Paris by Mary McAuliffe

Author:Mary McAuliffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2023-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

If you are paying attention to your map, you’ll note the Bièvre’s imprint everywhere—on the placement and curvature of streets as well as on place-names summoning up images of trees, flowers, and country mills. From Place de Rungis, the lower streambed curves around what now is the Cité Florale via Rue Brillat-Savarin to Rue Wurtz. Along the way you will find other jewels, such as Petite Alsace (10 Rue Daviel), a picturesque enclave of half-timbered houses, and Rue Le Dantec, a lovely old street at the base of the quiet and village-like Butte-aux-Cailles.

Crossing under Petite Alsace, the upper Bièvre met up with its sister branch at Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui. Here the two passed through a double watergate in the old toll walls (the Farmers-General Wall, demolished in 1860) and once again divided. The higher stream flowed along what now is Rue Edmond-Gondinet, where it passed another watermill (the Moulin Croulebarbe, at the corner of Rue Corvisart), while the lower stream ran along what now is Rue Paul-Gervais. Together, the two arms enclosed a lush enclave that once provided kitchen plots for Gobelins workers and now is the Square René-Le Gall, a secret garden and small wood that encompass the course of the Bièvre. The river’s waters emerge on the western side of the park, where they burble their way along a pathway beside a school, ending in a small pool within the park.

This place has a history: here, long ago, during a violent thunderstorm, a tormented young man stabbed to death a beautiful shepherdess who had spurned him. If this sounds like something from a Victor Hugo novel, you are not far wrong, for the beautiful Square René-Le Gall spreads over the former Champ de l’Alouette, or Field of the Lark, where the young shepherdess died. Attracted by the story’s dark drama, Hugo used this spot as the site that so magnetically drew Marius, the yearning young lover of Les Misérables.

While in the vicinity, Victor Hugo frequented the rustic tavern that still stands at 41 Rue de Croulebarbe, along what once was a riverbank path. Nowadays, this tavern—which still sports the name “Cabaret de Madame Grégoire” on its façade—is a Basque restaurant, the Auberge Etchegorry, whose cassoulet is worth sampling. Nowadays, this rustic auberge overlooks Square René-Le Gall’s gently flowing water and densely forested interior—a haven of peace and greenery on the banks of the river’s ancient course.

From Rue de Croulebarbe, follow the upper Bièvre’s curve along Rue Berbier-du-Mets, behind the venerable Gobelins textile workshops. Nearby is the Hôtel de la Reine Blanche (at 17 and 19 Rue des Gobelins), twin Gothic mansions where a royal queen (we do not know which) dwelled during her widowhood, when white still was the prescribed color of mourning for widowed queens. Legend has it that the queen in question was Blanche of Castille, mother of Saint Louis, but there are other candidates. And although the original mansion, dating from around the year 1300, was razed after a tragedy took place there (a ball during

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