What's on the site of 398-400 Rue Saint-Honoré at the moment?

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows what's currently on the site of 398-400 Rue Saint-Honoré, Duplay house as was? I've avoided going for years because of the fur shop - now there seems to be a tea shop/cafe when I google it. Either way, I was under the impression there wasn't much of the original building left (there seems to be a dispute about whether the whole thing was rebuilt when the extra floors were added in the 19thc, and the ground floor wall in the courtyard was taken out and made into a glass-fronted bar in the 1950's), but there's a right-wing website chatroom boasting of disrupting the 28th July commemorations in the courtyard last year (if they want a monarch, they can have ours!).
So, does any of it still exist, has it been modernised inside beyond recognition, does the courtyard survive, is it accessible to the public, and is the door that used to open onto the alternative staircase (and that had a preservation order put on it in the 1950's) still there?

Comments

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

I will be heading to Paris in September, so I will be able to confirm then, but here is what I know about the Duplay house.

The house was rebuilt in the 19th century because the original building wasn't strong enough to carry the weight of the extra floors. However, the reconstructed building followed the original floor plan.

The courtyard is still there, you enter it from a little alley off the Rue St Honoré and anyone can go into the courtyard. There had been a restaurant called Le Robespierre there for many years, though it is now closed, in what used to be the Duplay's living room. I don't know what is there now. As of the 1950s the separate door was still there, though it opened onto a storage closet. If it's got a preservation order then hopefully it's still there.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Thanks - it's good to know there's something surviving of the courtyard. I hope the occupants are sympathetic (the man who lived in John Lennon's house up the road from me hated Beatles fans!) I'm hoping to go over with friends this winter before the cheap travel stops, for what I suppose will be a tour of death sites, prisons and graveyards...Ah! Do you happen to know if the Committee of Public Safety rooms also survive? I think they were in the section of the Tuileries that survived the fire and is now part of the Louvre, but I've had no luck on google.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

From John Haycraft's "In Search of the French Revolution":

"[The Committee of Public Safety] met on the ground floor of the Tuileries, just next to the Pavillon de Flore, which survived the fire of 1871, but has been reconstructed since."

The impression I get is that the rooms did not survive, just the pavilion they were next to, and that has since been reconstructed.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Though on that note, Wikipedia says they met in the Pavillon de Flore. ;-)

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Thank you again! I suppose the museum staff may know: it'll be worth visiting anyway, but finding the room (and the ante-room....) would be an added bonus. There was a brief article in one of the British broadsheet newspapers a couple of weeks ago about touring the sites of the Revolution, but it just said the entire Tuileries was destroyed!
(It's funny- I've lived in London for years, and rarely went to the museums etc - now I'm stuck in Liverpool for a bit I'm suddenly desperate to see things!)

[marieclaire08.livejournal.com]

I've been told by Robespierrist friends in Paris that the Committee of Public Safety's rooms were in the wing of the Tuilleries Palace that burned in 1871. There is an incredibly insignificant plate on one wall of the Rue de Rivoli's collonade just across the street from the Tuilleries that marks the general area.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's a shame it's gone (I was hoping it may have been in part of the Louvre!), but at least there's some sort of marker. Still, burned in the Commune is a great way to go!

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Here's a link to the article from a week or so ago - it's from a right-wing newspaper, as you can tell!. There are 11 photos to scroll through at the top that are good, though. I knew there was a guillotine blade, and it does give the location for that! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/2281498/Paris-Back-to-the-Bastille.html

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

My, what charming commentary in that article. Oi.

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

No kidding. I've only read two paragraphs so far and I already want to reach through the screen and slap the greasy, smug twatface who wrote it!

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Think how I feel! This is the newspaper of the English Aristocracy, aka "The Torygraph" - and in 2010, barring a miracle, their 'people' are going to be in government - they'll be the poshest since the 1950's. It was, weirdly, the only newspaper to do an item on Bastille Day, though, so I posted it for the pics!

[mmejavert.livejournal.com]

I'm leaving for Paris later this week -- if you'd like I can make sure to stop by and take a photo? :)

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi, yes, that would be great, if it's convenient for you!

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

If you could, try to see if there's any way to get a tour inside the Pavillon de Flore. I looked on the Louvre website and didn't see anything about it.

[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

I was there this morning, actually! Um - it was some sort of clothing store, I believe - I paid surprisingly little attention I guess - because I was getting nervous, pacing in front of the same place, while there were lots of people walking by and construction work going on right outside. (I was also having a hard time gauging which building it was, because the street numbers skipped from 392 to 400 or something like that.) But some fellow kindly illustrated the approximate space for me by leaning out the window of the first or second floor and yelling something at the construction workers.

Gosh, this is not a helpful answer at all. I guess my visit was not very productive. :/

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Ah! Maybe you'll get Stendhal Syndrome (very French, that - being overwhelmed with the sublimity of art
and fainting! Named after the author of Le Rouge et Le Noir, who fainted in Florence). Did the man in the window notice you and come to your aid? "A lost Robespierriste - or Desmoulinsiste..!"

Google comes up with a cafe called 'Les Delices De Manon' or the evil fur shop of Feraud (white fronted)- and also I've just found offices and apartments to let! (Some tourist website from last year with someone asking "I've booked a room in 398-400, is it a nice neighbourhood?" Argh! It's clearly wasted on them!). There's also a plaque high up which royalists regularly destroy.

Thanks, and good luck with your search for Marat! (And what happened to his embalmed heart?)

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

I think I read Les Delices de Manon is next door.