Hora fugit - Un peu de Paris 

Frist game ROUND ...

START (Départ in French)

From rue du DEPART to RUE LECOURBE ...

• Let's turn left onto boulevard du Montparnasse.

  Generally, when I do happen to pass along this boulevard, it's by car most of the time, and therefore more and more rarely. I need to take this walk to realise more clearly the number of beautiful old houses that have managed to resist property speculation.

• Let's turn left onto rue de Sèvres. Behind the walls of the National Institute for Young Blind People, the garden, now open to the public, offers a quiet spot to rest. As a volunteer to read books for the Blind, I know the place which is quite close to the address of the French Blind association Api-DV.

  In front of the garden, there is an impressive modern building. This is the Hôpital Necker des Enfants malades (Necker Hospital for Sick Children). This major new complex was added to two older buildings. The first one was created before the Revolution by Madame Necker, a committed woman engaged in  improving hospital conditions, such as limiting one patient per bed, whereas the norm at that time was up to five patients per bed. This hospital was later merged with the first Hospital for Sick Children created in 1802. 

AVENUE DE BRETEUIL

RUE LECOURBE

• Let's turn left onto rue Cambronne and then left again onto rue Blomet, a street giving the feeling to be in an other time. An old watchmaker's shop and a second-hand goods dealer quietly discussing with two locals. A feeling further intensified by the few small  19th-century houses still standing up to promoters.
  

  Jean-Marie, who is with me, takes me back to the 1960s when he was a Paris fireman. At this time, there was no public garden of Oiseau Lunaire (Moon Bird). Only artists' studios. Toward the end of his life, Joan Miro who spent some time here donated the large bronze Moon Bird sculpture in memory of his young time in the rue Blomet. The statue pays also an homage to the poet Robert Desnos, who was also a regular at the Bal Blomet, a favourite spot for Antilleans living in Paris at the early 20th century.

• Just at the corner of the Bal Blomet, let's turn onto rue Copreaux, where an old house at number 19 still has its carved cartouche above the door. At the end we turn left into rue de Vaugirard. We pass the Volontaires metro station, decorated with a frieze of ceramics.  

• Turn right into rue Dulac and left into rue Falguière. Turn right onto rue Antoine-Bourdelle where stands a red and orange building that you can't miss. On the left have a look at the beautiful Musée Bourdelle. It is located in the former artist's studios, it is a free museum, so be sure to visit. A fascinating collection of mythology is displayed in the small, intimate garden and the workshop.

• At the end of the street on the right, you can reach the Montparnasse. Station.

 MONTPARNASSE STATION

In the 1970s, the new station was rebuilt per a vast project including new buildings, a shopping centre and the famous Montparnasse tower. 

Less well known is the Jardin Atlantique, a small garden on the roof of the station ! Go inside the station to Hall 1, Quai 1. On the left, take the stairs up to outside in the garden ...  A spot of green in the middle of modern buildings, from where you can hear the train announcements below your feet. Even more unusual are the tennis courts, can you believe playing tennis in the middle of Paris above railway tracks! 

Having made 11 on the dice, we're about to leave the 15th arrondissement for the Avenue Mozart.

It's not very close - we'll have to cross a lot of streets in the 15th arrondissement all the way to the Seine at the Pont de Grenelle. An opportunity to wander through some rather non-touristy streets...   

From MONTPARNASSE STATION to AVENUE MOZART ... (First part in the 15th district)

• Let's cross the Jardin Attlantique and let's exit on the Boulevard Pasteur. 

• Let's take the Rue du Cotentin, on the opposite side.

• We continue along rue Elisabeth Vigée le Brun and rue des Volontaires. We turn left onto rue de Vaugirard.

• A second opportunity to see the Volontaires metro station and a second cheat ...
  

  No matter whether I am cheating or not, let's notice the sun above the door of 226, rue de Vaugirard, formerly the Auberge du Soleil d'Or (Golden Sun Inn). You can enter the courtyard of this miraculously preserved old house, known for having been the starting point of two plots. One in 1791 by royalists and the second in 1796 against the Directoire.

• A little further on, to the right, we cross the Square Adolphe Chérioux, where is the town hall of the 15th arrondissement.

• We cross the rue Lecourbe, and we continue straight ahead on rue Péclet. At the end of the street, we turn left in front of a art-deco style cinema, the style of the whole complex of buildings around the vast Square Saint-Lambert, a peculiar area crowned with circular terraces running alongside the impressive Lycée Camille Sée, also built at the same period. The pinkish concrete school makes me think, somewhat painfully, of the same pinkish Lycée Hélène Boucher, where I had a difficult preparatory year for the HEC business school. The Hélène Boucher high school was originally a high school for the girls - could be the reason why pink concrete was used ?? Camille Sée as a deputy in parliament initiated a law in 1881 establishing high schools for girls. 

• Let's turn right onto rue de la Croix Nivert with a wonderful bonsai shop on the corner.
• At the junction of rue de la Croix Nivert and rue du Théâtre, you need to turn back to take a look at the unusual red brick building.
  

  From there, the building looks incredibly narrow ! Roger Caillois in his delightful little guide for ghosts in the 15th arrondissement has described several strange buildings, shelters for the lost in a parallel universe.

• Just next door, the building at 55 rue Croix-Nivert, curiously enclosed by rue Meilhac and rue Auguste Dorchain, takes its shape from a former theatre thus giving its name to the street we now take. 

• Let's turn onto the rue du Théâtre which leads onto the lively rue du Commerce.  With its little church, this street looks like the main street of a nice country town. There are still a few low houses, such as this curious house with a curved front, extended by three fake windows, also mentioned in the little guide for ghosts of Roger Caillois.

• Let's take a right onto the Square Yvette Chauviré and let's turn left onto the rue Violet that we follow up to place Violet. The story about Violet is perfectly in tune with the Monopoly theme. As a speculator, he made a fortune in 1824 by taking over vast  agricultural land in the plain of Grenelle. He built a new town, named Beaugrenelle. His mansion can be viewed from the public garden behind the fire station. As it often happens in the game of Monopoly, Violet lost his fortune and had to leave his mansion for a small house further in Rue Violet.

• Let's now turn left onto rue des Entrepreneurs, a most appropriate name for the game of Monopoly. Then rue Linois up to to the Grenelle bridge with its reduced version of the Statue of Liberty. 

We are now in the 16th arrondissement,

to discover the avenues Mozart and Henri-Martin ....