We will start in the Odéon area, continuing through the lively streets of Buci and Saint-André-des-Arts and will finally come back to boulevard Saint-Germain reaching our starting point at metro Odéon.
Though we will be strolling mainly in the 6^tharrondissement, we will cross several districts, looking quite different. Although different, they are all marked by literature and arts, and also by history, especially the revolutionary period. There is no specific theme for this stroll, other than enjoying the atmosphere of this district and of course following the invisible thread of the places captured by the photographer Atget.

Place de l'Odéon

Let's take rue de l'Odéon up to the theater. I always have the same pleasure walking rue de l'Odéon, along the shops and bookstores with a beautiful view on the theater with Jardin du Luxembourg sitting like behind the scenes.

As soon as the weather is nice, the half-moon shaped square is occupied by a terrace in front of the classical colonnaded theater. Open in 1782, it is the first monumental theater built in Paris, providing a more convenient home for the King's Players (Les Comédiens du Roi) than the one located at rue del'Ancienne Comédie, too small. Twice burned down and rebuilt in the past, it has been completely renovated in 2006 and continues to provide classical and modern high quality plays.

As can be seen on the picture taken by Atget, the theater arcades used to be dedicated to the book selling. The publisher Flammarion started there as a bookseller. The book selling activities under the arcades stopped in the 50s.

Flammarion is now located at nr1, place de l’Odéon, where was Café Voltaire founded in 1750, a favorite place for writers and poets for many years, like Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Gide, Valéry … It was also the favorite spot for the writers who gathered at the two avant-garde bookstores located rue de l’Odéon: Shakespeare and Company * owned by Sylvia Beach and la Maison des Amis des Livres owned by Adrienne Monnier. Among these writers were Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound named by Gertrude Stein the Lost Generation because of the World War 1.

* The bookstore Shakespeare and Company, founded by Sylvia Beach, closed in 1941 during the German occupation of Paris. When Sylvia Beach died in 1962, Georges Whitman renamed his bookstore, rue de la Bûcherie into Shakespeare and Company.

Café Voltaire
Place de l’Odéon
Atget
(Musée Carnavalet)

In my introduction, I was mentioning the fact that this neighborhood had been marked by the Revolutionary period. Camille Desmoulins was living here at no 22, rue de l'Odéon at the nearby Cordeliers Convent where he met with Danton and Marat. Arrested at home the same day as Danton, he was taken to the nearby Luxembourg Palace transformed into a prison, before his execution the 5th of April, 1794.
Let's go now rue de l'Ecole deMédecine, where used to be the Revolutionary Cordeliers Club taking its name from the Convent. For this, let's follow rue Casimir Delavigne, cross rue Monsieur le Prince where there are several bookstores including two English ones; and finally let's go down few steps rue Antoine Dubois which leads to rue de l'Ecole deMédecine.

Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine

Naturalist, rue Ecole de Médecine
Atget – 1926
(MoMA)

The Cordeliers Convent was standing where is today the Faculty of Medicine. This is where the members of the Cordeliers club were meeting during the French Revolution. One of them, Marat, was living in a nearby house which was destroyed when boulevard Saint-German was built. This is at his home that Marat was stabbed to death by Charlotte Corday, the 13th of July, 1793, when he was in a sulfur bath as a remedy against a severe skin disease.

Before the burial in the garden of the convent, the state funeral of Marat was dramatically arranged by the painter David in the Church of Cordeliers. The corpse, draped under a wet sheet in imitation of antique statues, was exposed on a high tricolor platform against which the crowd thronged. Since the church and the burial place were very close, David organized a long procession starting rue des Cordeliers, stopping at the Pont-Neuf bridge where cannons fired a salvo, then coming back via Pont aux Changes bridge to Odéon theater. Beyond his death, Marat somehow continued to participate in the revolutionary debates as his embalmed heart was sealed into an urn and suspended from the Club's ceiling.
With the building of the School of Medicine, nothing is left, but the refectory (Réfectoire des Cordeliers)- now completely renovated - and the Marat's bath tub that can be seen at the Grévin Museum.

Cour de Rohan

Cour de Rohan - Rue du Jardinet
Atget - 1915
(Médiathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine)

Let's now cross boulevard Saint-Germain and go straight ahead rue de l'Eperon; on our left, let's take the narrow and quiet rue du Jardinet, now a dead end since the three successive courtyards of Cour de Rohan is now closed to the public. Because it was a dependence in the XVth century of an old mansion owned by the cardinal of Rouen, it got the name of Rohan or Rouen.

