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This is an authentic part of
Paris like it looked already in the 17th and 18th century! Pretty, elegant,
narrow streets, dignified premises and picturesque interior courtyards, like in
the Marais. An oasis of peace in the middle of this busy city. It is really a
privilege for Parisians to live here. And especially students appreciate a
stroll along the sunny quays, fleeing their stuffy classrooms, when other
Parisians are queuing to get an ice cream at “Berthillon”. It remained a
small village where common 17th and 18th century houses
with plastered facades are inserted between beautiful stone hotels de maitre
with majestic portals. Here is balcony from where you have a splendid view of
the Seine, the quays and Notre Dame, there you have the immense satisfaction of
loitering in the old streets, admiring sculptures and iron wrought items, or to
do window shopping in the boutiques of rue Saint-Louis en L’Ile who refuse all
modernity.
The Ile Saint-Louis was in
fact composed by two isles: Ile aux Vaches (cow island), where indeed some cows
grazed and the larger Ile Notre Dame, belonging to the canon of Notre Dame.
Legends tell that devils and witches held Sabbath here…..against the will of
the canon of Notre Dame. The two islands were reunited in the 17th
century when Louis XIII ordered to fill up the Seine arm separating the two
islands. A bridge, the pont Marie, connected the new island to the rest of the
“mainland” and the island became the jewel of Paris. Louis and Francois le Vau
made a fortune by selling houses to the wealthy nobility and bourgeoisie. Like
the Hotel de Lauzun, built in 1657 (17 quai d’Anjou), the only hotel
particulier of that epoch open for the public, where Baudelaire and Theophile
Gauthier lived, the hotel Lambert (2, rue St.Lambert-en-l’Ile) maybe the most
beautiful of the Ile Saint Louis, formerly the residence of Michele Morgan, now
the residence of Guy de Rotschild, and hotel de Jasson (19, quai de Bourbon)
inhabited for a while by Camille Claudel, the furious mistress of Rodin. Other
nice houses in the quai de Bourbon: at no.11 the hotel de Champaigne (French
painter) and no.15 hotel de Charron built in 1637, with an interesting
courtyard.
And let’s not forget the famous Hotel de Comans (16-18 quai de
Bethune) once the residence of the duke of Richelieu, a nephew of the famous
cardinal.
Stroll along all these
streets (quai d’Anjou, de Bethune, de Bourbon, d’Orleans, rue Saint-Louis en
L’Ile), be charmed by their quiet magnificence and forget your stress and your
worries. Enter the church of Saint-Louis en L’Ile, built in 1644 in the street
of the same name. The inside is full of 17th and 18th century masterpieces. At no.61, restaurant “Aux Anysetiers du Roi” with
its ancient signboard and at no 51 hotel Chenizot from 1625.
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