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Let�s stay in this arrondissement: Le Marais in the 4th. Beautiful houses but bloody memories. I can understand the shiver Donna Evleth must have when she looks now in the rue Pav�e at that fragment of masonry opposite no.19. :-):-). But let�s continue.
We left last walk at hotel d�Albret in the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, where Louis XIV brought a glass of wine to the doctor who helped Mme de Montespan at the birth of her second child.
Don�t forget Mr. Arthur Gillette is leading the walk and he is the teacher, the guide and the spirit of all what follows! When you pass at no.12, the Hotel HEROUET, corner rue Vieille du Temple, remember that this house was one of the earliest vestiges of Renaissance architecture in Paris (1500). Unfortunately, the house was so badly damaged by bombardments preceding the Liberation in 1944, that a member of French parliament, five years later, urged for its demolition. Another idiot having no idea what the world �cultural heritage� means!! The house was restored as well as the exquisite albeit, overhanging tower.
At no.47, hotel AMELOT DE BISSEUIL, one of the most sumptuous in Paris. Beaumarchais lived here and wrote his "Mariage de Figaro" (Marriage of Figaro) in this house. Which gave us later this masterwork of music, written by Mozart" Le Nozze de Figaro". But that you knew already! (at least those who read some of my Marais articles). 

Medusa heads

But Arthur showed me the well-restored details of 1920, like the splendid wooden portal adorned with Medusa heads. Also a few facts that escaped my attention for this house: a Protestant, Germaine Necker, later to be the famous Mme de Steal, was baptized here in 1766. She kept a Salon later, helping to launch the Romantic movement. An also Protestant relative of Benjamin Franklin married a Scots girl here.
Down rue Vieille du Temple to its corner with rue du Tresor, named like that since some 14th century gold coins were found in a 17th century hotel. Back up rue des Blancs-Manteaux (White Coats Street), after the habits worn in a nearby convent. Jacques Coeur, one of the first bank tycoons of France, bought the house at rue des Archives 38-42, but he probably never lived here, being under the dangerous jealousies he encountered at the court and could have been fatal. It is more likely that his son lived here, as well as his daughter (you can find archives that she indeed did). It�s a comfortable 15th century dwelling architecture, showing what might have been one of the first uses of brick in a Parisian home.
Next post, we will visit the site of COUVENT des CARMES-BILLETTES, where gruesome, this time anti-Semitic, Middle Ages horrors were perpetrated. But let�s keep the suspense :-)

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)