L’ÎLE ST-LOUIS

CROSSING the bridge painted of yore bright red and known therefore as le Pont-Rouge, we find ourselves upon the Île St-Louis, in olden days two distinct islands: l’Île Notre-Dame and l’Île-aux-Vaches, both uninhabited until the early years of the seventeenth century. Tradition says the law-duels known as jugements de Dieu took place there. The Chapter of Notre-Dame had certain rights over the island.

In the seventeenth century, consent was given for the Île St-Louis to be built upon, and the official constructor of Ponts and Chaussées obtained the concession of the two islets under the stipulation that he should fill up the brook which separated them, and make a bridge across the arm of the Seine to the city quay. The brook became Rue Poulletier, where we see interesting vestiges of that day and two ancient hôtels, Nos. 3 and 20—the latter now a school.

All along Rue St-Louis-en-l’Île and in the streets connected with it, fine old mansions, or beautiful vestiges of the buildings then erected, still stand. The church we see there was begun by Le Vau in 1664, on the site of a chapel built at his own expense by one Nicolas-le-Jeune. The curious belfry dates from 1741. The church is a very store-house of works of art, many of them by the great masters of old, put there by its vicar, Abbé Bossuet, who devoted his whole fortune and his untiring energy to the work of restoring the church left in ruins after its despoliation at the Revolution, and died so poor in consequence as to be buried by the parish. At No. 1 of this quaint street we find a pavilion of l’hôtel de Bretonvilliers of which an arch is seen at No. 7, and other vestiges at Nos. 5 and 3. The Arbalétriers were wont to meet here in pre-Revolution days. No. 2, its northern front giving on Quai d’Anjou (see p. 328), is the grand mansion of Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny, built by Le Vau, 1680; its splendid decorations are the work of Lebrun and other noted artists and sculptors of the time. In 1843 it was bought by the family of a Polish prince and used in part as an orphanage for the daughters of Polish exiles till 1899.