A few days ago, I noticed this old map of Paris in a shop window. It says "Nouveau plan de la ville de Paris, capitale du royaume de France" (new map of Paris, France's kingdom capital) but it's probably 600 years old, as it mentions l'Isle Louvier (after the name of its owner, Mr Louvier!), an island that was then next to île Saint Louis . Don't look for it if you come to Paris, this island does not exist anymore, as it has been "attached" to the right bank in 1847. I had never heard of this story until today. Thank you PDP ;)
Thank you, Eric! One of my very favorite things: old maps of Paris.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo, too.
Yay! More geography!
ReplyDeleteHey, nice story. It's near the quai saint Bernard... Does it look like a peninsula or something?
ReplyDeleteHow is it possible to own an island in Paris with the market prices...LOL
I like the indications written: Située sur la rivière de Seine (!).
And something I don't understand: "autre fois d'Autrague", probably a name.
Fascinating! I love learning new things about Paris! Yes, thank you, PDP!
ReplyDeleteOh I like this story...
ReplyDeleteThank you PDP!
How fascinating. I love old maps, very interesting to compare.
ReplyDeleteIn the shop window? I hope it's a reproduction or the sunlight will eat it up!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that is a fun tale. And the isle has its own little tail.
ReplyDeleteEric, This is so fun to know. I really enjoyed your discovery! I think "Thank you PDP!" might be a great slogan for PDP (if you ever cared to market it using slogans, that is ;^) ). I think all your visitors genuinely feel that way, though because we discover so much through your writing and photos. So, "Thank you PDP."
ReplyDelete-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo
It's amazing how many other islands there are along the Seine as it wanders/loops its way around greater Paris. For a good look check out Google maps. Use this url: www.wikimapia.org/#lat=48.86&lon=2.34&z=11&l=0&m=a&v=2
ReplyDeleteHi Eric,
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your posts everyday. Not only do you take wonderful photos; you also inform us about some truly interesting aspects of your beautiful city. I am thinking about starting a Daily Photo blog for Sydney as the 2 that exist do not seem to be active anymore.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Matt
Interesting tidbit.
ReplyDeleteAbsolument Eric, merci PDP!
ReplyDeleteLynn are you kidding?! (I just have to answer you a little something about yesterday's comments) I looove Mikhail Barishinikov since I was a teenager. I used to dance you know, modern ballet. I took some classic ballett classes too but stick to jazz. But since then I've been an admirer of Mikhail and I have to tell you that it was a dream come true when I saw him perform live at Rio Municipal Theather. I was completely in awe!!!
Now that I think of it, I also saw Rudolph Nureyev perform many many years ago. Wow, I must be getting old if I have memories like these!
Pretty cool story!
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden, my "old" Metro map that shows metro stations that no longer exist and of course, no peripherique (that's the 'freeway' that goes around Paris.) doesn't seem so old anymore! ;)
I note the map says "Royaume de France" (Kindom of France). Yikes.
Great post!
Very cool!! I can imagine that 600 years of history isn't the staggering amount in Europe as it is here in the States...here 200 years is a long time!
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting indeed...fortunately you warned us before I go searching for L'isle Louvier!
ReplyDeleteI remember heading to Ile Saint Loius specifically when i was in Paris because I knew it's Paris' smallest island and definately worth a visit for the thrill of it. Right enough, I went to the tip of the island and took lots of photos - it's a special feeling! Ile Saint Louis is also very tranquil, compared to Ile de la Cite!
I'll drink to that (in hopes of getting blitzed enough not to notice the final "e" and the umlaut).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fascinating bit of history.
A city always has two archaeological identities: one vertical, the other horizontal.
ReplyDeleteThe first can be visualized as its subterranean profile, the various historical sediments uncovered, catalogued, and analysed by archaeologists; while the second is its cartographic portrait, as depicted by the maps that have drawn, and redrawn, it features over the years. In this sense, a city is always a conglomeration of cities, some of them piled on top of each other like the stratum of a largely invisible architectural layer-cake: the remainder existing as a catalogue of drawn and printed outlines with no more substance than the paper on which they are inscribed.
There is a third identity, only it is not archaeological, or even physical, but manifests itself in the myriad versions of a given cityscape that gel and disintegrate in the minds and memories of its inhabitants. Unlike the others, this as a “city of one”, accessible only to the one who thinks it, and destined to die as soon as its thinker stops thinking - never to be resurrected by science or to be put in display in the window of a downtown antiquarian bookshop.
I just adore history and old maps.
ReplyDeleteSuzy, I agree. I would be rushing into the shop to buy the map in order to preserve it. The direct light is going to trash it.
David, thanks for the link.
Monica, There is a famous French ballet dancer, Jean Babilée, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuMBw7wz5Ns He refused to dance in tights and leotards (old fashioned) he said. He danced in Levis and t-shirt. I met him at the San Francisco Film Festival in the late 1990's. They were doing a retrospective on his life. He is awesome. Did you know that Barishinikov had it in his dancing contract that he will not lift a ballerina. I think it is because he is small. This shocked the ballet community since they were use to Nureyev. What a beautiful man -- a god, and so majestic. He ruled!
