Door of the Month: 29 Quai de Bourbon

This is quite an impressive door, especially the height of it. I believe the building was a hotel particulier (private home or mansion) and was one of the original buildings still intact from when the Ile St. Louis was first built on in the mid-1600s. Notice the stone kitty face with the whiskers. Love the contrast of rusted doorknob against the green enamel painted door. Again, I could not find any history about this building on Google, so if someone knows anything about it, please write it in the comments section.

29 Quai de Bourbon, Ile-St. Louis, 4th arr.
Metro: Pont Marie or Hotel de Ville

Eye Prefer Paris Photos for Sale

I am happy to announce the sale of prints of my Eye Prefer Paris Photos.  I am offering 17 of my most popular and iconic images for sale including my courtyards, doors, architectural details, statues, and monuments. They will make great gifts for all your Francophile friends, relatives, and colleagues but don't forget to buy some for yourself.

Click here to see photos and for full details including sizes, prices, and shipping. Here is a sample of some of the photos.

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotteís professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

Tours cost 195 euros for up to 3 people, and 65 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Comments

[Jean(ne) P in MN]

If this door could talk. Definitely a cat with stalks of something; a big seashell; a shield laced with rope; another shield-like thing with more rope. I'd guess a sea trading family who like cats?

[Yuriy]

Jacques Hillairet writes under his entry to N 29, Bourbon (quai de), "The [building] is of 1640. In 1750 [the address] is the property of Marquis d'Arcelot, the member of the Great Council, and, in 1737, of Colonel d'Assigny,count d'Oisy. Emmanuel Lansyer, the student of Courbet, the painter [specializing] in Breton landscapes, seascapes and architectural views, died here in 1893, at the age of 58." (Jacques Hillairet, Dictionnaire Historique Des Rues De Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1963, Volume I, p. 228)
Sorry for the somewhat awkward translation, it is mine :)

[Yuriy]

And the following is from my own guide (still in making) :)

29, quai de Bourbon (4e Arr., the northern part of the Ille de Saint Louis, east of Pont Louis Philippe): the apartment of Valentine Gross, the future Valentine Hugo. The biographer of Jean Cocteau describes the young artist and the salon she ran, "She presided over a modest literary and artistic salon on Wednesday afternoons at her flat on the Quai de Bourbon, Ile-St. Louis, a salon with a strong N.R.F. tinge, and the lack of regard expressed there for Cocteau by such men as Gaston Gallimard, Léon-Paul Fargue, Valéry Larbaud and Jacques Copeau had predisposed her against him. However, as they met now and again at gatherings during the months that followed he interested her; and on Saturday, March 13, 1915 he wrote her a note, asking whether he might call. Not too surprisingly, he suggested a Wednesday. He came to the flat, and he was to come again many times - "But never on Wednesdays," Valentine said later, "the day I was at home to my friends, none of whom wanted to meet Jean Cocteau." (Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography, Nonpareil Books, Boston, 1986, p. 134)
Billy Klüver adds, "She [Valentine Gross] was by this time [around April 1913] an active participant in the cultural and social life of aristocratic and fashionable tout-Paris, and held her own weekly salon at her apartment at 29 Quai de Bourbon on Wednesdays. There she mixed artists, composers, and in particular the young writers and theater people in the group associated with the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française: Léon-Paul Fargue, Valéry Larbaud, Gaston Gallimard, and Jacques Copeau, on the editorial board of the magazine and founder of Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.
In 1917 she met Jean Hugo, the great-grandson of Victor Hugo, at Misia Sert's. They fell in love and, despite the strong objection of his family, married in 1919 with Cocteau and Satie as their witnesses." (Billy Klüver, A Day with Picasso, The MIT Press, Cambridge and London, 1999, p. 45)
The additional sources for the street address are Douglas Cooper's Picasso Theatre (Douglas Cooper, Picasso Theatre, Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, New York, 1987, p. 18) and Valentine Hugo (Anne de Margerie, Valentine Hugo 1887-1968, Jacques Damase, Paris, 1983, p. 7). The latter mentions, "Deux ans plus tard, elle s'installera dans une véritable appartement 29, quai Bourbon, dans l'Île Saint-Louis."

[Kiki]

beautifully crafted details, yeah, i agree, doors, houses, windows, balconies.... they all could tell stories if only we'd find the time and interest to listen for them! Great news by Yuriy... :)