Friday, September 05, 2014

A Remnant of Paris from... 1312

There are several Moulins (windmills) in Paris (Moulin Rouge, Moulin de la galette...) but they're all "fake" or rather old windmills that have been turned into restaurants or cabarets. This one remains in its original state, and it's called Le Moulin de Rouvray. It's located in the Bois de Boulogne (the woods around the Western part of Paris). It was built in 1312 within an Abbey founded in 1255 by Isabelle de France, the daughter of Louis the 8th. The Abbey was destroyed in 1795, but the windmill survived until now (it has not been used as a real windmill since 1809 though! It cannot be visited unfortunately, but you can see it from the street where I was yesterday.

15 comments:

  1. Such a contrast between the old and glimpses of the modern.

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  2. Oh I want to visit it...too bad but lovely to see this, Eric!

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  3. Wow, the Bois is really a mélange of the ancient and the modern. I am thinking of the new Louis Vuitton Foundation museum designed by Frank Gehry, which is also in the Bois. The new building reminds me more of the Sydney Opera house than the Guggenheim Bilbao, which was supposed to have inspired the Foundation museum. I wonder what Isabelle de France would have thought of it. (Sorry about the above deletion--I spotted a rather large typo.)

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    1. True Sashso, the foundation it's actually much closer to Paris than this windmill. It's supposed to open soon, I'll try a take a photo.

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  4. wow, how amazing! so is it privately owned? too bad it's not open to the public!

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    1. I'm not sure. I think it's part of the race track (hippodrome de Longchamps), which I believe is under a private/government concession agreement.

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  5. Used to walk down there from St. Cloud. Good memories

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  6. A precious and beautiful bit of History, preserved...

    Tessa~

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  7. So glad it has survived. Especially touching to see it against the backdrop of modern buildings.

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  8. Wow, that's great. I never knew it was there. It looks in pretty good condition considering the history it has seen. -Jeff

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    1. Yes I think it is. They probably did some work on it!

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  9. Someone must be taking care of it. It's lovely.

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  10. Difficile d'accès par les transports publics, c'est vrai...!
    I could not say better than you Petrea... This is amazing.

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