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The Royal Way (rue Saint-Denis)

The notorious Rue Saint-Denis
    • A neighborhood that has never been quiet
    The king's envoy calms a riot (in 1709).
    Police hover.

     

     

    The street follows the medieval path's windings.
    A gate still, to the vibrant textile district

     

     

     

     

    • Rue Saint-Denis is divided into sharply delineated segments

     

     

    « Je ne veux pas vous voir des fenêtres de mon palais. Sortez des murs ! » aurait-il dit aux prostituées. Mais pourquoi se sont-elles retrouvées sur la Voie Royale ? La rue Saint-Martin, autre voie de commerce à quelques pas, sans aura particulière, n'aurait-elle pas été plus appropriée?

    Their vocations date back to the Middle Ages. Even the red-light district is exactly where Saint Louis put it (in about 1250).

     

    "I don't want to see you from my palace! Go outside the walls!" legend has him say. But why would the prostitutes settle on the Royal Way? Wouldn't the neighboring trade route, with no special aura, have been more appropriate?

           

           

          • Saints peer down...

           

          Some parts of the street remain very beautiful, but most of the time, it looks banal and even sordid.

           

          If one looks up, however, the contrast between commerce and vestiges such as this puts our times in perspective.

           

           

          •  We evoke people who played by other rules...

           

          • Beggars, prostitutes and brigands with their organizations and codes.

           

          • The "Court of Miracles", as Victor Hugo described it in "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" and in reality.

           

          • One of France's greatest poets, a 15th-century thief, François Villon.

           

           

           

           

          Strongly associated with the Rue Saint-Denis...
          The present, one epoch among others

           

           

          The "Court of Miracles"

           

           

          Catherine La Voisin

          • The witch who brought about the fall of a magnificent favorite and reinforced the role of the first chief of police.
          Jeanne Bécu (Madame du Barry)

          • Madame du Barry, whose "gallantry" on these streets led to Versailles – and to the guillotine.

             

             

            • Medieval legacy – the cemetery and wholesale market left unbuilt-up territory at the city's heart

             

                 • Cemetery

             

             

            A rare open space, the cemetery was a place to socialize and sell old clothes.
            The cheap-clothes stores that cluster around the modern Place make it one of Europe's great centers for such wares. That is the reason why it is also a gathering-place for youth.

             

                 • Wholesale market

             

             

            The city's last Gothic church - so new it has a Renaissance façade
            The second floor of this traditional bistro looks out onto the space the market left.

             

            Next, the medieval heart of town –

            please click

             

            • Costs: please click.

             

             

            Credits:  Photos / Claude Abron; bread riot / Maurice Leloir in T. Cahu, "Le Roy Soleil", 1930; Court of Miracles, in Victor Hugo, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", 1854 ed. / Favorite / "Portrait of Madame du Barry", by Vigée-Le Brun

             

             

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