Paris Noir (34 page)

‘Is that so? As a matter of fact‚ he’s also called Thierry.’

‘And do you know his full name?’

‘No.’

‘Thierry de Sauldre!’

Thierry de Sauldre exists. I’ve slightly altered his name. He’s a talented young man from a very respectable family‚ and I certainly wouldn’t wish to cause him any harm.

So I can’t disclose here the unbelievable ransom that in order to preserve his light Thierry has to pay to Darkness. Yes‚ Darkness. Or let’s say‚ to the colour black.

Having observed or instigated these incidents‚ in any case having been personally involved in them‚ constitutes the most dreadful ordeal‚ and affords the most marvellous‚ most unhoped-for satisfaction.

My happiness has not followed the same paths as the Gypsy’s.

But like his‚ it knows no bounds.

*
  
the site of the old morgue

From 1804 located on Quai du Marché-Neuf‚ it moved in 1864 to a new building on Quai de l'Archevêché‚ behind Notre-Dame. The Morgue became a veritable tourist attraction in the 19th century‚ even included in the Thomas Cook tour of the city‚ offering the spectacle of cadavers of unknown persons laid out on slabs that they might be identified and claimed for burial. It figures large in Emile Zola's
Thérèse Raquin
‚ in which the murderer is daily drawn to the place to see if his victim has been discovered. It was eventually closed to the public in 1907.

*
  
La Tournelle

The Quai de la Tournelle runs between the Pont de l'Archevêché and the Pont de la Tournelle that connect the Left Bank to the Ile de la Cité and the Ile St-Louis. It takes its name from a tower in the City walls built by Philip Augustus at the beginning of the 13th century‚ from which a chain running across to the Tour Loriot on the right bank could block the river passage for the protection of the City. The Tournelle tower was demolished in 1787.

*
  
Boult-sur-Suippe

Village in the Marne‚ occupied by the Germans on 10 June 1940.

*
  
the Ghetto‚ behind the Hotel de Ville

More a Jewish neighbourhood than a ghetto‚ this is the area round Rue des Rosiers‚ Rue des Ecouffes and Rue Ferdinand-Duval‚ formerly Rue des Juifs‚ where the Jewish community settled in the early 13th century. There had been an earlier Jewish neighbourhood round Rue de la Juiverie‚ now part of Rue de la Cité on the Ile de la Cité‚ with a Jewish synagogue that was torn down in the 12th century and replaced with a church.

*
  
Rue des Grands-Degrés

Between Place Maubert and the Seine‚ near the Pont de l'Archevêché.

*
  
La Maube

Place Maubert‚ one of the places of public execution in Paris's turbulent past‚ famous for its barricades during the Fronde‚ the anti- royalist insurrection of the mid-17th century‚ and the Revolutionary period.

*
  
Château-Rouge

(Also known as La Guillotine‚ on rue de Galande) and
Père Lunette
‚ so called because of the glasses worn by its proprietor that were replicated as this establishment's shop-sign‚ were notoriously squalid entertainment-halls-cum-doss-houses. Both places are graphically described by J.K. Huysmans in his description of the St Séverin neighbourhood‚ in
La Bièvre et St Séverin
‚ 1898.

*
  
Rue Lagrange

Opened in 1887‚ running north off Place Maubert towards the Pont-au-Double.

*
  
Austerlitz

Napoleon's great victory against the Russian and Austrian armies on 2 December 1805‚ the first anniversary of his coronation as Emperor‚ in which the French suffered losses of 1305 dead and 6940 wounded against 11000 Russian and 4000 Austrian casualties.

*
  
Robert Desnos

Leading Surrealist poet (1900–45)‚ active in the Resistance‚ arrested by the Gestapo in February 1944‚ he died of typhus at Terezin concentration camp on 8 June 1945.

*
  
Privat d'Anglemont

Born in Guadaloupe 1815‚ died in Paris 1859.
Paris Anecdote
‚ his recorded observations of Paris life‚ culled from night-time wanderings round the City‚ caused a sensation on its first publication‚ generally given as 1854. Extract quoted p.184.

*
  
Arrests Memorables du Parlement de Paris

Case law studies that started to be published from the mid-16th century‚ establishing legal precedents and reflecting social mores.

