Temporary occupation – “Grands Voisins”

A large space which was occupied by the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital until 2014 is – temporarily – occupied, with official authorizations and encouragements, by a number of social activities. Some of the buildings offer accommodations for needy people, for immigrants… but there is especially a wish to offer a mixed cohabitation with a number of other activities – coexistence between occupants and visitors – most of them with emphasis on culture, ecology….  Here it’s possible to sleep (there are even some camping tents), to work, to shop, to eat and drink, to enjoy yourself… - somehow a follow-up of the message by the man who gave his name to the abandoned hospital – Saint Vincent de Paul, the “Great Apostle of Charity” (see previous posts about him here and here).

In a year or two, this area will be transformed into an “eco-quartier” offering more permanent housing, but a touch of the present temporary activities are supposed to be integrated, the spirit to survive. 

Medici Aqueduct - Maison Fontainier

The highest level of water supply per capita in Paris was actually reached during the Gallo-Roman centuries (some 250 litres per person per day), then even higher than today (some 200 litres per person per day), but...the Roman aqueducts from the 2^nd century were abandoned when new rulers arrived. During the following centuries some "pipelines" from surrounding hills were installed, basically to supply some monasteries and royal castles, but the balance of the water came from the Seine and from wells. The water consumption per capita was extremely low for centuries – some documents mention a yearly bath… (Actually the Vikings had a reputation for cleanliness, they had a weekly bath - the translation of the Nordic word for Saturday is the day of bathing.)

Henry IV wanted to improve the water supply and took several initiatives in this respect. After his assassination in 1610, his widow Marie de’ Medici (mother of Louis XIII and grandmother of Louis XIV) took over the idea of creating a new aqueduct, more or less following the trace of the old, abandoned, Roman one. It was completed in 1623 and is referred to as the “Medici Aqueduct”. The water was brought to a building, from where some natural cleaning and some distribution to different users was organised. This building is still there, “La Maison Fontainier” (see top picture), close neighbour to the Paris Observatory (see previous post here). It was also the home of the person who had the royal charge of water supply (fountains). The family Francine had this office 1623 – 1784. 

Here we can see an ancient map of the “Medici Aqueduct” and its approximate route with a starting point at Rungis, just north of the Orly airport. 

Just north of the Parc de Montsouris (see previous post here), some recent construction work made parts of the old aqueducts, very close to each other, visible and some parts can now be seen from the street. (Especially the window protecting the Medici one would need to be cleaned.) 

The “Medici Aqueduct” had 27 “regards”, small buildings with stairs down to the water level, points of observation and maintenance.  It should be noted that the Medici water canals were wide and high enough to allow walking along. Here you can see no. 23 and no. 25. “La Maison Fontainier” has the no. 27. 

Under the “Maison de Fontanier” you can still see the 17^th century installations. Different basins and canals permitted a distribution, which in the beginning meant basically supplying the royalty (Luxembourg Palace…), some convents …. and a little bit for public fountains.

Until 1845 water just went through, but then a large installation was added, permitting a regulation of the in- and outflow.              

These installations are of course today not used for drinking water, but the aqueduct supplied the Medici Fountain (see previous post here) in the Luxembourg Gardens until 1904 and still some “lakes” in the Parc Montsouris.

The Paris water system was completely changed during the 19^th century, but that’s another chapter.

Close to Parc Montsouris...

I have already blogged about some of the streets around the Parc Montsouris (see here, here and here) and also about the park itself (see here), but I made a new walk. As the wisterias were in full bloom (now some three weeks ago) it somehow made the walk even more attractive although the flowers of course sometimes were hiding some of the remarkable buildings. The red dotted lines correspond to the walk I made. (The great dark rectangle corresponds to one of the most important water reservoirs in Paris - from 1873).  

I concentrated first on some of the villas in the streets on the western side of the park. Most of the buildings here were built during the 1920-30’s. The large windows indicate that they often were built for artists and the architecture is often as you would expect from this period, but not always….

One of the small streets in named after the painter Georges Braque who occupied no. 6. The house which today is hiding behind high trees was built in 1927 and Georges Braque lived here until his death in 1963. The architect of his house – and several other in the area - was Auguste Perret on whom I blogged here.

Another remarkable street is Square de Montsouris. Once again you will find some spectacular buildings, some by famous architects like (again) Auguste Perret (and his brother), Le Courbusier (the white one on the right on the last collage)... (See one of my posts about Le Corbusier here.) Artists have lived (live?) here as well, but some of the buildings in red bricks were originally built for “rent-controlled housing”, for people with modest revenues. The design of a street number plate (4) could indicate that here once was a brothel (but I have no proof).

