Paris Noir

by Jacques Yonnet

  The Irish college was founded by two Irish priests‚ Patrick Maginn and Michael Kelly‚ who in 1671 and 1681 received letters patent from the King authorizing them to take over the Lombard college on Rue des Carmes‚ founded in 1334 for students from Italy‚ which by the 17th century was falling into ruin.

  * Tour Pointue

  A popular name for the Prefecture of Police‚ dating from the 19th century‚ and deriving from the shape of the tower on the corner of Rue de Jerusalem‚ on which the Prefecture was originally located‚ a street on Ile de la Cité that no longer exists‚ and so called because pilgrims to the Holy Land used to stay there. After these original premises were set on fire by the Communards in 1871‚ the Prefecture moved into a new building‚ the Caserne de la Cité‚ constructed as part of Baron Haussmann’s scheme for the remodelling of Paris.

  * Henri Vergnolle

  Author’s note: Henri Vergnolle was to become Chairman of the City Council after the Liberation.

  * La Source and D’Harcourt

  Two cafés in the Latin quarter‚ the Source at 35 Boulevard St Michel‚ D’Harcourt at Place de la Sorbonne. D’Harcourt was the name of a canon from an old Normandy family who in 1280 founded a college in Rue de la Harpe for poor students from the dioceses of Coutances (where his brother was bishop)‚ Bayeux‚ Evreux and Rouen. In 1820 the Lycée St-Louis was erected on the site of D’Harcourt’s college.

  * Fréhel

  Marguerite Boulc’h (1891–1951)‚ music-hall star‚ born in Paris of Breton origin‚ who began her career under the patronage of La Belle Otero‚ singing first under the name of Pervenche and later Fréhel (after Cap Fréhel in Britanny). Her most famous song is ‘La Java Bleue’‚ recorded in 1939. She also appeared in a number of films including Julien Duvivier’s Pépé le Moko‚ starring Jean Gabin as a French gangster. Personal tragedy and unhappiness led to attempted suicide‚ drug addiction and alcoholism‚ and she ended her days in misery.

  * Georges Darien

  Anarchist writer (1862–1921)‚ whose scathing exposé of military justice and the army’s Bat’ d’Af’ disciplinary units in North Africa (referred to in popular parlance as Biribi) was published in 1890.

  * Montehus

  Born Gaston Mordachée Brunswick (1872–1952)‚ popular songwriter‚ whose anti-militarism and socialist sentiments won him the admiration of Lenin during the latter’s four-year exile in Paris 1909–12. Awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1947.

  * beauceron

  A type of sheep-dog of ancient origins‚ used on the agricultural plains round Paris‚ with the same sort of colouring as a rottweiler. Also called a bas-rouge (literally‚ ‘red sock’) or a Berger de Beauce (literally‚ ‘Beauce sheepdog’).

  * Hôtel-Dieu

  Literally‚ Hostel of God. Hospital dating back to the 7th century‚ when St Landry‚ Bishop of Paris‚ began treating the sick in the monastery of St Christopher‚ on the site of which the Hotel-Dieu was built during the 8th century. Under Louis IX the hospital was restored‚ enlarged and richly endowed. Rebuilt in 1878‚ it now stands on the north side of the Ile de la Cité between the Pont Notre-Dame and the Pont d’Arcole.

  * St-Louis

  Hospital specializing in dermatology‚ in the 10th arrondissement on Place Dr-Alfred-Fournier.

  Chapter IV

  * Laughter is proper to the man

  Reference to Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel‚ dedication To the Readers: ‘Rire est le propre de l’homme.’

  * Glacière

  A district to the west of Les Gobelins‚ in the 13th arrondissement.

  * François Villon

  Author of one of the most celebrated lines of poetry – ‘Où sont les neiges d’antan’ [Where are the snows of yesteryear?]. (Another of his lines ‘autant en emporte le vent’ was adopted as the French title of Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind). Born in Paris in 1431‚ date of death unknown. Villon’s small body of surviving work reflects his disreputable life and criminal associations that earned him arrest‚ imprisonment‚ and eventually a death sentence commuted to ten years’ exile from Paris.

