Around the Ile de la Cite
The Louvre
Palais du Louvre was much smaller in the 17th century. [#7 on the map] Several events take place here, including the musketeers meeting the King and D’Artagnan receiving a diamond ring from the Queen. There are two times in the novel where people enter the Louvre by the “wicket of the E’chelle” – but I couldn’t find it. Can you? There is a Rue de l’Echelle on the north side of the Palace, but…
Pont Neuf
The Pont Neuf (New Bridge) – the most commonly travelled bridge in the book. [#11 on the map] This is where in Chapter 11 D’Artagnan accosts Constance and Buckingham (dressed as a musketeer) thinking he is Aramis.
Place des Vosges (originally named Place Royale)
Malady De Winter’s house was here, in which she entertained D’Artagnan and her brother-in-law Lord De Winter, the Comte de Wardes. Cardinal Richelieu in fact owned the house at 21 Place Royal. [#19 on the map] The Place, the oldest planned square in Paris, built by Louis XIII to celebrate his marriage to Anne of Austria, was originally conceived as a place for workshops and housing for silk workers as part of a campaign to stimulate French manufacturing, but soon developed into an aristocratic residential quarter and one of the most fashionable places to live in Paris.
Pont de la Tournelle
This is where Porthos hires Planchet (a Picard) who was ‘making rings and slashing in the water’ to be D’Artagnan’s lackey for 30 sous a day. [#14 on the map]
The Bastille & The Gate of St. Antoine
D’Artagnan enters Paris in April 1625 via the St. Antoine Gate (one of six gates built into the protective wall that surrounded the city). [#20 on the map] Just inside the gate was the fortress known as the Bastille of St. Antoine. I find it odd that Dumas doesn’t mention the Bastille at this point in the story because its reputation as a prison alone would have made me stop and think. Just the mention of it terrifies Bonacieux. The wall, the gate and Bastille have all been torn down and replaced now by a large roundabout with a monumental column commemorating the revolution of 1830 in its centre. Bonacieux and Athos are both imprisoned in the Bastille in Chapter 13.
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Section of the Turgot Map of Paris published in 1739, showing the Gate of St. Antoine and the Bastille.
Click the picture to enlarge. |
A few more places of significant action noted on the map:
Rue Aux Ours – This is where Porthos’ mistress Madame Coquenard and her husband (a procurator) lived. He went to their house for dinner posing as her cousin in hopes that she could squeeze some money out of her stingy husband to furnish her with equipment for the Siege of La Rochelle. The evening was a disaster. [#16 on the map]
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St. Leu Church, right at the corner of Rue Aux Ours and Rue Saint Denis, is where Porthos goes to see Madame Coquenard. Milady De Winter is also there attending the service, and D’Artagnan had followed Porthos and had secretly watched the encounter. [#17 on the map]
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Palais Cardinal (now the Palais Royale) – where M. Bonacieux is taken from the Bastille for an audience with the Cardinal. D’Artagnan also visits the Palais when Richelieu asks him to join the Cardinal’s Men. [#10 on the map]
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Our hero went to the Quai de la Ferraille (Scrap Dock), now the Quai de la Megissierie, to have his sword blade replaced. [#13 on the map}
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