*
  
Nationale‚ Arsenal‚ Ste-Geneviève‚ Archives

Bibliothèque Nationale
: could be said to date back to the 14th century and the first royal library of Charles V‚ whose inventoried collection of 917 manuscripts was housed in what came to be called the Library Tower of the Louvre‚ which could be consulted by scholars‚ but as this collection was dispersed on his death the real founder of what came to be the National Library was Louis XI who ruled 1461–83. Legislation requiring a copy of all books published for sale in France to be deposited in the Royal Library was passed in 1537. The royal collections were transferred in the early 18th century to Rue de Richelieu and renamed the National Library after the Revolution. Constant acquisitions and the need for more space led to the decision taken in 1988 by President François Mitterand to build new library premises. Designed by Dominique Perrault‚ this controversial edifice‚ comprising four towers‚ is located on the Left Bank between Pont de Bercy and Pont de Tolbiac.

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
: rebuilt several times over the centuries‚ destined for demolition by Louis XVI‚ a part of the old Arsenal‚ on Rue Sully between the river and Place de la Bastille‚ now houses a library of books and manuscripts relating to the history of Paris.

Bibliotheque Ste-Geneviève
: 8 Place du Panthéon.

Archives Nationales
: Hôtel Soubise‚ 60 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois.

*
  
Charles the Bold

Charles the Bold‚ who succeeded to the Duchy of Burgundy in 1467‚ led an alliance of nobles‚ known as the League of the Public Good‚ including the Duke of Britanny and the King's brother Charles‚ Duke of Berry‚ in a feudal revolt against royal authority. The humiliation of Louis XI was achieved by the Peace of Peronne in 1468‚ but the king survived long enough to see the ambitions of the Duke of Burgundy‚ who died on the battlefield in 1477‚ completely thwarted. The Duchy of Maine was united with the Crown in 1328 when Philippe of Valois became Philippe VI of France‚ the title having been assumed by then by the Counts of Valois.

*
  
La Montagne

Mont Ste-Geneviève. The hill on the Left Bank‚ rising from Place Maubert to Rue Mouffetard‚ that under the Romans was called the Hill of Lutetius.

*
  
Vieux-Chêne

69 Rue Mouffetard.

*
  
Africa Disciplinary Battalions

The so-called
Bat' d'Af'
were special units for recruits with a previous criminal record.

*
  
La Mouffe

Rue Mouffetard‚ which runs through the middle of the 5th arrondissement‚ lying between Place Maubert and Les Gobelins.

*
  
‘quickening peg'

Quotation from Rabelais'
Gargantua and Pantagruel
‚ Author's Prologue to Book Three: ‘
on nom … des quatre fesses qui vous engendrerent‚ et de la vivificque cheville qui pour lors les coupploit
' [in the name of … the four buttocks that engendered you and the quickening peg that served to join them].

*
  
Xavier Privas

Born Antoine Paul Taravel in Lyon 1863. Poet and celebrated singer who made his debut in Paris cabarets around 1890. Rue Zacharie is now known by the name of Rue Xavier-Privas.

*
  
Petit-Châtelet

Originally a defensive structure dating back to Roman times that stood at the end of the Petit-Pont on the site of today's Place du Petit-Pont‚ it was rebuilt several times‚ later serving as a tollgate‚ and then from the 14th century as a prison until it was demolished in 1782.

*
  
St Louis

Ruled France as Louis IX 1226–1270. He led the Seventh Crusade to recover Jerusalem in 1248‚ and died in Tunis at the start of the Eighth Crusade. After his death and canonization in 1297‚ a
record of his saintly life was written by his devoted subject and crusading companion Jean de Joinville.

*
  
Sorbonne
and
Irish College

In the mid-13th century Louis IX's chaplain Robert de Sorbon (the name of his native village in Picardy) founded a small theological college for poor students‚ at the time just one of the many colleges‚ most of them attached to the great abbeys and churches of the City‚ that came into being from the 9th century on and attracted students from all over France and Europe‚ so great was the renown of their teachers. (The most celebrated of whom was Peter Abelard (1079–1142)‚ who taught first at the Cathedral school and then at the school of St Geneviève). It eventually established itself as the great court of appeal on matters theological‚ and became synonomous with the university of Paris. By the 17th century there were 65 colleges in Paris. The various schools were incorporated into a single body designated the
université
in 1212‚ with statutes regulating who was entitled to teach. Students enjoyed considerable privileges and freedoms that led to violent clashes with the ecclesiastical authorities and with the townspeople.

