Page 144 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Paris

142  P ARIS AREA B Y AREA

9 Le Procope
13 Rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie 75006.
Map12 F4. Tel 01 40 46 79 00.
q Odéon. Open 11:30am–
midnight daily (to 1am Thu–Sat).
∑ procope.com
Founded in 1686 by the Sicilian
Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli,
this claims to be the world’s first
coffee house. It quickly became
popular with the city’s political
and cultural elite. The rear façade of Le Procope restaurant
Its patrons have included
the philosopher Voltaire – who James Joyce’s Ulysses was first
supposedly drank 40 cups of his published in English. Adrienne
favourite mixture of coffee and Monnier’s French bookshop
chocolate every day – and the at No. 7 opposite, Les Amis
young Napoleon, who would des Livres, was frequented by
leave his hat as security while he André Gide and Paul Valéry.
went search ing for the money to
pay the bill. Le Procope is now an
18th-century-style restaurant run q Odéon Théâtre
by the famous Frères Blanc group. de l’Europe
Pl de l’Odéon 75006. Map 12
F5. Tel 01 44 85 40 40. q Odéon,
Luxembourg. Open for performances
and occasional tours; call 01 44 85 41
17 to see if one is scheduled. 0 7
= See Entertainment pp334, 336.
∑ theatre-odeon.eu The unusual middle courtyard in the
Cour de Rohan
This Neo-Classical theatre was
built in 1779 in the grounds of w Cour de Rohan
the former Hôtel de Condé. The 75006. Map 12 F4. q Odéon. Access
site had been purchased by the from the Rue du Jardinet until 8pm;
king and given to the city to 8pm–8am access from the Blvd
house the Comédie Française. St-Germain.
The premiere of The Marriage of
Figaro, by Beau marchais, took This picturesque series of three
place here in 1784. With the arrival courtyards was originally part
A young Hemingway in the 1920s of a new company in 1797, the of the 15th-century pied-à-
name of the theatre was changed terre of the archbishops of
0 Rue de l’Odéon to Odéon. In 1807, the theatre Rouen (corrupted to “Rohan”).
was consumed by fire. It was The middle courtyard is the
75006. Map 12 F5. q Odéon.
rebuilt later the same year by the most unusual. Its three-legged
Rue de l'Odéon opened in 1779 architect Jean-François Chalgrin. wrought-iron mounting block,
to improve access to the Odéon Following World War II, the known as a pas-de-mule, was
theatre, and was the first street in theatre specialized in modern used at one time by elderly
Paris to have pavements with drama. Today, plays are often women and overweight
gutters. It still has many attractive performed in foreign languages, prelates to mount their
houses and shops, most of them including English. The auditorium mules. It is probably the last
dating from the 18th century. is very impres sive, not least for mounting block left in Paris.
Sylvia Beach’s bookshop its ceiling, painted by André Overlooking the yard is the
Shakespeare & Company Masson in 1965. façade of a fine Renaissance
(see pp323–4) stood at No. 12 building, dating from the
from 1921 to 1940. She beginning of the 17th century.
befriended many struggling One of its important former
American and British writers, residents was Henri II’s
such as Ezra Pound, T S Eliot, mistress, Diane de Poitiers.
Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest The third courtyard opens
Hemingway. It was largely due on to the tiny Rue du Jardinet,
to her support – as secretary, Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe, former home of where the composer Saint-
editor, agent and banker – that the Comédie Française Saëns was born in 1835.

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