Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Europe
Reload this Page >

Paris History Trivia Test -- Where is Robespierre?

Paris History Trivia Test -- Where is Robespierre?

Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:15 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 34,840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Paris History Trivia Test -- Where is Robespierre?

That's just the easy one but I figured it would get someone's attention -- maybe Robespierre himself. But it stumped me for a bit--I was reading a book by a British historian on Napoleon and it said there is a metro stop named after even Robespierre in Paris, but none for Napoleon. I had never heard of it and was skeptical, but I did find it.

My real question was a statement this author made about the fact that nothing in Paris is named after Napoleon as they distance themselves from him and that history (even though they name a metro stop after Robespierre, which is kind of odd). There aren't really that many places named after various kings, I thought -- not a lot of Louis XVI metro stops, either.

Anyway, I thought -- there is rue Bonaparte, that seems obvious. But then this author had a small footnote claiming that didn't count because it was obviously named after Napoleon as a general and not as emperor. hmmm, I wondered if that were true or how he knew that. Does anyone know the history of the name of that street? I know it's been named that since at least about 1850.

Does anyone have a copy of "Histoire de Paris Rue par Rue" or "Histoire et memoire du nom des rues de Paris" by Alfred Fierro around? I just wondered if they said anything on that street.

This is for a book group and we are meeting tonight, so thought it would be fun to know -- the book is Napoleon by Steven Englund which I did not like so much (maybe I'm not academic enough), but out of interest I picked up Napoleon, His Wives and Women by Christopher Hibbert (another British historian) and I loved that book. Maybe I'm not academic enough for the Englund as I like the info on the clothes, living arrangements, love affairs and women, but I really learned more in that book about the period and history and wars than I did the other one, as you do get that in there in the background, and it held my attention more. It had lots of good supplementary info, also (pictures, even of where Napoleon was born, lineage charts, chronology, etc.), which the Englund book lacked. So I can recommend this Hibbert book for good reading, and I've found he round several others on the French Revolution and Napoleon (as well as some on Italy and England).

if anyone knows the history of rue Bonaparte, I'd be interested
Christina is online now  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:36 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,525
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
This to start...

www.v1.paris.fr/carto/nomenclature/1087.nom.html
Michel_Paris is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:39 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
weren't there more than one Bonaparte who were Emperors - like the ones around 1850?
PalenqueBob is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:40 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
There is however a Cours Napoleon in the Louvre.
PalenqueBob is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:42 AM
  #5  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Rue de la Paix, Paris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rue de la Paix, in the IIe arrondissement of Paris, though depending somewhat on ... At first named Rue Napoléon, its name was changed at the Bourbon ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_de_la_Paix,_Paris -

Reid Productions, Diana Reid Haig, Elliot MazerWalk west on boulevard Saint Germain, pass rue Bonaparte (which is now the only street in Paris named after Napoleon),
PalenqueBob is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:46 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,525
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
There was a Napoleon I and III. I believe the throne room at the Louvre is #IIIs.
Michel_Paris is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 11:49 AM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,525
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Bit more info

http://www.v1.paris.fr/Carto/Nomencl...j/1093.nom.htm
Michel_Paris is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 12:01 PM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 85
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
ah yes - Paris and her inhabitants distanced themselves from Napoleon in the mid-1800s?!

Well, it stands to reason. I simply wonder, why they reinterred him in the Dôme des Invalides under big pomp and had that church turned into a shrine to his memory in 1841?

Your British historian should have his fact checked or his head examined....

By the way: Robespierre Metro station is not in Paris, but in Saint-Denis. Politically Saint-Denis has been left wing for decades. Robespierre is not only remembered as the dictator of the terror; his life and actions were far more complex than this (but I fear your British historian would probably not know too much about this).
raspberry7 is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 12:31 PM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 49,560
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I just googled (on the French google site - www.google.fr) rue bonaparte paris histoire and got a ton of urls.

