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| Hotel de Choiseul-Praslin on the rue de Sevres. |
July 29, 2017 – An elegant anachronism on the rue de Sevres caught our attention on our walk through the 7th arrondissement yesterday.
Now the office of La Poste’s bank, this lovely building has
a historic plaque posted out front which tells the following story (translated
from French):
This stately home, built in 1732 by
the architect Sulpice Gaubier, was bequeathed in 1746 by the Countess de Choiseul
to her nephew Cesar-Gabriel; ambassador, then minister, the Count de Choiseul
had a brilliant career: in 1762 he was
given the title Duke of Praslin. He
attached his name to this home which he enlarged, embellished and occupied from
1745 to 1765. In 1768, the home was sold
to the father of the Count de Saint-Simon, founder of Saint-Simonism [a French
political and social movement]. Rented
in 1800 to the scholar/scientist Adamson, it passed through several hands
before it went in 1876 to an owner who, just up to his death, did remodeling
work that was particularly unfortunate.
In 1886, the stately home was taken by the government which housed its National
Savings Bank in it. In spite of its
misadventures, the building remains an attractive testimony to the architecture
of the 18th Century.
La Banque Postale acquired the building around 2000 and
spent 30 months restoring it. It was
opened on September 15, 2011, and was included in the public Heritage Days
event that month.
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| Chapel of St. Vincent De Paul, above, and a closer look at the reliquary above the altar (below). |
Nearby on the rue de Sevres is the chapel of the Vincentian
Fathers, also known as the Chapel of Saint Vincent de Paul (not to be confused
with the St. Vincent de Paul church, which is in the 10th
arrondissement). This beautifully
restored chapel has an elaborate altar.
Above it is a glass reliquary containing the body of St. Vincent de
Paul.
The body was exhumed to be placed in this reliquary, and
that was acceptable until it was damaged by flooding, after which the body did
decay. What is on display now in the
reliquary is the saint’s skeleton covered with wax.
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| Stained glass window in the St. Vincent de Paul chapel. |
St. Vincent de Paul was a 17th Century priest who
did the work of Jesus, caring for the destitute, orphans, outcasts, and
poor. He was a humble man, and I wonder
what he would think of such an elaborate reliquary displaying a wax image of
his body. But that’s me, thinking like a
Protestant.
The saint’s heart is in another reliquary in a nearby chapel
of the Daughters of Charity at the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal (on the rue
du Bac, across from Bon Marché, at the rue de Babylone).
The Chapel of Saint Vincent de Paul is attached to the
Lazarists Mission. That mission was
founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1625. The
Lazarists constructed the chapel in 1826-27 to honor their founder. The chapel was restored in 1983 and 1992, but
was not officially declared to be a historic monument until 1994.
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| Looking through the gate to the Lazarists Mission. |
The organ in this beautiful, elaborate chapel was made by
the famous Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1864. It must have replaced an earlier organ,
because from 1845 until his death in 1852, the organist at this chapel was none
other than Louis Braille, the teacher of the blind who invented Braille.
The former Hopital Laennec, situated across the street from
the chapel, was also named for someone who invented something life-changing: Dr. René Laennec, who invented the
stethoscope.
This hospital was originally the site of a hospice, founded
in 1634 by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld.
When that hospice was moved to Ivry, just outside of Paris, in 1873, the
hospital was renamed in honor of Dr. Laennec.
Since 2000, the work of the former Hopital Laennec is done
at the huge Hopital Européen Georges-Pompidou in the outer edges of the 15th
arrondissement.
The Hopital Laennec buildings became part of a big “Paris 7
Rive Gauche” urban renewal project. Now
beautifully restored, the hospital buildings are becoming office space. The hospital’s historic chapel, built under
the regime of Louis XIII, will be saved, but the sacristy of the chapel was
demolished in 2011 due to a “human error” on the part of the demolition
contractor! New housing units along the
rue Vaneau side will complete the "multi-use" aspect of the project.
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| Top of the chapel at the Hopital Laennec. |
After taking in these sights, Tom and I rested our feet in
the Square Boucicaut, next to the big Bon Marché department store. This lovely little park is named for
Marguerite Guerin Boucicaut, the widow of the department store’s founder. She ran the department store for ten years
after her husband’s death and until her death.
Two years after her husband had died, their only son died. Widowed and childless, she bequeathed a large
part of the Boucicaut family fortune to the public hospitals of Paris.
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| Some flowers in the Square Boucicaut. |
Other beneficiaries of her will included the employees of
Bon Marché
(according to seniority), institutions that aided young workers, associations
that protected painters and writers, the archbishop of the Catholic church, the
construction fund for reformed churches, the grand rabbi of Paris, a retirement
home outside of Paris, and finally, the Louvre and Luxembourg museums, which
received her collection of paintings.
Marguerite had come from a humble background in the town of
Verjux. Her father had deserted the
family, and she went to work as a laundress in Paris. She moved up to a job in a creamery, where
she met Aristide Boucicaut, a regular customer.
When they became romantically involved, his family did not approve of
their relationship. So, they just lived
together and had a child in 1839 before they married in 1848.
Throughout her life, Marguerite cared deeply about working
people and the poor. Through her
generosity, she helped Paris become the vibrant city that it is, and she helped
France become a country where health care is available to all – no matter how
poor.
We are all her beneficiaries.
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