the basis for all this wealth enjoyed by so few back in those times was often wretched. Much was built on the backs of slaves, including slaves in what was once the richest colony of them all, what is now Haiti.

The vast majority of the French people, too, were miserably poor, while these rich folks like Molé lived in a grand style that was difficult for most people to even imagine. So it is not surprising at all that after he died in 1793, his son, Eduoard François Mathieu Molé, lost his head to the guillotine in 1794. (And in 1803, Haiti received its independence, at a high price paid to France, a price that led to Haiti being impoverished and dysfunctional to this day.)

I try to keep this in mind, to preserve some balance, even as we admire the artistry that went into these great houses. It is very good that these treasures belong to the People now.

The owners after Molé included the Duke of Parme, Jean-Jacques Regis Cambaçeres, who joined it with the adjacent Hôtel de Lesdiguieres (later, the Sully). He was Arch-chancellor of the Empire, and lived there until he was exiled in 1816.

Then came a new owner, the Duchess of Orleans, Louise-Marie-Adelaide de Bourbon-Penthièvre, who took very good care of the great home. In 1823, the Duke of Orleans traded the property with Louis XVIII for a forest at Bondy. Whether or not he consulted his wife before he traded her house for a hunting forest, I do not know. Men will be men.

Then by 1831, the property became the Council of State, and later the Ministry of Public Works. I think the Ministry of Developpement Durable must have been carved out of the Ministry of Public Works.

Here’s a brochure about the Hôtel Roquelaure.

Later that afternoon, we saw something I’ve wanted to see for a long time: the great old oval reading room at the old National Library. It was everything I expected it to be. Lovely.

After, we ran into the tail end of a performance by a funky group called Yordan on the Place du Palais Royal. Here’s a video of one of their songs.

On our way home through the cour carré of the Louvre, we witnessed a group of Gypsy girls who’d been stopped, and were being seriously questioned by a group of security guards from the Louvre as well as some police. The victims, an Asian couple, had been robbed, evidently, but an undercover cop in a tweed jacket caught the perps and brought in the backups immediately. I think the questioning was going to go on for quite a while.

Our dinner out was not worth mentioning, but it does encourage me to soon get on with the task of completely revising my restaurant recommendations document. A few will not make the cut this year. Stay tuned!

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Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here.

Monday, September 19, 2011