Can't check them now myself, but it might give you some good leads.
StCirq is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 12:35 PM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Napoleon's stuffed dog is also in the Invalides
PalenqueBob is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 12:40 PM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 22,947
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Actually, the métro stop Robespierre is in Montreuil.

Of course, even if the name Napoléon is avoided, there are plenty of references to his victories: Wagram, Austerlitz, Jena.
Michael is online now  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 12:46 PM
  #12  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I wonder if Corsica has streets, squares, etc. named after Napoleon?
PalenqueBob is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 01:18 PM
  #13  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 23,773
Likes: 0
Received 6 Likes on 1 Post
Cours Napoléon is the main drag of Ajaccio.
kerouac is online now  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 01:34 PM
  #14  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 34,840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I did think of Google as I know how to use it very well and know French so I googled before I posted, but none of those threads answered this question, unfortunately, and I looked and read a lot of them. I did almost buy that history of the names of streets book when I was in Paris last time, as I wanted it, but didn't because it was so big (darn). I couldn't find that book on the internet excerpted.

The citation by MichelParis was somewhat useful though, in that it appears to be official -- most of it doesn't have anything to do with history, but at the bottom it does say it was named after Napoleon I, emperor (there were 3 napoleons, and I thought maybe the III named it after himself as that was around the time he was in charge, actually, and they did a lot of street renovations -- or that he could have named it after his ancestor).

Englund is pretty well-known and educated, and the fact that France doesn't revere Napoleon so much as other figures isn't really a radical opinion, and not something I quarrel with him about that much. He was re-interred in Paris later on (due to intercession by some to Louis-Philippe, I think, it wasn't that France adored him at that point given he was exiled, and so was his nephew still at that point). It wasn't that France was dying to bring him back for that reason. But that was a long time ago, and this author was talking about attitudes towards him in more modern times. He did make some snarky comment about how the big deal of Invalides is just to re-assure themselves he's still dead. He wasn't stating that was the attitude towards him in the 1800s, he was talking about now.

I did find Robespierre metro stop out in Montreuil,which is very leftie, that's true. I hadn't thought of that.

I read somewhere that his sister Pauline and Josephine lived on rue Bonaparte at some point, and wondered if that could have just been the reason, but obviously it couldn't have been called rue Bonaparte when they lived there. It was named in 1852, if I understand the document on the www.v1.paris.fr thread, which just says it was named after Napoleon.

I don't know how Englund can know it was named after him as a General, not an Emperor (or if that even means anything, I would say it's sort of a silly thing to say if it wasn't named until after his death). Unless I am misunderstanding that document as to when it first got that name. It says "arr. du 12 aout 1852" which I am taking to mean that's when it was named, but am not sure what "arr." is an abbreviation for (arrondisement wouldn't make sense in that phrase). It's under the heading of "denomination" so that's what I think it means.

Interesting comment about the names of his victories, I hadn't thought of that. That's a good point.
Christina is online now  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 01:41 PM
  #15  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,525
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
arr. is probably short form of "arrete", which is a government order/law.
Michel_Paris is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 01:47 PM
  #16  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 34,840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I think "arr" is an abbreviation for a French legal term standing for arrêté which means order or decree -- if anyone French can verify that, then "arr du 12 aout 1852" under deonomination, would mean it was named rue Bonaparte by order on that date, I guess.
Christina is online now  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 01:50 PM
  #17  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,419
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
" ...there are plenty of references to his victories: Wagram, Austerlitz, Jena."

Not only his victories; there are a number of boulevards named after Napoleon's marshals: Berthier, Kellerman, MacDonald, Masséna, Murat, Ney, Oudinot and Soult come to mind.

Anselm
AnselmAdorne is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 02:11 PM
  #18  
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 17,549
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Which Napoleon are all those pastries named after then?
Dukey is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 02:18 PM
  #19  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,000
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Which part of Robespierre are you looking for? The bloody mass murderer had his head severed from his guts portion in 1794.

hopscotch is offline  
Old Aug 23rd, 2007, 03:05 PM
  #20  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,605
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Dukey, you always get to the heart of the matter, don't you?
Travelnut is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -