Hotel d'Ourscamp
Hotel de Beauvais

Hotel d'Aubrey and the poisoner Marquise de Brinvilliers

The Woman's Jail

Hotel Herouet - Amelot de Bisseuil
House Jacques Coeur

Jewish ritual crime Middle Ages (the same old story again)

Paris-Marais-Secret buildings with naughty and terrible stories-Hotel d'Ourscamp and Hotel de Beauvais

Paris main page

Paris dining world!!!!

Book a Paris hotel on line

Let me introduce Arthur to you. A guide like we all hope to get when we go at random at a conference-promenade. He does many Paris tours for tourists looking the off beaten path. In the style of my hidden and unknown Paris. 
But he lives in Paris, our Arthur Gillette, a 62-year-old American Harvard graduate (high honours in French language and literature), with a doctorate in comparative education from the University of Massachusetts, based mainly in Paris since 1958. For many years an official at the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), for which he edited Museum International magazine. He offered me his help for my web site and the many new anecdotes, I will bring to you are inspired and with the benevolent permission of the writer and editor. Each time, some text might be inspired by his, or even a quote, I will clearly indicate the passages.
Where to begin first? Why not with the "Naughty Marais, Blood, Money, etc.....". That sounds exciting! It begins at 44-46 rue François-Mirron where you can accede by metro Saint-Paul. 
I have some houses in this area, described in my Marais section of my web site, but here are a few more suggested by Arthur. "THE HOTEL D'OURSCAMP" at 44-46 rue François Mirron, built in the 17th century as a Parisian home for the religious who stayed at the Cistercian abbey at Ourscamp, near Noyon, an abbey that was destroyed at the Revolution, but the remnants of the choir still stand. It is often used as an example in discussions of the functions of ribs, as the aisle ribs remain intact, despite the loss of the vault webs. But the building in front of which you stand is today the Association et Preservation du Paris Historique, which offers guided tours (on reservation only, also in English). Visit the 13th century cellar, which can be visited on request.
The HOTEL DE BAUVEAIS, at 68, in the same street, built for the Baronne de Beauvais in 1655. Now here is an anecdote !! Arthur tells us ( I quote until the unquote), that Catherine originally sold ribbons and, for reasons unclear, she became lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne d'Autriche, Louis XIII's wife. Worried about the impact of her husband's disinterest in the sex on their son, Anne seems to have confided in Catherine, which was a very ugly woman (nicknamed one-eyed Katie). Catherine didn't allow grass to grow over things and took things in her own hands (if we might say so :-):-)). She deflowered the young prince, queen Anne was ecstatic and rewarded the Beauvais like a queen would do: Pierre, the husband got a baronetcy, and Katie was enabled to build this townhouse known today as Hotel de Beauvais. Stones originally set for the Louvre were diverted to build the house, which annoyed the cardinal de Richelieu, who happened to be also the lover of Queen Anne. Have a peek in the courtyard and notice the lion heads sculpted on a cornice, alternating with horned ram's heads. For the later anecdote, notice that a certain Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 7 years old, stayed here for several months. Continue until the rue Charlemagne. Maybe the ambulatory knife sharpener will be present on the opposite corner. (unquote)
Next article, Arthur and me will take you to other houses in the Marais, really off the beaten path. 


Bibliography 

Paris through the ages, stroll no.8, the Naughty Marais, by Arthur Gillette (ed. Media-Cartes, Paris), A French Architect of the Era of Louis XIV, by Robert W. Berger. Antoine Le Pautre,. (New York: New York University Press, 1969.), Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture. 18th (ed Sir Banister Fletcher., revised by J.C. Palmes. New York)


Jack (with the obliging permission of Arthur Gillette)