The Irish college was founded by two Irish priests‚ Patrick Maginn and Michael Kelly‚ who in 1671 and 1681 received letters patent from the King authorizing them to take over the Lombard college on Rue des Carmes‚ founded in 1334 for students from Italy‚ which by the 17th century was falling into ruin.

*
  
Tour Pointue

A popular name for the Prefecture of Police‚ dating from the 19th century‚ and deriving from the shape of the tower on the corner of Rue de Jerusalem‚ on which the Prefecture was originally located‚ a street on Ile de la Cité that no longer exists‚ and so called because pilgrims to the Holy Land used to stay there. After these original premises were set on fire by the Communards in 1871‚ the Prefecture moved into a new building‚ the Caserne de la Cité‚ constructed as part of Baron Haussmann's scheme for the remodelling of Paris.

*
  
Henri Vergnolle

Author's note: Henri Vergnolle was to become Chairman of the City Council after the Liberation.

*
  
La Source
and
D'Harcourt

Two cafés in the Latin quarter‚ the Source at 35 Boulevard St Michel‚ D'Harcourt at Place de la Sorbonne. D'Harcourt was the name of a canon from an old Normandy family who in 1280 founded a college in Rue de la Harpe for poor students from the dioceses of Coutances (where his brother was bishop)‚ Bayeux‚ Evreux and Rouen. In 1820 the Lycée St-Louis was erected on the site of D'Harcourt's college.

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Fréhel

Marguerite Boulc'h (1891–1951)‚ music-hall star‚ born in Paris of Breton origin‚ who began her career under the patronage of La Belle Otero‚ singing first under the name of Pervenche and later Fréhel (after Cap Fréhel in Britanny). Her most famous song is ‘
La Java Bleue
'‚ recorded in 1939. She also appeared in a number of films including Julien Duvivier's
Pépé le Moko
‚ starring Jean Gabin as a French gangster. Personal tragedy and unhappiness led to attempted suicide‚ drug addiction and alcoholism‚ and she ended her days in misery.

*
  
Georges Darien

Anarchist writer (1862–1921)‚ whose scathing exposé of military justice and the army's
Bat' d'Af'
disciplinary units in North Africa (referred to in popular parlance as Biribi) was published in 1890.

*
  
Montehus

Born Gaston Mordachée Brunswick (1872–1952)‚ popular songwriter‚ whose anti-militarism and socialist sentiments won him the admiration of Lenin during the latter's four-year exile in Paris 1909–12. Awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 1947.

*
  
beauceron

A type of sheep-dog of ancient origins‚ used on the agricultural plains round Paris‚ with the same sort of colouring as a rottweiler. Also called a
bas-rouge
(literally‚ ‘red sock') or a
Berger de Beauce
(literally‚ ‘Beauce sheepdog').

*
  
Hôtel-Dieu

Literally‚ Hostel of God. Hospital dating back to the 7th century‚ when St Landry‚ Bishop of Paris‚ began treating the sick in the monastery of St Christopher‚ on the site of which the Hotel-Dieu
was built during the 8th century. Under Louis IX the hospital was restored‚ enlarged and richly endowed. Rebuilt in 1878‚ it now stands on the north side of the Ile de la Cité between the Pont Notre-Dame and the Pont d'Arcole.

*
  
St-Louis

Hospital specializing in dermatology‚ in the 10th arrondissement on Place Dr-Alfred-Fournier.

*
  
Laughter is proper to the man

Reference to Rabelais'
Gargantua and Pantagruel
‚ dedication To the Readers: ‘
Rire est le propre de l'homme
.'

*
  
Glacière

A district to the west of Les Gobelins‚ in the 13th arrondissement.

*
  
François Villon

Author of one of the most celebrated lines of poetry – ‘
Où sont les neiges d'antan
' [Where are the snows of yesteryear?]. (Another of his lines ‘
autant en emporte le vent
' was adopted as the French title of Margaret Mitchell's novel
Gone with the Wind
). Born in Paris in 1431‚ date of death unknown. Villon's small body of surviving work reflects his disreputable life and criminal associations that earned him arrest‚ imprisonment‚ and eventually a death sentence commuted to ten years' exile from Paris.