  * ‘the days of wanton youth’

  Villon’s ‘Testament’ verse XXVI: Hé! Dieu‚ se j’eusse étudié&/Ou temps de ma jeunesse folle‚&/Et à bonnes moeurs dédié‚&/J’eusse maison et couche molle. Oh God! If only I’d studied&/In the days of my wanton youth&/And cultivated good behaviour‚&/I’d have a house and a soft bed.

  * Auteuil

  The southern part of the wealthy 16th arrondissement in south- west Paris.

  * prohibited zone

  Under German occupation‚ France was divided into Vichy France in the south and Occupied France in the north. Furthermore‚ Alsace-Lorraine was incorporated into the Reich‚ while the very north and the Pas de Calais were put under the administration of Occupied Belgium. In the north-east‚ from Picardie to Lorraine‚ there was a so-called prohibited zone‚ where the population that had fled during the exodus was not allowed to return‚ and land belonging to these exiles was appropriated for cultivation by German farmers.

  * Argonne trenches

  To the west of Verdun‚ where some of the fiercest fighting of WWI took place.

  * Fort St-Jean

  At the mouth of the harbour in Marseilles.

  * Sidi-bel-Abbès

  From 1832–1962 headquarters of the French Foreign Legion‚ founded in 1831 by King Louis-Philippe for the conquest of Algeria.

  * Monastir

  The name by which present-day Bitola‚ in southern Macedonia‚ was known under Turkish rule.

  * Hendaye

  On the border between France and Spain‚ at the mouth of the Bidassoa estuary on the Atlantic coast.

  * Kharkov

  Also in the Ukraine‚ west of Kiev.

  * Marquis de Ste-Croix and Brinvilliers

  Notorious murderers of the 17th century‚ Marie-Madeleine d’Aubray‚ wife of the Marquis de Brinvilliers‚ and her lover Gaudin de Ste-Croix‚ conspired to murder her father and her two brothers‚ who were scandalized by their liaison and tried to oppose it. Ste- Croix died in his laboratory‚ overcome by the fumes of a poison he was developing‚ which prompted an investigation that led to Brinvilliers being brought to trial and sentenced to death. Mme de Sevigné (1626–96)‚ whose famous Letters were published in the 18th century‚ saw her taken to be executed‚ in 1676‚ and Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870)‚ author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo‚ recorded the affair in his Celebrated Crimes‚ published in four volumes‚ 1839–41.

  * St-Denis plain

  To the north of Paris‚ beyond Porte de la Chapelle‚ where the basilica of St Denis is located.

  * Lariboisière

  Hospital on Rue Ambroise-Paré near the Gare du Nord in the 10th arrondissement‚ completed in 1854 to a pavilion plan that won the approval of Florence Nightingale‚ who came to see it when it was newly opened.

  Chapter V

  * Tell me who you haunt …

  Nadja‚ an ‘anti-literary’ prose work published in 1928 by poet and author of the Surrealist Manifesto André Breton (1896–1966)‚ opens with following words: Qui suis-je? Si par exception je m’en rapportais à un adage: pourquoi tout ne reviendrait-il pas à savoir qui je ‘hante’? [Who am I? Suppose I were to make an exception and fall back on an old adage: why shouldn’t all be explained by knowing whom I ‘haunt’?]

  * Jehan de Chelles

  One of the masons of Notre-Dame‚ who has left his name on the south portal of the cathedral‚ together with the date‚ 12 February 1257‚ on which building work began.

  * Gentilly

  On the southern outskirts of Paris.

  * Salle Adyar

  Assembly room at 4 Square Rapp in the 7th arrondissement.

  * Les Halles

  The central market in Paris originated in the early 12th century when Louis VI established a market on land belonging to the priory of St Denis-le-Chartre (on a site where even in Roman
times there had been a market). It expanded under subsequent monarchs‚ with new halls added for the various goods sold. When the market was moved out of cenral Paris in the 1970s‚ the twelve enormous glass- and-iron pavilions of which it consisted by then‚ ten of which erected under Napoleon III‚ the others dating from 1937‚ were demolished and replaced by the shopping centre known as the Forum des Halles. A classic 19th-century description of Les Halles is to be found in Zola’s Le Ventre de Paris‚ 1873.

  Chapter VI

  * Brétigny

  The aerodrome at Brétigny-sur-Orge‚ some thirty kilometres to the south of Paris. (Also the site of the Treaty of Brétigny signed in 1360‚ during the Hundred Years War‚ under the terms of which King Jean II of France was exchanged for an enormous ransom.)

