Paris Noir (36 page)

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Clamart

A village some five kilometres to the south-west of Paris.

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Panaït Istrati

Romanian writer (1884–1935)‚ who wrote in French as well as Romanian‚ and led an adventurous and peripatetic life.
Kyra Kyralina
was published in 1923‚ with a preface by Romain Rolland and became the first of the Adrien Zograffi cycle. A radical who became disillusioned with Soviet communism after visiting the USSR and witnessing the Stalinist regime at first hand‚ he is celebrated for remarking‚ ‘All right‚ I can see the broken eggs. Now where's this omelette of yours?'

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Grande-Chaumière

Famous art school in Rue de la Grande-Chaumière‚ off Boulevard Montparnasse‚ that still offers the opportunity for life drawing of nude models.

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Patriotic School

During WWII the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building‚ originally an orphanage for daughters of servicemen killed in the Crimean war‚ located in Wandsworth‚ south London‚ became the so-called London Reception Centre‚ and often referred to as the Patriotic School‚ where foreign refugees were screened by British security officials from MI6 under the direction of Colonel Pinto. The reference to Duke Street‚ however‚ suggests that Yonnet is alluding to the Free French Intelligence headquarters (see note p.275 on
BCRA
‚ ch.X p.174).

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Berlemont

Victor Berlemont‚ who in 1916 took over the York Minster at 49 Dean Street in Soho‚ which he ran as a pub and restaurant and which became known as the French Pub. In 1947 his son Gaston took over the management of it‚ eventually retiring on Bastille Day‚ 1989.

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West Norwood‚ Harold Road and Convent Hill

In Croydon‚ South London.

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Huysmans

French writer of Dutch descent (1848–1907)‚ author of
A Rebours
‚ whose central character Des Esseintes embodies the
fin-de- siècle
spirit of decadence with its horror of banality and glorification of life as art‚ and
Là-Bas
‚ an investigation into the 15th-century sadist and child murderer Gilles de Rais‚ which leads the narrator into satanic circles in contemporary Paris. Huysmans‚ who became a devout Roman Catholic‚ was particularly fond of the church of St Séverin‚ of which he gives a fascinating historical account in
La Bièvre et St-Séverin
‚ 1898.

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Henry V

Following a period of bitter civil strife between the factions of Burgundy and Orleans‚ by the Treaty of Troyes signed in 1420 Henry V of England took Catherine‚ daughter of Charles VI of France‚ for his wife‚ and was himself named heir to the French throne in preference to the King's son Charles‚ the young Dauphin. Charles VI and Henry V entered Paris together to celebrate this agreement. However‚ Henry died in August1422‚ leaving a nine-month-old child as
his heir‚ and Charles VI followed him two months later. Inspired by Joan of Arc‚ the Dauphin pressed his claim‚ and the English were eventually driven out of France.

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I.G. Farben

German company that originally specialized in producing paints and dyes and expanded into a huge chemicals conglomerate that closely collaborated with the Nazi regime‚ for which its directors stood trial at Nuremburg. The company had to pay compensation for its use of forced labour and was eventually liquidated.

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Sainte-Chapelle

Built on the Ile St-Louis in 1246–8 by St Louis in order to house the Crown of Thorns‚ which he acquired from Venetian merchants who had received it in exchange for a loan to the Emperor Baldwin of Constantinople‚ the Sainte-Chapelle was described by Ruskin as ‘the most precious piece of Gothic in Northern Europe'.

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Pont-au-Double

Built in 1634. So called because the toll was a double denier. All tolls on bridges were abolished in 1848.

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Rifodés
and
Malingreux

Cant names – along with
Hubains‚ Coquillards‚ Francs-Mitous‚ Piètres
– dating from the Middle Ages‚ for various types of vagabonds and scoudrels who made their living by deception and importunity‚ some of whom might be found cured of their piteous physical ailments within the precincts of the courts of miracles‚ so-called precisely because of these ‘miraculous cures'.