Not that long ago, it was possible to walk between rue du Jardinet and Passage du Commerce through the quaint three courtyards. Today, there is the only possibility to have a look from behind the gate of rue du Jardinet; from there you will be able to see the first courtyard and the elegant brick and stone facade high above the second courtyard.

The last time I came I was very lucky to meet with a charming lady (even more lucky to live there) and kind enough to let me in.

A few curiosities:

in the first courtyard, hidden behind the flowerpots, a very old well;

in the second courtyard, a wrought iron tripod used in the past to dismount more easily from a horse (pas de mule - last remaining in Paris).

The third courtyard opening on passage du Commerce (joining Boulevard Boulevard Saint-Germain with rue Saint-André-des-Arts), is where the painter Balthus had his studio up several flights of the outside stairs.

There is poesy in Atget's photos showing a simple setting of stones blackened by the time. I have a strange feeling when superimposing them with the view of the hidden place today, seemingly still in its original state and in reality a discrete luxury. Certainly this is still a small corner of paradise, like Diane de Poitiers would have enjoyed when she met here the king Henri II, definitely a haven of peace compared to the nearby Passage du Commerce, a noisy tourist attraction.

Passage du Commerce Saint-André

Let's come back and let's turn right in boulevard Saint-Germain and enter at nr 130 into Cour du Commerce.
Before the construction of boulevard Saint-Germain, the passage was opened directly on rue des Cordeliers through a large arched porch. In front of the porch there was Danton's house, located more or less where is today his statue.
All the area is marked by the Revolutionary period. At nr 8, the shop was used by Marat to print his newspaper l'Ami du Peuple (the Friend of the People). In front, at no 9, the good doctor Guillotin was using sheep to refine his prototype of the guillotine.

Per Jean Clair, member of the Académie Française, Balthus’ painting Passage du Commerce Saint-André is clearly referring to the guillotine, in spite of what looks like a quiet street scene. In the middle there is the back of the painter himself, as a neighbor, with a baguette under his arm and facing the shop at no 8. Beyond just suggesting the different ages of life, with a closer look at some details, the painting, however, is referring to the guillotine.
For instance, the shop sign on the wall is referring to the locksmith at no 4 who provided the first blade of the guillotine. The small white dog with its head lowered refers to the lamb on which the blade was tried out. The blade itself is evoked by the small square shape at the front of the shop. The long, narrow and red shape in the middle of the shop refers too to the guillotine.

Today the passage is crowded with tourists and terraces of many restaurants. However, the back entrance of Café Procope, founded in 1684, is worth seeing. The Revolutionary Cordeliers Club met there and the Phrygian cap was first worn here. Before being a Revolutionary meeting place, it was a literary café. Founded by Francesco Procopio, a Sicilian who first worked at a café at the Saint-Germain fair, the Café Procope became rapidly a literary Café. Voltaire and Rousseau were regulars, Diderot would have written much of his Encyclopédie there.
Today, the atmosphere and the style of the place make it worth taking a break. The decoration includes many curiosities like a cocked hat of Napoleon, documents of the Revolutionary period, the table used by Voltaire, ... and you may sit where famous people did on a regular basis.

Let’s now go out from Cour de Commerce Saint-André through the passage toward rue de l’Ancienne Comédie.

Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie

We are walking past the front entrance of Café Procope, less quaint that the one at the back, although the wrought iron balcony is still quite impressive. Across the restaurant, at no 14, the Comédie Française was first located in 1689 in the yard of this building until its transfer to the Odéon Theatre in 1782 and finally to the Palais-Royal in 1799, giving its name to the street (ancienne Comédie meaning here former).

Let’s now follow Rue de Buci, very busy with many shops and restaurants. We take rue de Seine on our right.

Rue de Seine

Located near the Institute and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Rue de Seine is still specialized into the art and book trade.

The corner of rue de Seine with rue de l'Echaudé looks like a cake slice. And indeed the échaudé is a cake of triangle shape. Echaudé means scalded and it is the way the pastry is done. The dough is cut into triangles, thrown into boiling water and then baked in the oven.

In front of us, the classified traditional Parisian bistrot La Palette, frequented by the celebrities has still its Art Deco murals.

At no 26, at the corner with rue de Visconti, the prints gallery was in the past a wine store Au Petit Maure (The More's) of which we still can see the old grid and signboard.

Let’s take the street on the right onto rue Jacques Callot.

Rue Jacques Callot