  * Marolles-en-Hurepoix

  A village a few kilometres south of the aerodrome.

  * Quatre-Sergents

  In September 1822‚ during a period of great political instability in France and Europe‚ four young army officers‚ Goubin‚ Pommier‚ Raoulx and Bories‚ who were members of a Republican secret society‚ were executed on the Place de Grève for conspiring to subvert their regiment‚ which deployed from Paris to La Rochelle‚ and for taking part in an abortive insurrection led by General Berton at Saumur. Because of their youth‚ courage and defiance‚ they came to be regarded as martyrs for the liberal cause.

  * Belle-Ile

  Island off the south coast of Britanny with two notoriously grim detention centres for young offenders‚ one housed in what was originally a military prison‚ which were closed in 1979. Offenders would sometimes graduate directly from Belle-Ile to the Bat’ d’Af’.

  * Casque d’Or

  The nickame of a golden-haired beauty for whose favours two rival gang leaders confronted each other on the streets of Paris in 1902‚ a story that inspired Jacques Becker’s film of 1952‚ in which Simone Signoret starred as Casque d’Or (‘Goldilocks’‚ or ‘Golden Marie’ as the film was titled in English)‚ Serge Reggiani her lover Manda and Claude Dauphin as the apache gangster Leca.

  * Val d’Amour

  The name by which Rue Glatigny (which no longer exists) on Ile de la Cité was also known. (At the beginning of the 19th century there were over 50 streets and some 20 churches or chapels on the Ile de la Cité; by the 1870s urban replanning had opened up this insalubrious warren and reduced the number of streets to no more than a dozen.)

  Until the mid-12th century attempts were made to banish prostitutes from the city altogether‚ but it became clear this was never going to be achieved. In legislation attempting to control prostitution‚ Rue Glatigny and several other streets – including Tiron‚ Chapon‚ Brisemiche – were designated areas where prostitutes were allowed to ply their trade in houses dedicated to that purpose – and which were taxed – although regulations were hard to enforce and much flouted.

  * Aliscans of Paris

  The Aliscans‚ or Alyscamps (Elysian Fields) in Arles‚ in the South of France‚ is a large necropolis founded by the Gallo-Romans‚ renowned as a site of great spirituality. It was also the site of a crushing defeat of the Christians by the Saracens‚ recounted in a 12th-century chanson de geste. There are paintings of the Alyscamps by Gaugin and Van Gogh.

  * Uncle Guillaume

  Villon‚ Le Testament‚ LXXXVII: ‘mon plus que père‚&/Maître Guillaume de Villon‚&/Qui m’a été plus doux que mère&/A enfant levé de maillon’ … [more than a father to me‚&/Maitre Guillaume de Villon‚&/ who’s been kinder to me than any mother&/towards a child raised from infancy].

  * Pomme-de-Pin

  A tavern mentioned in Villon’s Lais‚ XIX‚ and Testament‚ CI. Also mentioned by Rabelais. According to one 19th-century historian‚ located in Rue de la Juiverie (now part of Rue de la Cité) on the Ile de la Cité.

  * The Ballad of the Gallows-Birds

  Sometimes called Villon’s ‘Epitaph’. See ch.12‚ pp.207 and 208.

  * Melun

  The prison in the prefectural town of the departement of Seine-et- Marne‚ located some forty-five kilometres to the south-east of Paris‚ occupies the entire tip of the ancient island centre of the City. There is a pun here‚ linking the prison‚ called the Maison Centrale‚ with the École Centrale‚ the State School of Engineering.

  * Arbre-à-Liège

  10 Rue Tiquetonne‚ running between Rue Montmartre et Boulevard St Denis.

  * Alexandre Arnoux

  Poet‚ novelist‚ playwright (1884–1973).

  * St-Germain-l’Auxerrois

  Formerly the royal chapel‚ opposite the Louvre.

  * exodus

  The German invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940‚ followed by the collapse of the Somme-Aisne front‚ and the withdrawal of the French government from Paris on June 10‚ led to a mass exodus of some three-quarters of the population of the City‚ around two million people‚ over a period of three days. A census carried out three weeks later indicated that around 300‚000 had returned.