Rifodés
: accompanied by their womanfolk and children‚ they bore a certificate attesting that their homes had been destroyed by the hand of God.

Malingreux
: malingers who faked either dropsy or skin ulcers.

Hubains
: bearers of a certificate testifying to them having been cured of rabies by the intercession of St Hubert‚ the patron saint of hunters and trappers in the Ardenne.

Coquillards
: identified by the shells they wore (the shell being the symbol of St James of Compostella)‚ brigands posing as pilgrims who infested the highways after the Hundred Years War. Villon was
associated with them and his
Ballads en Jargon
are written in the still impentrable cant of the Coquillards.

Francs-mitous
: fraudsters so good at faking being taken ill in the street‚ even doctors were fooled by them.

Piètres
: imposters who pretended to be cripples‚ and went about on crutches.

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Hector Malot's ‘San Famille'

A classic children's story‚ first published in 1878‚ about a little boy called Rémi‚ who discovers at the age of eight that he is a foundling. His impecunious and embittered foster father sells him to a kindly old man named Vitalis‚ who with his troupe of performing animals makes a living as a street entertainer. This picaresque novel recounts Rémi's long and eventful life on the road until he finally discovers his real identity and finds his true home. Hector Malot (1830–1907)‚ is the author of some seventy novels‚ of which
Sans Famille
is by far the most enduring.

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April 1814

Napoleon's catastrophic campaign in Russia during the winter of 1812 marked the beginning of the end of his rule‚ with declarations of war by Prussia and Austria in 1813 leading to defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in October‚ the capitulation of Paris on 30 March 1814 to the invading armies of the Czar and the Prussians‚ who were actually welcomed as liberators by the anti-Napoleonists (see following note)‚ the abdication of Napoleon on 6 April‚ and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty.

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  ‘
a certain lack of dignity
'

Author's Notes:

De Bordier: ‘… the conquerors blushed at such contemptible behaviour … countesses threw laurels on the Kalmuks and rode pillion behind the Cossaks …'

De Vaulabelle: ‘The saturnalia in the streets and public squares belonged that day to rich and titled ladies.'

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Truie Qui File

Literally‚ ‘the Running Sow'‚ a café near Montmartre.

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Rue aux Oües

The original medieval name of a street now called Rue aux Ours
(Bear Street)‚ which runs between Rue St-Martin and Boulevard de Sebastopol‚
Oües
being the old French version of
Oies
‚ meaning ‘geese': the name changed as the number of roast-houses gave way in the 12th century to an influx of furriers. In 1789 a decree was passed putting an end to a centuries' old tradition of burning a wicker man here on 3 July every year‚ supposedly the effigy of a Swiss soldier said to have desecrated a statue of the Virgin on the corner of the street.

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Panier Fleuri

There was a brothel by this name on Boulevard de la Chapelle‚ near the Gare du Nord. Legislation closing brothels was passed on 13 April 1946 which came into effect six months later.

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Luc Berimont

Pen name of André Leclercq (1915–83)‚ poet‚ novelist‚ writer and broadcaster. Active in the Resistance‚ he was awarded the Croix de Guerre‚ and made a Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
Domaine de la Nuit
was published in 1940‚ in roneotype format‚ with a preface by Sergeant Maurice Fombeure.

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Liberation of Paris

After the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 and the successful advance of the Allies through Normandy‚ the liberation of Paris was anticipated by an insurrection of the local population in which the police played a prominent role. Fearful of German retaliation against an ill-equipped popular uprising‚ and also of losing the initiative to the Communists‚ the Allies authorized General Leclerc‚ commanding the 2nd French Armoured Division to march on Paris. The German military governor of Paris‚ General von Choltitz‚ surrendered to General Leclerc on 25 August. General De Gaulle reached Paris the following day and with his provisional government was able to claim uncontested control of the country.

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Les Eparges

Ridge some 30km from Verdun which was the scene of very heavy fighting and great loss of life during WWI.

