Old and New Paris Part 26

THE CHAMPS eLYSeES AND THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE.

The Champs elysees--The elysee Palace--Longchamp--The Bois de Boulogne--The Chateau de Madrid--The Chateau de la Muette--The Place de l'etoile.

Before entering the Champs elysees, the greatest pleasure thoroughfare in Paris, next to, if not before, the line of boulevards, a brief examination of the frontiers, as approached from the Place de la Concorde, may be advisable. This region of the capital was for a long time one of those marshes by which ancient Paris, the Lutetia of the Romans, was enclosed like a fortress. Then it became cultivable land and pa.s.sed into the hands of market gardeners, who grew their vegetables in fields by no means "elysian," until the latter part of the reign of Louis XV.

The ancient marsh was bounded on one side by the Seine, on the other by the Faubourg St. Honore, which in the eighteenth century was already a favourite locality for mansions of the n.o.bility. The market gardens, more fertile, perhaps, by reason of their marshy origin, were traversed by the Chemin du Roule--so named from the slope called _rotulus_, in the days of Lutetia, of which the culminating point is now marked by the Triumphal Arch.

At the entrance to the Champs elysees stands the celebrated marble group known as the Horses of Marly; and close to the entrance is the garden of the elysee Palace (elysee Bourbon, to call it by its historical name), whose princ.i.p.al gates open into the Rue du Faubourg St. Honore. Built in 1718 by the architect Mollet on a portion of the St. Honore marshes which had been given by the Regent to Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Count of Evreux, the elysee Palace pa.s.sed in 1745 from the count's heirs to Madame de Pompadour. Her brother, the Marquis de Marigny, inherited it from her, and, holding the appointment of Inspector and Director of Royal Buildings, he embellished the palace and made great improvements in that portion of the neighbourhood known to-day as the Champs elysees.

It was now only that the mansion, called successively Hotel d'Evreux, Hotel de Pompadour, and Hotel de Marigny, received the name of elysee.

Towards the period of the Revolution, in 1786, the elysee Palace was purchased by the king, and, according to the terms of a royal decree, was to be reserved for the use of princes and princesses visiting the French capital as well as amba.s.sadors charged with special missions.

Almost immediately afterwards, however, the structure was bought by the d.u.c.h.ess of Bourbon, when elysee Bourbon became its recognised name.

This very appellation was enough to condemn it in the days of the Revolution; and the d.u.c.h.ess of Bourbon having migrated, her property was seized and confiscated. Sold by auction, it was acquired by Mlle. Hovyn, who seven years later ceded it to Murat; and Murat, on leaving Paris to a.s.sume the crown of Naples, presented it to the emperor.

Napoleon accepted the gift and took a fancy to his new edifice. He often resided there; and after the defeat of Waterloo it was at the elysee that he signed his abdication in favour of his son.

In 1814 and 1815 the elysee was temporarily occupied by Alexander I. of Russia. At the Restoration, the d.u.c.h.ess of Bourbon, returning to France, claimed her property. Her rights were recognised, but she was prevailed upon to accept, in lieu of the elysee, the Hotel de Monaco in the Rue de Varennes, which she left by will to the Princess Adelaide of Orleans, sister of Louis Philippe.

Under the Restoration, it was at the elysee, now called once more elysee Bourbon, that the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Berry resided until 1820, when, after the a.s.sa.s.sination of the duke, the d.u.c.h.ess felt unable to live there any longer.

The duke and d.u.c.h.ess were the last permanent tenants of the elysee, which under the reign of Louis Philippe was utilised, in accordance with the intentions of Louis XVI., as a resting-place for royal guests, or guests of the first importance. In its new character it received Mahomet Ali Pasha of Egypt, and Queen Christina of Spain.

After the 10th of December, 1848, Prince Louis Napoleon, elected President of the Republic, had the elysee a.s.signed to him as his official place of residence. It was here that the _coup d'etat_ of the 2nd of December, 1851, was planned and plotted by the Prince-President, and the Count de Morny, his minister, confidant, and guide, General St.

Arnaud, and other accomplices. On proclaiming himself Emperor, Napoleon III. gave up possession of the elysee, and removed to the more regal, more imperial palace of the Tuileries; the elysee, being now once more set apart for foreign potentates and other grandees visiting Paris.