BTW my Baron is "Wild Boar Hunting". Do people do that? I told him to be careful with the gun.
poetic Lucio.
ReplyDeleteEn effet, merci PDP.
ReplyDeleteJe n'avais pas non plus entendu parler de cette île avant, alors que je m'intéresse pas malà l'histoire de la capitale.
I remember vividly when they started to dig in front of Notre Dame to make another Metro stop and instead discovered evidence of the Paris that existed centuries before -- SO exciting!
ReplyDeleteEric -- I agree totally with Matt. In addition to the great photos, your posts are always interesting.
I love old maps and bits of history like this. Also, paintings, drawings, etchings from the past that show what the land looked like then. Food for the imagination...
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing something about this, but it's a vague memory. Thank you for a fascinating post, Eric.
ReplyDeleteEcho Lois: poetic Lucio. A lovely thought, and a true one.
Alexa, the dig is now preserved as a tourist attraction, although it doesn't attract nearly the numbers Notre Dame does. You can go beneath the plaza and see how the Romans lived there long ago. And a few others as well. I loved it.
You're totally right Lucio.
ReplyDeleteAlas (or not!) Baron Haussmann with his works erased a big part of the vertical identity of the old Paris.
I love to see what were/are the changes of cities, Paris is a good example of this 'spirit of lights' (esprit des lumières) that guided all the 19th century.
Hopefully, some people like Eugène Atget 'froze' a certain view of Paris.
Tomate! - I would like to see your map too... Old metro stations sounds groovy too!
ReplyDeleteMonica you're not in the least bit old but i'm impressed that you've grabbed every opportunity and experience, as Guille is doing. It's great. Mikail is just wonderful and i was so impressed by his acting, too in SATC. I'd seen him in a film before - i forget the name - but i really felt he was so natural an actor. Why do we not see him more often elsewhere i wonder? I have danced a little but nothing like you Monica, it's great to hear. I envy that you have actually seen him. I envy Carrie more though.....;) lol!
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested to know that the ancient river between the isle Louviers and the Right bank is now the Boulevard Morland. Go there and you'll find the Interesting Pavillon de l'Arsenal, dedicated to the history of urbanism and architecture in Paris.
ReplyDeleteThe isle was rattached to the bank in 1843. Baron Haussmann is not guilty this time !
;o)
Lois & Petrea: Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGuille: Yes, Haussmann did "[erase] a big part of the vertical identity of the old Paris". I guess the only recent examples we have of such wholesale "erasure" and "redrawing" of a city are those of the postwar reconstruction of Hamburg and Dresden in Germany, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Some of the recent large-scale redevelopments in Asia and the Middle East, however, could also be classed as radical revisions of urban and social landscapes on the scale of Haussmann's nineteenth-century renewal of Paris.
Lois I did not know this fact about Mikhail's contract. Haven't I seen him lifting a ballerina before? I'm not sure, but anyway I don't think the reason would be because he is small. Those ballet dancers have a lot, I mean a lot!, of strenght in their arms. Thanks for telling me about the french dancer.
ReplyDeleteLynn you are right, when it comes to dancing and musicals, I try to grab every opportunity I have to see it. So I've seen the great ballet dancers (Barischinikov was here last year to perform again, but the tickets sold out so I couldn't go this time), Flamenco dancers, tap dancers, Broadway musicals etc. I love a good show!
I envy Carrie too! The film you saw with him was probably "White nights", with the great tap dancer Gregory Hynes and "the Queen" Helen Mirren. I think it's his most famous film. He is a great artist.
Lynn, the movie you saw MB in WAS probably White Nights, or maybe it was The Turning Point (with Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine)? If you haven't seen that, you should.
ReplyDeleteMonica -- My kids went to school with Greg Hines' son, Zachary, and we got to be friends. I miss him -- he was so hugely talented AND a real sweetheart. Also, he always smelled fantastic and he was a world-class hugger (one of those guys who just had to give you a big hug every time he saw you, and you know I loved that!).
Petrea -- I've been down there under the plaza a couple of times. Fascinating, n'est-ce pas? At the time, I told people that if that happened in New York they would probably just blow off the great archeological discovery and keep building the subway station.
White Nights, yes Alexa! I'd like to see the other one.
ReplyDeletenasty posted before me but ParisWalks tour of the two Islands gives you the story and shows you the street where the division used to be.
ReplyDeleteThank
you Guille for the book on Atget and I urge all Francophiles to get a hold of it.
Rose: hope to see check out your site soon, but I am on borrowed time on another person's computer.