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Propaganda-Staffel

The occupying forces' Propaganda Department under the control
of the German military commander of Paris (and therefore not directly under the control of the German propaganda minister‚ Dr Goebbels). Also called the Propaganda Abteilung.

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Aujourd'hui

Parisian daily newspaper published during the Occupation.

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The battle was gigantic

A scurrilous popular song describing an internecine conflict between crab lice.

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BCRA

Bureau Central de Renseignements et Actions‚ the Free French intelligence agency‚ under the direction of André Dewavrin (1911– 1998)‚ codenamed Colonel Passy‚ based at 10 Duke Street in Central London.

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Thiais

Cemetery south of Paris.

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Ste-Anne

Psychiatric hospital on Rue Cabanis in the 14th arrondissement.

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Heine

German poet and man of letters (1797–1856)‚ who moved to Paris in 1831‚ and died there‚ at his home in Rue d'Amsterdam. He wrote a great deal about France and French culture and his own ironic style of lyric verse had some influence on French writers. He used to say that a traveller could tell how close he was to Paris by noting the increasing intelligence of the people‚ and that even the bayonets of the soldiers there were more intelligent than those elsewhere.

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Mondor and Tabarin

In the 17th century Mondor‚ a vendor of quack medicines‚ teamed up with a street entertainer by the name of Tabarin‚ whose quick wit and comic satire drew appreciative crowds and buyers and won the admiration of Molière and La Fontaine.

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Gabriele D'Annunzio

Italian poet‚ novelist‚ dramatist‚ journalist‚ patriot and war hero
(1863–1937). His home for the last seventeen years of his life‚ Villa Cargnacco at Gardone on Lake Garda‚ together with the monumental complex that he built up around it‚ he conceived of as a celebration of his ‘glorious failures' and his legacy to the people of Italy: called the Vittoriale degli Italiani‚ it is a remarkable phenomenon.

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Guillot de Saix

Poet and playwright (1885–1964)‚ one of whose poems was set to music by Reynaldo Hahn. Among the items he left to the Bibliothèque Nationale's Performing Arts' Department is a collection of twenty-two 18th-century Venetian puppets.

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Cevennes

The
maquis
‚ which became synonymous with the French Resistance‚ is Mediterranean scrubland‚ and the expression ‘take to the maquis' originated in Corsica‚ where bandits would go into the wild to escape the police. French resistance fighters in the south of France sought similar refuge in the mountainous landscape of the Cevennes region.

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Vincennes

Vincennes lies to the east of the 12th and 20th arrondissements‚ the Château and the Fort standing some 3km's distance from Nation outside the Porte de Vincennes on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes‚ one of the two great wooded parks of Paris.

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Salon d'Automne

Founded in October 1903 by Franz Jourdain and Yvanhoë Rambosson‚ an annual art exhibition held (after the initial success of the first show) at the Grand Palais‚ which established itself as a showcase for all kinds of new artists. Charles De Gaulle met Yvonne Vendroux‚ who was to become his wife‚ at the 1920 Salon D'Automne. The 1945 show featured a celebration of Matisse‚ and introduced work by Nicolas de Stael and Bernard Buffet.

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Bouteille d'Or

Restaurant on the Left Bank at 9 Quai de Montebello.

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Tour d'Argent

Dating back to 1582‚ the Tour d'Argent‚ on the Left Bank at 15 Quai de la Tournelle‚ has a distinguished history. In 1947 Claude Terrail took over the management of this establishment from his father‚ André‚ who bought it in 1911. When Claude died in 2006‚ his own son‚ André‚ succeeded him. During WWII Claude Terrail walled up the cellar to keep the wine reserves from falling into the hands of the Germans. The Tour is famous for its ‘
canard au sang
'‚ a dish first served in 1890‚ every duck being numbered‚ and a register kept of diners to whom it was served. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII‚ see note for p.203) in 1890 consumed duck number 328‚ the Duke of Windsor‚ in 1938‚ number 147‚844.