Le Marais, Paris

During the mid-C13th Charles I of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX, built a splendid palace in the Marais. 100 years later, King Charles V built another splendid palace which served the royal court very well indeed. But it really took until King Henri IV decided to build Place Royale in 1605-1612 that we can see the rise and rise of the Marais as a posh place of residence.

One side of Place des Vosges

Place Royale, the planned square now called Place des Vosges, was inaugurated in 1612 to celebrate the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. It provided my first model for urban town planning with trees, pre-dating London’s residential squares by quite a long time. Today’s visitors can still see the brick house facades that were part of an integrated and impressive cityscape. Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII erected in the centre.

If French nobles once fell over themselves to build their urban mansions in the Marais, why did it end? Because the main French court moved from the Louvre Palace to Versailles in the 1680s, so the nobility moved away from the Marais in order to be closer to Court.

All the aristocratic building programme of the C17th became a distant memory for 19th century Parisians of the 4th arrondissment. At the end of the C19th and even after WW1, millions of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe moved west. Most went to New York, Chicago, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, London and Manchester, but thousands and thousands settled in the district around the rue des Rosiers. Perhaps they needed kosher food shops and synagogues. Perhaps they were seeking work in the Marais’ factories and retail outlets.

Main synagogue, built in 1913

Jewish bookshops, bakeries, restaurants, clothing shops and schools popped up everywhere. The largest synagogue in the Marais, close to rue des Rosiers, was designed in 1913 by the architect Hector Guimard. This delightful building was blown up by the Nazis during the war, but has since been restored to its pre-war splendour.

When the Germans invaded France in May 1940, 175,000 Jews were living in Paris. The Vichy French collaborated with the Nazis and by the time the Allies liberated Paris in Aug 1944, 50,000 Parisian Jews had been deported & murdered.

Today most Parisien Jews live in the 4th (Marais), 9th, 11th, 13th, 19th and 20th arrondissements.

Note the 4th arrondissement

In 1964, General de Gaulle's Culture Minister Andre Malraux made the Marais the first protected conservation area, a place of special cultural significance. Money poured in for the area’s restoration.

Apart from the delicious kosher restaurants and bakeries, another reminder of the deep Jewish presence in the Marais is the Museum of Jewish Art and History. Opened in Dec 1998 with special music and posters, the museum is dedicated to French Jewish life via the arts, documents and religious artefacts. And not just pre-war Ashkenazim. The Sephardi Jews of the Maghreb (North West Africa) played a very significant role in Paris after WW2, a role that is well reflected in the Museum of Jewish Art and History.

Carnavalet Museum

The main hôtels particuliers/private houses were not pulled down. Instead they became excellent museums eg Picasso Museum is in the old Hôtel Salé and the Paris Historical Museum is in Hôtel Carnavalet. Where possible, the interiors of these private houses were maintained and modernised.

Picasso had amassed an enormous collection of his own work by the time of his death in 1973. So Musée Picasso houses thousands of his own art objects, plus Picasso's own personal art collection of works by Cézanne, Degas, Seurat, Matisse and others. This museum is closed now, for renovations, but will open again next year (2013).

Carnavalet Museum is housed in adjoining hôtels particuliers and specialises in Paris’ history. Baron Haussmann may have been heavy-handed when he reorganised Paris in the 1860s, but he made a great decision on behalf of the Municipal Council of Paris. Carnavalet opened to the French public in 1880 and opened to my sons in 110 years later. The boys loved the squillions of street photographs, art works, models and furniture. And because we ate at a different kosher restaurant or bakery every night for a week, my sons now believe the Marais has the best food in the universe.

Restaurants and coffee shops in the Marais

Two other places to visit locally. Of all the people who ever lived in Place des Vosges, Victor Hugo would be the most famous. This literary genius lived in #6 during the 1832–1848 era, now an evocative site for the Victor Hugo House-Museum. And the Salon Frédéric Chopin is a small museum dedicated to the musician's life in Paris. The salon has his paintings, furniture and musical equipment.

For a good look at Place des Vosges in particular, see Melbourne - Our Home By The Bay.