Under the Second Empire Queen Victoria, the Sultan Abdul Aziz, and the Emperor Alexander II. of Russia, were successively received there.

Since the establishment of the Third Republic the elysee has been made the official residence of the President; and it has been inhabited, one after the other, by M. Thiers, Marshal MacMahon, M. Grevy, and M. Carnot.

It has been said that the elysee Palace stands between the Rue du Faubourg St. Honore and the Champs elysees, with its princ.i.p.al entrance in the street. Between these two thoroughfares stood the ancient Village du Roule, which possessed, as far back as the thirteenth century, an asylum for lepers with a chapel attached to it. This chapel was in 1699 elevated to the rank of parish church, under the invocation of St.

Philip. Being now too small it was pulled down; and in place of it was built the present church of St. Philippe du Roule, which underwent a partial transformation in 1845 and 1846.

The princ.i.p.al avenue of the Champs elysees was planted with trees in 1723; but it was not until the reign of Louis XVI. that the Champs elysees, or rather that portion of the avenue known as Longchamp, became a haunt of fas.h.i.+on.

The so-called promenade of Longchamp was, towards the end of the eighteenth century, frequented by the most aristocratic society.

Gradually after the Revolution it got to be a more miscellaneous resort, to become ultimately, in modern times, a sort of show ground for fas.h.i.+onable milliners and dressmakers, hatters and tailors. The Abbey of Longchamp, whence the promenade derived its name, was founded as a convent in the thirteenth century by Isabelle of France, sister of Louis IX., and pulled down at the time of the Revolution. It was situated close to the Bois de Boulogne, near the village of that name.

"I wish to ensure my salvation," wrote the Princess Isabelle to Hemeric, Chancellor of the university, "by some pious foundation. King Louis IX., my brother, grants me 30,000 Paris livres, and the question is, shall I found a convent or a hospital?" The Chancellor's advice was to establish an asylum for the nuns of the order of St. Clara.

In 1260 Isabelle built the church, the dormitories, and the cl.u.s.ter of the Humility of Our Lady; and according to Agnes d'Harcourt, who has written her life, the whole of the 30,000 livres was consumed. The year afterwards, on the 23rd of June, the nuns of the rule of St. Francis took possession of the abbey in presence of Louis IX. and all the Court.

The king gave considerable property to the nuns, whom he often visited, and, by his will, dated February, 1269, this sovereign, on the point of undertaking his last expedition to Palestine, left a legacy to the Abbey of Our Lady. Isabelle in this very year ended her days within its walls.

The royal origin and a.s.sociations of the house which the princess had founded ensured for it the patronage of successive French sovereigns--Marguerite and Jeanne de Brabant, Blanche de France, Jeanne de Navarre, and twelve other princesses, taking the veil there; and it is recorded that Philippe le Long died in it with his daughter Blanche by his side on the 2nd of December, 1321, of complicated dysentery and quartan fever. When he was approaching his end the abbe and monks of St.

Denis came in procession to his aid, bringing with them a piece of the True Cross, a nail that had been used at the Crucifixion, and one of the arms of St. Simon. The exhibition and application of these pious relics gained for the king enough time to make his will, after which he expired.

Longchamp had no fewer than forty nuns in residence. Its proximity to Paris, its ill.u.s.trious origin, its not less ill.u.s.trious visitors, its aristocratic inhabitants, its vicissitudes during the sanguinary civil wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, its decline, and, ultimately, its ruin, invested it with extraordinary interest. As regards the history of the abbey, it must be mentioned that, as with all other convents, its discipline gradually became relaxed until at last purity gave way to licence. Henri IV. took from Longchamp one of his mistresses, Catherine de Verdun, a young nun of twenty-two, to whom he gave the priory of St. Louis de Vernon, and whose brother, Nicholas de Verdun, became first President of the Parliament of Paris.

"It is certain," wrote St. Vincent de Paul, on the 25th of October, 1652, to Cardinal Mazarin, "that for the last 200 years this convent has been gradually getting demoralised until now there is less discipline there than depravity. Its reception rooms are open to anyone who comes, even to young men without relations at the convent. The order of friars (Cordeliers) under whose direction it is placed, do nothing to stop the evil. The nuns wear immodest garments and carry gold watches. When, war compelled them to take refuge in the town the majority of them gave themselves up to all kinds of scandals, going alone and in secret to the men they desired to visit."

