Chatelet and Around
From Paris Hotels Reviews
Chatelet and Around
The labyrinth of tiny streets southeastwards to place du Chatelet teems with jazz bars, bightclubs and restaurants, and is far more crowded at 2am than 2pm. One of these streets, narrow little rue de la Ferronerie, was the scene of Henri IV’s assassination in 1610. A plaque at no. 11 marks the spot where Henri’s carriage came to a standstill, caught in the seventeenth-century equivalent of a traffic jam, and giving his assassin, religious fanatic Ravaillac, the chance he was seeking to plunge his dagger into the king’s breast.
Place du Chatelet, to the south, was once the site of a notorious fortress prison and is now a maelstrom of traffic overlooked by two grand theatres, the Theatre Musical de Paris and the Theatre de la Ville, built in the 1860s during Haussmann’s grands travaux. The latter was formerly known as the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt (change to Théâtre des Nations during the German occupation on account of Bernhardt’s Jewish origins) after the great actress bought it and regularly performed on stage here until her death in 1923.
One block north, on the rue de Rivoli, stands the Tour Saint Jacques, currently undergoing restoration and closed to the public. Built in Flamboyant Gothic style and dating from the early sixteenth century, it’s all that remains of the Eglise St-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, built by butchers from nearby Les Halles and destroyed in the Revolution. The church used to be an omportant stopping point for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostella. At the base of the tower a statue commemorates Blaise Pascal, who carried out experiments on atmospheric pressure here in the seventeenth century. The tower is now used as a weather station and monitors pollution and air quality.
West from the tower, busy rue de Rivoli is dominated by high-street clothing stores. One of the facades, no. 59, is likely to make you pull up short on account of its wacky decoration – two colorful giant faces made of recycled materials. This is Electron Libre, an artists’ squat (or “squart”). The empty building, owned by Crédit Lyonnais, was occupied by artists in 1999, who were unable to afford the city’s high rents. They opened up their ateliers to the republic, and, with some 40,000 visitors a year, it became one of the capital’s most important contemporary art spaces – so much so that the Paris authorities agreed to buy and renovate it. Since 2005 it’s been closed while renovations are carried out and it should be open again in 2008, though access to the public may be more restricted.
Also closed for long-term renovation, a little further west on rue de Rivoli, is the Samaritaine department store, built in 1903 pure Art Nouveau style; it’s not due to reopen for a number of years (perhaps never, according to some rumours). The quayside just behind the Samaritaine is known as Quai de la Megisserie, a reference to the treatment of animal skins in medieval times when this was an area of abattoirs; nowadays there are plants and pets for sale all along this stretch up to the Pont au Change.
