Paris main visit page 2

Introduction

Musee Bourdelle
Start a walk

Cemetery Montparnasse and walk

Catacombs and walk

Still walking

Vanves fleamarket

Parc Montsouris

Paris-14th arr - Parc Montsouris

To finish this Montparnasse adventure let’s have a walk to the reservoir “Montsouris” and the park of the same name. This romantic park is 16 hectare and created between 1865 and 1868 following a wish of Napoleon III. Opposite the Cité Universitaire, Parc Montsouris was designed by the famous city planner Haussmann in 1868 in an English-style with an artificial lake. The tranquillity of the park and its surroundings attracted numerous artists at the turn of the century.
The boulevard Jourdan, on the border with the 14ht arrondissement, drawing a frontier between the University and the parc MONTSOURIS, doesn’t restrain students to be the most faithful visitors to this ravishing park, created during the Second Empire. Even the troublesome RER line, running through the park, doesn’t bother them, cutting the park in two: two bridges and an underground passage take care of the connection. This parc Montsouris is the second of Haussman’s 19th century parks. The park filled with young mothers and babies, elders in berets, and students lounging on sunny lawns. Let’s admit it: Montsouris is not Vincennes, or

Mire du Sud

Boulogne, or Luxembourg, even if the supporters of its hillers will sustain the contrary. Try to prove they are wrong. And are they wrong? You can  the Mire du Sud, in the Parc Montsouris,. The Mire, at the park's southern edge, is a 13-foot stone obelisk dated 1806, with a partially obliterated inscription meaning "In the reign of" (Napoleon's name has been removed). I found three plaques among the pink and white chestnut blossoms scattered on the park's paths, two more a few steps away on boulevard Jourdan, and five on the university campus across the street.
The famous French pilot Mermoz had a house in the rue de la Cité Universitaire. He looked at the blue sky, flowers, trees and soft sloping hills, the Tunisian Bardo palace, all from his window.

Parc Montsouris in 1860

Today the whole area is filled with modern and contemporary art. Why else would they have created a rue des artistes to honour George Braque (who lived in the now called rue Braque no.6), Douanier Rousseau, Marcel Gromaire and Jean Lurçat. Lenin lived in no.4, on rue Marie-Rose.
An anecdote? On the day of the park’s inauguration, the lake suddenly and inexplicably drained dry, and its engineer committed suicide. I don’t think today’s engineers would go that far :-):-)
Another anecdote I found in the Routard Paris 1999. (Quote): Lenin had a bank account (no.6420) at the agency of the Credit Lyonnais, avenue d'Orleans. After a successful hold-up of his friends in Russia, the lute (a fabulous amount of gold roubles) was deposited without any difficulty in the banks agency by Lenin. Older people still remember that mysterious bearded man on his bike, with his lost gaze, the eyes fixed on the far away Oural mountain line?? Anyway, it seems that in days of great misery, Lenin sold, ready for a quick getaway, shoelaces in an umbrella! Believe it or not ;-). (unquote)  

Bibliography  

--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris, ed.Hervas (1985-1988--Nouvelle Histoire de Paris,  ed.Hachette--Le Pieton de Paris, by L.P.Fargue, ed.Gallimard 1997--Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, by A.Fierro, ed.Laffont, 1996--Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, by J.Hillairet, ed.Minuit --Guide du Routard 1998-1999 (Ed.Hachette)--Paris, 2000 d'histoire, by J.Favier, ed.Fayard 1997--Naissance de Paris, by M.Fleury, ed.Imprimerie Nationale 1997