Andrew Hussey - Paris : the secret history

Praise for Paris: The Secret History

This 486-pager is an easy read filled with in sight and trivia thats amazing andthe subject being Parissalacious. Its a pop history that covers a lot of ground, from its pre-Roman inception on a reedy riverbank to its rise to be what is arguably the capital of the Western world. Paris itself is always front and center; along the way you meet iffy saints, literary lions and an array of wily or witless monarchs, movers and mobs whove helped shape the place. Best of all, Hussey tells you where to go to find a good bit of the inspiring and oddball past that has somehow survived centuries and redevelopment.

Raleigh News & Observer

Noteworthy.

Publishers Weekly

A compelling history... An immensely readable, richly detailed and sometimes disturbing chronicle that explores much of the darkness in the City of Light.

Kirkus Reviews

Impressive, fascinating, and highly readable... a timely book.

Library Journal

Forget The Da Vinci Code; heres the dark side of the City of Light. A mixture of enjoyably sinister trivia and deep scholarship, taking in the Knights Templar, ancient cemeteries, Joan of Arc, whores, flneurs, poets and criminals.

Independent (UK)

More than four hundred acute, riveting pages full of thousands of colorful characters, references, details and colors... At every turn, on every corner, the idle traveler through the book finds something new.

Observer (UK)

Fascinating... greatly readable.

Daily Express (UK)

Masterly. Fragments of sinister trivia and captivating alternative histories bob up on every page... passionately entertaining.

Independent on Sunday (UK)

Vivid, informed, delectably readable... an enlightened introduction to the citys best-kept secrets. No visitor to France should go without it.

Sunday Times (UK)

By the same author

The Game of War: The Life and Death of Guy Debord
The Inner Scar: The Mysticism of Georges Bataille

Edited works

The Beast at Heavens Gate:

Georges Bataille and the Art of Transgression

The Hacienda Must Be Built:

On the Legacy of the Situationist Revolt (with Gavin Bowd)

Paris

The Secret History

ANDREW HUSSEY

Copyright 2006 by Andrew Hussey

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

Library of Congress control number for the hardback edition: 2006043038
ISBN-10: 1-59691-323-1 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59691-323-3 (hardcover)

First published in the United Kingdom by Viking in 2006
First published in the United States by Bloomsbury USA in 2007
This e-book edition published in 2010

E-book ISBN: 978-1-60819-237-3

www.bloomsburyusa.com

To my mother, Doreen
And to my father, John Hussey flneur extraordinaire

I have run so far to make this portrait of Paris that I can honestly say that I made it with my legs. I have also learned to walk on the stones of the capital in a nimble fashion, quick and lively. This is the secret that one must acquire in order to see everything.

Louis-Sbastien Mercier, Le Tableau de Paris, 17828

To explore Paris...

Ivan Chtcheglov, Internationale situationniste, 1957

Contents

Plate Sections

1. The Gaulish leaders in league against Julius Caesar (10044 BC), led by Vercingetorix (d. 46 BC), from a protective sleeve for school books, late-nineteenth-century colour lithograph. (Private collection; Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library)

2. Lutetia or the second plan of Paris in the fourth and fifth centuries ad, French School, 1722. (Bibliothquedes Arts Dcoratifs, Paris; Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library)

3.Sainte Genevive gardant ses moutons, oil on canvas, French School, sixteenth century. (Muse de la Ville de Paris, Muse Carnavalet, Paris; Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library)

4. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris. From an old picture postcard, undated.

5. Epitaph of Franois Villon (1431?) from Le Grant Testament Villon et le petit, son codicille. Le jargon et ses balades, woodcut, 1489. (Pierre Levet edition; Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris)

6. Weighing of Souls, French fifteenth-century stone carving. (Sculptural Programme of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris; Adam Woolfitt/ Corbis)

7. Engraving of the danse macabre, artist unknown, 1493.(Bibliothque des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris; Photo RMN/Bulloz)

8. Portrait of Catherine de Mdicis (151989), oil on panel, French School, sixteenth century. (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence; Bridgeman Art Library)

9. La Cour des Miracles, colour lithograph, c.187080, from Henri Morin, Le Vieux Paris. (Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris)

10. Engraving of the St Bartholomews Day Massacre, Paris, 1572, by de Soligny. ( Collection Roger-Viollet)

11. Le Cimetire des Innocents et le quartier des Halles 1750, engraving by Fedor Hoffbauer (18391922), nineteenth century. (From Paris travers les ges, ed. Pascal Payen-Appenzeller, Paris, 1978 (reprint of 1865 edition; Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris)

12. Garden and Cirque at the Palais-Royal, Paris, by Fedor Hoffbauer, c.1885. ( Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis)

13. Scne grivoise by Franois Boucher (170370). ( Collection Roger-Viollet)

14. The Sans-Culotte, French School, nineteenth century. (Bibliothque des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris; Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library)

15. A Meeting of Artists, Mudscrapers and Rag Merchants, caricature of a popular caf at the Palais-Royal in Paris, French School, c.1800. (Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris; Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library)

16. Gargantua, caricature of Louis-Philippe I by Honor Daumier, 1831. (Bibliothque Nationale de France; Collection Roger-Viollet)

17. Aerial view of Paris, c.1871, showing public buildings, many of which were destroyed during the Paris Commune. ( Corbis)

18. The Occupation of Paris, 1814 English Visitors in the Palais-Royal, English School, nineteenth century. (Private collection; Bridgeman Art Library)

19. The bombardment of Paris, German School, c.1870. ( Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis)

20. The siege of Paris, bombardment by the Prussians, 187071, French School, nineteenth century. (Muse de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris; Lauros/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)

21. The Construction of the avenue de lOpra, Paris, 1st and 2nd arrondissements, 1878. ( Collection Roger-Viollet)

22. Unidentified dead insurgents of the Paris Commune, 1871. ( Bettmann/Corbis)

23. Barricade on a Paris street during the Franco-Prussian War or during the Paris Commune, c.187071. ( Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis)

24. Illustration by Jacques Tardi from Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Cline, 1932. ( Editions Gallimard)

25. Andr Breton, c.1930.(Private collection)

26. Une maison close monacale, rue Monsieur-le-Prince (couple sembrassant), photograph by Halsz Gyula Brassa, c.1931. (Private collection; Estate Brassa RMN/Photo RMN/Michle Bellot)

27. Scene from the film Htel du Nord