Monica, My thoughts exactly. I remember I was at one of his ballets in NYC during the 1970's when I was told he doesn't lift ballerinas, and it was in his contract. I remember telling the man I was with that ballet dancers are strong. And then I tried to remember if I had ever seen him lift a ballerina. I am still waiting;-) Anyway, here is a photo of Mikhail Baryshnikov being lifted by Rob Besserer. It's a famous photo. http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/sales-events-calendar/annie-leibovitz-a-photographers-life-19902005-at-the-legion-of-honor-044224
ReplyDeleteWe found a thick paperback of Atget's photos, all-inclusive, at the Louvre shop. I'm sure it's everywhere but we got the last copy that day. It's published by Hazan. (You can also get a DVD.) Atget was most prolific around the turn of the 20th Century. A lesser-known but equally gifted photographer is Marville, who also photographed Paris obsessively. Many of his photos are undated but he was shooting in the 1850s. The equally thick paperback, also published Hazan, is not as easy to find, but I guarantee you, Marville's works are as enchanting as those of Atget, and they feel even more like time-travel.
ReplyDeleteSo Petrea, Maybe Eric's photos of Paris will be remembered in history just as Marville's and Atget's are fondly remembered -- good company.
ReplyDeleteThat would be fitting, Lois. And no one is more prolific than Eric.
ReplyDeleteGood thought about Eric's photos, Lois.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you, I just went to Google images, in an obsessive-compulsive attempt to find a shot of Baryshnikov lifting anyone. The closest I came was this (so NOT a lift): prestwidge.com/horizon/horizon19-4.jpg.
However, I do recall a scene in The Turning Point where he is rehearsing a pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet (talk about your sexual tension) and sort of lifts Leslie Brown.
Episode 3 of hospital horrors published over at mine for those wondering if i survived Grumpy Gertie's wrath.
ReplyDeleteDo they print this old map for purchase, Eric? If not, wouldn't it fly off the shelves? I'm sure it would.
Alexa, I went to see The Turning Point when it hit the theaters in the 70's. I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for him to lift a ballerina -- any ballerina;-) Why do I care? I must be a fem/girl thing.
ReplyDeleteI love old maps - especially of Paris. There is a chain of stationery stores in the Los Angeles area (maybe nationwide?) called Papyrus. They sell single pieces of gift wrap paper, and one of them is an old map of Paris. It was so awesome that I have it hung up in my office like a poster. They also have a vintage photograph of la Tour Eiffel, so of course I have that one hung up as well!
ReplyDeleteOld maps, aerial photos, I love them. I should have a...city planner or something. Oh, wait: I am! Ok, I feel better. Thanks, Eric!
ReplyDeleteOh, ok, I'll confess, it's my birthday tomorrow.
'Oh, wait:I am' LOOOL Jeff!
ReplyDeleteAbout your birthday, you should have waited that I tell everybody here!! (Something like: 'psssttt all, today is Jeff's birthday!). How impatient. ;)
Yes, I'm shameless.
ReplyDeleteLOL Jeff.
ReplyDeleteLynn, I don't know if they sell them, but I suppose they do. They were closed when I passed by their shop.
(I'll make sure I check Episode 3 of Lynn's anatomy, it always sucks when you miss an episode...
BTW, just saw La Môme on television. I had never seen it. Gee, it's really good. I'm a little sad now!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEric, you're crazy: to speak about Lynn's "anatomy"?!! Tu ne sais pas ce qui t'attends!! You don't know what is waiting for you now!! LOOOOOL
ReplyDeletehe he oh yes, Eric, DO come and inspect my anatomy. Make sure you catch all 3 parts of it! LOOOOOLLLL. Are you really coming over to see it Eric, are you? he he :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe that will cheer him up, Lynn.
ReplyDeleteOkay, kids it's time to go to bed now! The following conversation is not for your young ears...
ReplyDeleteI go to bed guys. I'm still a kid you know.
GOOD NIGHT Lynn. LOOOL
Bon anniversaire,
ReplyDeleteNos voeux les plus sincères,
Que ces quelques fleurs vous apportent le bonheur,
Que l'année entière vous soit douce et légère,
Et que l'an fini nous soyons tous réunis,
Pour chanter en coeur,
Bon anniversaire!!
I can officially say that Jeff is today older than yesterday (yes, like everybody but...).
Bon anniv' Jeff.
he he Guille you're so funny. I can't see anything risque about Eric looking at my 3 parts...? LOOOOL
ReplyDeleteOooh happy birthday Jeff! I'll show you my 3 parts too as a special birthday treat if you want. Hop over to Cheltenham. he he. Oh there's no stopping me now. I put it down to Guille. She encourages me really. Honestly, i'm a mere learner - a bystander, a novice. She's the wise one. he he.
ReplyDeleteNotre Reine est tres douce, n'est ce pas?
ReplyDeleteLynnnnn LOL!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Jeff. 32 is it?
wow i love the 'Lynnnnn'!
ReplyDeleteBon anniversaire, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup, mes amis.
ReplyDelete(Actually, Eric, if you know of Jack Benny, I'm 39. Only fiver or ten years older than you!)
Hey Jeff
ReplyDeleteI m sorry I am a little late but here we go
Happy birthday with a long and happy life ahead you with lots of annual PDP picnics in between ;)!
Jeff, like Rose, > hi Rose:), I'm a bit late but : 'bon anniversaire', especially sung by Guille to you ;), ...et beaucoup de visites à Paris!!
ReplyDelete