Hora fugit - Un peu de Paris
MONOPOLY
We are now in the 16th arrondissement to continue the first round of the game from Montparnasse station
to the AVENUE MOZART ...
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We now continue onto the rue de Boulainvilliers alongside the Maison de Radio France, where was a gas factory in the past.
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We now turn left ionto rue Jean de la Fontaine, where there are several buildings designed by Hector Guimard, known for his beautiful entrances to metro stations.
The architect was only thirty when he built the building at number 14, known as Castel Béranger. As an audacious design for a low-rent building, it got the nickname of Castel Dérangé (Disturbed Castel).
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Another of Guimard's buildings, wiser and quite extensive buildings can be seen at the junction of rue Gros, rue Agar and rue La Fontaine. For a cocktail in the evenings, there is the small Guimard bar (Cravan) on the corner of rue Gros.
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At no. 60 rue La Fontaine, this is an other building built by Guimard for a textile manufacturer, Mezzara. In 2017, I had the opportunity to visit it during Sunday tours organised by the Cercle Guimard association, which was then trying to turn it into a museum in honour of the architect.
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Let's turn right onto Avenue Mozart.
At no. 120 is the Villa Flore, where Guimard had his own mansion built, including a studio on the 3rd floor for his painter wife.
This highly residential avenue has a large number of beautiful buildings in a variety of styles. Some of them were demolished to be replaced by ugly buildings characteristic of the 1970s building operations. The one that separated two identical neo-renaissance buildings at 43 and 51 by demolishing the five houses that formed a single unit is an example.
After having made 8 with the dice, we're now heading for Avenue Henri-Martin.
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At the end of the avenue Mozart, we turn left onto the rue de la Pompe.
Then left onto rue Jean Richepin and right onto boulevard Emile Augier to avenue Henri Martin, on the right.
On our left, there's the public garden Lamartine, where locals can get their drinking water from an artesian well.
At 71, avenue Henri Martin, is the town hall of the 16th arrondissement. This is where my grand-mother came to register my birth at Villa Molière, boulevard de Montmorency. Very chic, isn't it? No glory in it though, we have no action on our birth, due to chance ... like dice on a game board... like these ones leading us now to the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré ...
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Now le't's turn left onto rue de la Pompe, alongside the Lycée Janson de Sailly.
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Keep going to avenue Foch, and cross it to take avenue Malakoff straight ahead to Porte Maillot. Now that the work on the huge RER E extension and tramway has been completed, Porte Maillot is completely different. Now, the square is vast and bright, with new planting and the historical axis stretching from the Louvre to La Défense is easy to see.
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I am very tempted to take the opportunity to cheat a third time, because coming back to Avenue de Neuilly on purpose would be of no interest for an avenue that has none at all...
Let's stop in front of the Palais des Congrès, now more in harmony with its environment.
While the Avenue de Neuilly has gained in space and perspective since the renovation, it remains the shortest avenue in Paris. And while its location, either on the board of Monopoly or close to Neuilly, might at first sight be appealing, it is of limited interest since it merely spans the ring road and cannot be built on.
At the time the Monopoly game was created, the ring road didn't exist, but there was a huge, crazy and slightly megalomaniac property project! It was the the voie Triomphale project ... to extend the historic axis outside of Paris and to build on it. For this, the architect Auguste Perret envisaged 200-metre-high residential towers all along the 11-kilometre stretch from Porte Maillot to the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye!
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Now let's go back to rue Malakoff and via rue Piccini back to the prestigious avenue Foch.
The Avenue Foch, one of the twelve avenues that lead up to the Etoile, is the widest in Paris, much wider than the Champs-Elysées. It looks like a garden with its old trees and green lawns. It was designed by Jean-Charles Alphand under Baron Haussmann, who also designed the Parc Monceau, the Parc Montsouris and the Buttes Chaumont. He is represented by a huge sculpture in the left alley towards the Etoile.
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I continue cheating ... and since we're there, let's continue along the Champs Elysées and the Avenue de Montignon before reaching the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and finishing the first round of the game on the Rue de la Paix ...
Texte / Photos : Martine Combes
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