Not far from here is Villa Seurat (on which I already wrote here), famous for having housed Henry Miller, Soutine, Dali…. Again we find Auguste Perret as architect, but also André Lurçat, including one villa for his brother Jean Lurçat, famous for temporary tapestry.

Here are some other villas and buildings in the area.

Something completely different: The little street Rue Marie Rose is the address of a Franciscan convent built in the 1930’s…  

… some twenty years after Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, had left a flat at no. 4, where he lived 1909-12.  (His mistress Inessa Armand lived at no. 2.) For a while Lenin’s modest flat was a museum and Nikita Khrushchev came here during a state visit in 1960. The museum is now closed and the occupants have even removed the commemorative plaque.   

Walpurgis night

Certain European countries celebrate, in different ways, the Walpurgis Night, April 30. In Sweden it’s today rather a way to welcome the spring. It involves some singing, drinking… and watching a fire.

It’s celebrated each year at the Swedish House, one of the 37 international houses in the Cité Universitaire – the Paris University Campus (I wrote about it here).

We were welcomed by the director of the Swedish House, Åsa Ekwall. The Swedish Ambassador, Veronika Wand-Danielsson welcomed the spring and we also made a hurrah for the 70^th birthday of the Swedish King.

The crowd had the pleasure of listening to a couple of spring songs…

… awaiting the daylight to fade... and the fire.  

Coluche

On the stairs at the end of a little street, Rue Lemaignan, you can find the portrait of "Coluche" (Michel Colucci). He died in 1986, only some 42 years old in a motorcycle accident. He was a comedian and an actor, extremely popular, known for his irreverent sense of humour. He dared to say what most others wouldn't dare, on- and off-stage. He even (for fun... or not?) announced his candidacy for the presidential elections in 1981 - before withdrawing, but reaching 16% of voting intentions. In 1985 he created the "Restos de Coeur", an association which has survived him and today offers help (food, lodging...) to more than a million people, especially during the cold months.

The portrait here, quite recent, is meant as an homage, commemorating 30 years since his death. It was very officially recently inaugurated by the mayors of the 13th and 14th arrondissements.

From the top of the street you see "nothing", from the bottom of the street you see the portrait. I hope that theses pictures will explain how the artists, Zag & Sia, have worked.

Why here? "Coluche" lived just round the corner in a red-brick house, more or less overlooking the beautiful Montsouris park. 

I already posted about this park, see here, when it was greener than this week.

Talking about colours..., I admired some black and red.

Paris Observatory

Already the Greeks, some two centuries BC, had invented the first meridian lines. Later, there were many of them, which obviously created confusion when it came to navigation. The Paris Meridian exists officially since 1634. The Paris Observatory was built 1667-71 – a few years before the Royal Greenwich Observatory - on a hill where since then the centre of the building is crossed by the Paris Meridian in a perfect North-South direction. The Paris Observatory was then outside the city borders in a calm area, today it’s in the middle of the city.

  

The architect was Claude Perrault (brother of Charles Perrault, who wrote “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Puss in Boots”, “Cinderella”…). For that time it was a very simple building with hardly any decorative elements, but the quality of the stones and how perfectly well they are fitted together, is amazing – hardly any concrete needed.

The basic activity of the Observatory was of course to study the sky. Telescopes and other optical instruments were, to start with, installed in the central hall of the building, which had very high windows. In this hall was also installed the way to check exact hours and dates (summer and winter solstice, autumn and spring equinox) by help of the sun, a little hole in the wall and a line (the meridian) on the floor. (The same can be seen elsewhere, in Paris e.g. in the Sainte Sulpice Church (see previous post).) 

Later, with larger telescopes, special buildings were added to house the instruments – there are a number of cupolas in the surrounding garden.  

One of the cupolas is to be found on the top of the building, added during the 19^th century. Today all these installations are just historical. Visual sky observation is not done here anymore, but elsewhere, and the Paris Observatory is today only a leading scientific and educational centre. 

You have the impression that the Meridian runs through the middle of the Luxembourg Palace (see previous post) and I, also, mistakenly believed so. However, not quite. The Palace was of course built some 50 years before the Observatory.

It seems to be admitted that cartography in its modern sense originated at the Paris Observatory. This led also later to the invention of the meter – defined as one ten millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator. The metric system became the official system of measurement in France in 1795 (also involving litres, kilogrammes…).

In 1884 an International Meridian Conference decided that the Greenwich Meridian should be the standard for the zero degree longitude. France (of course) voted against and got as a “compensation” that the British would adopt the metric system - finally launched a bit later, in 1965, with an official metric program. Today, the only major country which has not adopted the metric system is the USA (see the map of countries which have not adopted the metric system.).

Standing on the roof top, you have of course some nice views of Paris.