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Paris through the Ages-Ile Saint Louis stroll, anecdotes, funny stories, peccadiloes (3)
(all credit to Arthur Gillette)

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Back to 24, quai de Béthune, site of an unprecedented anecdote. This hotel, built in 1640 by the famous architect Le Vau, who worked for Louis XIV, belonged to the heir of an old family, the HESSELIN, after which this house is named. They were bakers to the kings since generations and that's precisely what did one heir in. It is said that 20 years after the house was build, Hesselin died of indigestion after eating 294 walnuts!! According to other (un) trustful sources he was poisoned by his valet, anxious to inherit a sum of 15,000 pounds that were promised to him. However, the house unfortunately didn't survive, since an American lady had it torn down in 1934 (only the front door remained original) and build a rather unimaginative pseudo- Art Deco thing that you see now. But the French president Georges Pompidou lived there until his death in 1974. 
Let's take a break and think about the peccadilloes of an 18th century resident of no. 18, related to the cardinal de Richelieu. Thanks to Arthur's Gillette's research we know his name was Louis François Armand de Vignerod. The poor guy was compelled to marry at 15 a 19-year old he hated and soon cheated on her with a certain number of ladies, amongst them his.....godmother! He landed three times in the Bastille jail for such behaviour but it didn't calm him. A genuine stallion!! At the age of 84, he married a younger widow, but at THE evening the widow went no farther as the room of her bedroom, where she found a note: "At midnight, hide your charms from me, for I would fear to outrage love. Since I've lost its weapons my happiness ends at sunset." Quite a personage!

Remains of Brinvilliers

Take up now the rue Brinvilliers and let your imagination work a bit, supposed you still have the strength :-). At nos.1, 1 bis and 3 used to stand the grandest original establishment of the Ile: THE HOTEL DE BRINVILLIERS. Arcades at the opposite end and the houses to your left are the only remains. It was really a huge estate, stretching from here to the eastern end of the island. Confiscated, drawn by a National lottery during the Revolution, it was broken up and some of its buildings soon to be destroyed. Some famous residents in the 19th century were the philosopher Hyppolyte Taine, poet Charles Baudelaire, serving also in successive incarnations as an arms factory, cloth dyeing enterprise and perfumer's workshop. 

Square Barye

Now I'm sure you're tired! So take a seat in the SQUARE BARYE, once theBretonvillier's garden, Barye being a sculptor having contributed to the sculpting of the colonne de Juillet at the place de la Bastille. The garden was and is largely funded by some American admirers. Before stepping to the hotel Lambert, note, at 1 rue Saint Louis en l'Ile, the Bretonvillier's handsome Crossbowmen's pavilion, which because of the heavy traffic day and night on this bridge, would be a perfect home for someone hard of hearing. 
The HOTEL LAMBERT will be one of the next subjects of this stroll of "Paris through the Ages", stroll no. 7, put together by Arthur Gillette and whose stroll maps you can get by contacting them on their site. 
Order Arthur's walking map by mailing to Armedv@aol.com evocating my name : Jack.

Bibliography

The Grand Century of Ile Saint-Louis, stroll no.7 in the series "Paris
through the Ages", by Arthur Gillette (ed. Media-Cartes)