  * Gobelins Factory

  The famous Gobelins tapestry factory established in Paris at the beginning of the 17th century by a family of that name‚ which for a brief period under Louis XIV produced other types of furnishings for royal residences. The factory premises at one time included houses and gardens for the weavers and their families.

  * Bagneux

  Cemetery at Chatillon-Montrouge‚ to the south-east of Paris.

  Chapter VII

  * Ferdinand Lop

  French humorist and writer (1891–1974)‚ a prototype Screaming Lord Sutch who repeatedly stood for President with the slogan ‘Tout pour le front Lopulaire’ (a personalized Front Populaire). The author of‚ among other works‚ Petain and History: What I would have said in my induction speech at the Académie Française had I been elected to it (1957)‚ from 1946 to 1958 he stood on an electoral platform promising the abolition of poverty after ten o’clock at night‚ the extension of the Boulevard St Michel to the sea‚ the nationalisation of brothels‚ the award of a pension to the wife of the unknown soldier‚ and the removal of Paris to the countryside so that its citizens could enjoy some fresh air.

  * Au Pilori

  Anti-Semitic weekly published under German Occupation with an allocation of paper that allowed a printrun of 90‚000 copies.

  * Raymond Duncan

  Artist‚ printer‚ and designer (1874–1966). Eccentric brother of the dancer Isadora Duncan‚ whom he encouraged in 1900 to join him in Paris‚ where he had already taken up residence. He accompanied her to Greece in 1903. Finding shoes obnoxious‚ he was making his own sandals and now took to wearing ancient Greek- style robes. An article written by Grace Tibbits in 1917 (which appears on the Virtual Museum of San Francisco website) refers to the stir caused when he and his wife (Penelope‚ sister of the Greek poet Sikelianos) and their young son arrived in winter on a visit to the US‚ dressed in this fashion. ‘The authorities in New York said that Mr and Mrs Duncan might dress as they pleased‚ but the small Duncan would fall into the hands of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children if he weren’t more warmly garbed.’

  * as Attila was wont to say

  Attila the Hun is supposed to have said‚ ‘Where my horse passes‚ grass no longer grows.’

  * Roi des Aulnes

  Der Erl-König (The Erl-King‚ or King of the Alders) is the title of a narrative poem written by Goethe in 1782‚ based on a folk legend about Death snatching a child. Schubert wrote a song based on this poem‚ which was orchestrated by Berlioz in 1860. There is a translation of Goethe’s poem by Sir Walter Scott.

  * Kostis Palamas

  Greek poet (1859–1943)‚ author of The Twelve Lays of the Gypsy‚ a long lyrical philosophical poem from which these quotations are taken‚ figuring the Gypsy-musician who is celebrated as the symbol of freedom‚ art‚ patriotism and civilisation.

  * Admiral Horthy

  Hungarian dictator (1868–1957)‚ who served as Admiral of the Aus
tro-Hungarian fleet during WWI and as regent from 1920 to 1944. Allied with Germany and Italy at the beginning of the war‚ Hungary began negotiating a separate peace with the Allies in 1942‚ but was occupied by the Germans in 1944 and then invaded by the Russians.

  * our own concentration camps

  St Cyrien‚ Argelès-sur-Mer‚ Bacarès‚ Noe‚ Gurs‚ Vernet‚ Les Milles‚ Pithiviers‚ Rivesaltes … When the Spanish Republicans were defeated in 1939‚ thousands of refugees fled to France‚ including many who had fought with the International Brigades. They were herded into camps where conditions were appalling and kept under armed guard. After the fall of France‚ anti-Fascists of various other nationalities were interned. Many internees died in the camps‚ others in transit. Others were handed over to the Germans and deported to Germany. Jews who were rounded up in raids that began in France in 1941 were transferred to transit camps‚ such as the one at Drancy (a police barracks before the war)‚ before being deported to the death camps in Germany.

  * Clamart

  A village some five kilometres to the south-west of Paris.

  * Panaït Istrati

  Romanian writer (1884–1935)‚ who wrote in French as well as Romanian‚ and led an adventurous and peripatetic life. Kyra Kyralina was published in 1923‚ with a preface by Romain Rolland and became the first of the Adrien Zograffi cycle. A radical who became disillusioned with Soviet communism after visiting the USSR and witnessing the Stalinist regime at first hand‚ he is celebrated for remarking‚ ‘All right‚ I can see the broken eggs. Now where’s this omelette of yours?’