It is evident from this letter that there were intimate relations between the Abbey of Longchamp and Paris. It had been the custom, moreover, since the fifteenth century, to go to Longchamp to hear the friars of the order of Cordeliers preach during Lent.

"In 1420," says the journal of Charles VII., "Brother Richard, a Cordelier, lately returned from Jerusalem, preached such a fine sermon that the people from Paris who had been to hear it made more than one hundred fires on their return--the men burning tables, cards, billiard-tables, billiard-b.a.l.l.s, and bowls; while the women sacrificed head-dresses, and all kinds of body ornaments, with pieces of leather and pieces of whalebone, their horns and their tails."

A great many miracles were said to take place through invocations addressed to the Princess Isabelle, whom Pope Leo X., by a bull dated January 3, 1521, had canonised; while he, at the same time, granted to the nuns of Longchamp the privilege of celebrating annually, in her honour, a solemn service on the last day of August. From the early days of the reign of Louis XV. date those regular pilgrimages to Longchamp during Holy Week, which were soon to degenerate into mundane promenades.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HORSES OF MARLY, CHAMPS eLYSeES.]

At one time the singing of the nuns had been found attractive. In 1729 a vocalist from the Opera, Mlle. Lemaure, sang with the choir, and "all Paris" went to hear her. The nuns profiting by her lessons, and studying her style, sang the "Tenebrae" during Holy Week with so much success that in order to make the choir perfect the abbess applied to the Opera for some additional voices. The abbey was now more than ever besieged.

People crowded round the walls, filled the churchyard, and, according to one writer, stood on the tombstones. If the chorus-singers from the Opera were not converted to piety by the nuns, the nuns underwent the influence of the professional vocalists. At last, one Wednesday in Holy Week, a brilliant gathering of fas.h.i.+onable people arrived at the church of Longchamp only to find it closed. The Archbishop of Paris had ordered the doors to be locked.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. PHILIPPE DU ROULE.]

The original object of the Longchamp promenade was now at an end. But the promenade continued all the same; and it was at Longchamp every Holy Week that the first spring fas.h.i.+ons were to be seen. This lasted for many years, until at last, as already set forth, the Longchamp Promenade became a medium for the exhibition of such articles of dress as the leading dressmakers, milliners, and tailors wished to see adopted during the approaching season.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE eLYSeE.]

Meanwhile, at the time of the Revolution, the old convent of Longchamp was brought to the hammer, and not only knocked down but pulled down.

The tombs in the church were broken up, and the ashes of the pious founder, Jeanne de Bourgogne, wife of Philippe le Long, of Jean de Navarre, and of Jean II., Count of Dreux, were dispersed. Of Longchamp nothing remained but the name.

To many the Champs elysees are chiefly interesting as leading to the Bois de Boulogne with its picturesque scenery and its romantic lake, suggestive, in a small way, of the beautiful Loch Katrine. The Bois de Boulogne owes its name to the church of Notre Dame de Boulogne, built in the year 1319, under Philip, surnamed the Long. He gave permission to the citizens of his good town of Paris who had been on a pilgrimage to visit the Church of Nostre Dame de Boulogne-sur-le-mer, to build and construct a church, and there to inst.i.tute a religious community. The new church became itself an object of pilgrimage, like the original church of Notre Dame at Boulogne-sur-mer, founded, according to the legend, in memory of the landing on the coast of the Holy Virgin accompanied by two angels.

Up to the time of the Revolution the Bois de Boulogne was little more than a wilderness. Napoleon I. cut walks and avenues through it, and caused trees to be planted, so that it was already one of the most agreeable places in the neighbourhood, when, in 1815, after the Waterloo campaign, the soldiers of the Duke of Wellington and of the Emperor Alexander I. encamped beneath its groves; which they are said to have mutilated and ravaged.

The Bois de Boulogne was considerably diminished when, in 1840, the fortifications of Paris were being constructed, the wood being traversed by the lines of brickwork. Soon afterwards, in 1852, under the Second Empire, it was made over to the town of Paris, and converted by the munic.i.p.ality into a park after the English model, with all the agreeable delightful features it now possesses.

