Hot on Hector's Heels !

Friday, April 11. Today, I walk my a-- off around the 16th arrondisement, tracking down as many of Hector Guimard's buildings as I can. I take the metro to Mirabeau, which is an interesting station. There is only one quai. The tracks on the other side go up a ramp, and there is a one-directional loop near the end of this line. Because of the foundations of the Eglise d'Auteuil, there wasn't room to build a quai for the train going in the other direction so it doesn't stop here!

Down the rue Notre-Dame d'Auteuil to the Place d'Auteuil, first taking a peek into the church, a pastiche of Roman-Byzantine architecture. On the rue d'Auteuil, there is a beautiful hotel particulier (XVIII c. mansion) where lived the grandmother of Georges Sand (so says the Histoire de Paris plaque posted nearby!) Across the street is the Auberge du Mouton Blanc (Inn of the White Sheep) where Moliere, la Fontaine and Racine hung out. Would like to absorb some of those vibes!

Rue d'Auteuil intersects the Place Jean Lorraine where there are a lot of market stalls set up, but no market today. Wind around a few little streets past the Villa Michel Ange. [The word "villa" here typically indicates a small, often private, street (not what we call a "villa" in English) generally lined with small (2-3 storey) houses with tiny gardens in front. Very picturesque so usually try to design my route to walk by them though many are private and closed.] Down rue Perchamps to the rue de la Fontaine (after crossing the rue Georges Sand!)

All the way up rue de la Fontaine to the Castel Beranger, the building that made Hector Guimard's reputation. (Little detour down the rue Agar, lined with Art Nouveau buildings and complete with Art Nouveau street sign!) The Castel Beranger is an apartment building unlike anything I've ever seen. Impossible to do it justice in photographs (I tried). Commissioned by Elizabeth Fournier (a 60-year-old widow and part of the bourgeoisie catholique d'Auteuil, so says my book) in 1895, she gave the young architect carte blanche, and he took it! He designed every detail, inside and out (I have to take the book's word for this since it is not possible to visit the interior of the building. I took some photos of an interior entry by poking my camera through the grill of the outer door!) By the time the building was finished in 1897, twenty-five of the thirty-six apartments had been rented, one of them by the painter Paul Signac who had his apartment and his atelier on the sixth floor. The exterior details are simply extraordinary (a mon avis).

To see exterior and a few interior photographs, you can go here: http://www.geocities.com/hectorguimard/files/html/beranger.html
The exterior photographs cannot do it justice because it's the thing taken as a whole that is so remarkable. A photograph can only capture a small part. You can also see and read a little about it at Great Buildings Online here: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Castel_Beranger.html
Of course, the description is a little like what Tyler would call "archi-babble" (love that expression!) but you can get the idea. On another website, I read that some contemporaries called it "Castel Derange" (rhymes with "Beranger") as in "deranged."

Back down rue de la Fontaine and up the rue du Rector Poincare to the Place Rodin (roundabout with flowers and statue in the middle next to a park). Up avenue Mozart and around to the rue Mallet-Stevens, a little dead-end street entirely designed by Mallet-Stevens, a precursor of Le Corbusier, between 1923 and 1939. A harmonious whole in the spirit of cubism and Art Deco.

Try to visit the little Musee Bouchard (sculptor 1875-1960) located in his former house/ workshop but it is closed. (I find out later from the website that the bulk of the collection is being transferred to another museum and will not reopen until 2010.) Continue down the rue du Docteur Blanche past the square where is located the Villa la Roche and the Fondation Corbusier, which I have already visited, so turn left on rue Raffet down to rue Poussin. On this street is the entrance to the Villa Montmorency, a very exclusive residential area of small winding streets into which you will not set foot, thank you very much. You can look through the grill but take a step past it and the guard will ask your business. No indiscreet looks to bother the celebrities who live there.

Back to the Place Jean Lorrain to take the metro two stops, from Michel Ange Auteuil to Exelmans, to avoid having to cover some of the same territory twice! Down the rue Michel Ange and the rue Claude Lorrain, past the Cimitiere d'Auteil (it's small; monuments cheek-by-jowl, no leafy lanes of trees here) and down the avenue de la Frillerie to see another Guimard building, designed for l'Ecole du Sacre Coeur. Because the lot was narrow, he eliminated part of the ground floor (in order to have room for a play area), using a series of V-shaped, decorated, cast-iron supports , an idea borrowed from Viollet-le-Duc.

Down the rue Parent de Rosan off of which are two "villas" closed to visitors. At 39 boulevard Exelmans is the atelier of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeau, remodeled by Guimard in 1895. On the rue Chardon-Lagache is the entrance to the Villa de la Reunion, where the two buildings surrounding the entrance are also by Guimard, l'hotel Jassede (1893) and l'hotel Deron-Levant (1908). This is a lovely little street worth walking around and, fortunately, I'm able to get in through the gate as someone is leaving.

I wind around a couple of streets to get back to the rue Boileau. (In case you had been thinking that there would be no buildings still in need of rehab in this very exclusive arrondisement, let me dissuade you of that idea. I pass several that make me want to get right to work fixing them up!) Past the Laboratoires aero-dynamiques Eiffel (where he continued his experiments in wind-resistance begun at the Eiffel Tower; it's still a working enterprise and can be visited if you want to know more, which I do, and are not too tired, which I am) and the Vietnam embassy, a curious building in white tile, looking somewhat like a cubist pagoda. It starts to rain, so I duck under the overhang of a building across the street; I have plenty of time to contemplate this unfortunate creation while waiting for the rain to stop!

Past the Hameau Boileau, another lovely little voie privee closed to prying eyes, to see the hotel Rosze by Guimard (1891). It's almost impossible to get a good look at it because of the bamboo and other vegetation growing in front. Very frustrating. Down rue Molitor and up rue Michel Ange back to the metro and home.

Noted on walk:
- Le Confisier d'Auteuil on rue d'Auteuil
-Number 67, rue de l'Assomption, a small house tucked among large buildings (photo)
-Impasse Raffet (photo)
-Number 1 bis, rue Raffet (photos). Permits for demolition and renovation posted on side of old building. I hope they aren't going to demolish much of it.
-On exiting metro Exelmans: candelabre Val d'Osne (photo). One of the older combination street lights and metro signs.
-the tiny rue Charles-Marie Widor, one of my favorite composers for organ!