The first improvement introduced was the river with its picturesque islands and the lake with its wooded banks and its Swiss cottages. The waterfalls or "cascades" give their name to the celebrated restaurant and cafe constructed by their side; and for the last thirty or forty years the Bois de Boulogne has possessed s.p.a.cious avenues, with gra.s.s borders and endless rows of lamps. The gra.s.s plots in every direction, and here and there wide lawns, give a softness to the general picture which has not its equal in any European capital.

In the Bois de Boulogne stood formerly the Chateau de Madrid, said to have been erected by King Francis I. in memory and on the pattern of the one where, after the defeat of Pavia, Charles V. had held him captive.

In spite of the recollections which it must have evoked, and which it is said to have been intended to evoke, Francis I. often visited his castle in the wood. It was turned to questionable use by various kings of France, and Henry III. varied the diversions of which it was so often the scene by introducing combats between wild beasts and bulls.

One night, however, this depraved and sanguinary monarch dreamt that his animals wished to devour him, and the next morning he gave orders that they should all be killed and replaced by packs of little dogs.

What remains of the ancient chateau is now a fas.h.i.+onable restaurant.

Close by is the delightful Bagatelle, built in sixty-four days by the Count of Artois, and called at one time Folie d'Artois. Above the princ.i.p.al entrance the Count (afterwards Charles X.) had inscribed the words, _Parva sed apta_. Under the Revolution this "small but suitable"

structure was used for public festivals; and it was here, at the time of the Restoration, that the Duke of Bordeaux, posthumous son of the Duke of Berry, was brought up.

The Duke of Bordeaux (who afterwards took the t.i.tle of Count of Chambord) was the last representative of the elder branch of the Bourbons, a house which is said to have produced since the fourteenth century some six hundred remarkable men, chiefly soldiers, and which, apart from their feats of war, founded thrones in all the Latin countries of Europe--in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. It has been said that the duke was brought up as a child at Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne; and many were the speculations and suspicions of which he was at that time the subject. When, indeed, after the Revolution of 1830 Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, a.s.sumed the crown, and was thereupon accused by the partisans of the dethroned Charles X. of violating his promise to act as Regent until the majority of the Duke of Bordeaux, a paper was issued, apparently by the Orleanists, denying that the Duke of Bordeaux was the legitimate son of the a.s.sa.s.sinated Duke of Berry, eldest son of Charles X. The _Courrier Francais_, a journal devoted to the new dynasty, now published a letter which had first appeared ten years before in the _Morning Chronicle_ of London, a.s.serting the illegitimacy of the Count of Chambord.

"The proposals," said the _Courrier Francais_, "which the Duke of Mortemart has just made to the Chamber of Peers in favour of the Duke of Bordeaux will naturally recall attention to a subject which at last may be freely examined and discussed. We shall confine ourselves to publis.h.i.+ng a doc.u.ment inserted in the English papers of the time, and which has never appeared in France. Its publication is perfectly opportune; it completes the parallel that has been drawn until now between the Stuart and the Capet families." The _Courrier Francais_ then reproduced a doc.u.ment ent.i.tled "Protest of the Duke of Orleans," which ran as follows: "His Royal Highness declares by these presents that he protests formally against the proces-verbal dated 29th September last, which doc.u.ment professes to establish the fact that the child named Charles Ferdinand Dieudonne is the legitimate son of Her Royal Highness the d.u.c.h.ess of Berry. The Duke of Orleans will produce in fit time and place witnesses who will make known the origin of the child and of its mother, and he will point out the authors of the machination of which that very weak princess has been the instrument."

The _Morning Chronicle_, in publis.h.i.+ng the doc.u.ment about six weeks after the Count's birth, denied its authenticity, adding, however, that it was being industriously circulated in every part of France, and that a copy of it had been addressed to the amba.s.sador of every Power represented at Paris. It was not, of course, under Charles X. published in any Paris newspaper; and when at last, in Louis Philippe's reign, it found its way into the columns of the _Courrier Francais_ it was impossible not to notice that the journal which first printed it was one devoted to the interests of the new king.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GREAT LAKE, BOIS DE BOULOGNE.]

The Chateau de la Muette, another of the remarkable edifices in the Bois de Boulogne, was originally a hunting-box where Charles IX., the hero of the St. Bartholomew Ma.s.sacre, used to shoot stags and boars from a box before giving himself the royal pleasure of shooting Huguenots from the balcony of the Louvre.

The Avenue Marigny has a greater number of frequenters among the Parisian public than the more distant Bois de Boulogne.