{"id":5823,"date":"2022-06-22T23:43:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T06:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanamusic.ca\/?p=5823"},"modified":"2024-01-22T22:06:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T05:06:39","slug":"colonel-henri-rol-tanguy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanamusic.ca\/index.php\/2022\/06\/22\/colonel-henri-rol-tanguy\/","title":{"rendered":"Les rues de Paris (Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, June 17, 2022<\/p>\n

Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy<\/h2>\n

Named after French Resistance hero Henri Rol Tanguy<\/a> who led the uprising that helped to liberate Paris.<\/p>\n

This avenue is located in the Montparnasse and Petit-Montrouge districts of the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and has the particularity of being extremely short (50 meters), to the point of appearing as wide as it is long. Moreover, it only serves two buildings, located on either side: the Paris quarry administration building on one side and the Resistance museum on the other side. Two road numbers were still assigned to each building, perhaps to justify the name avenue to this road: 2 and 4 on one side facing 1 and 3 on the other.<\/p>\n

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Translation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Macron: We will win! We will win!<\/p>\n

Zelenski: Thank you for those words of encouragement.<\/p>\n

Macron: I\u2019m not talking about you.<\/p>\n

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Friday morning started with a Caf\u00e9 Expresso and a croissant around 7h30 at Le Clignancourt<\/strong>, a brasserie with a terrace opposite of the Porte de Clignancourt metro station (Ligne 4) just up the street from my hotel. There was a newspaper kiosk just a few steps away on the corner street. I must have waited until 8h30 for it to open so that I can get my copy of Le Parisien<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\"Colonel<\/p>\n

The Lion of Belfort statue was built in memory of Colonel Denfert-Rochereau, defender of Belfort during the Franco-Prussian War. Sculpted by Fr\u00e9deric Bartholdi<\/a> (1834-1904), best known for designing the Statue of Liberty,<\/span> he exhibited a plaster model at the Paris Salon Exhibitions of 1878.<\/p>\n

The model was then purchased by the city of Paris. The two ton copper statue \u00a0is four meters high by seven meters long. A bronze medallion with the effigy of the colonel was added in 1920. The current medallion is a substitution dating from 1979. The Lion of Belfort statue was inaugurated in 1880.<\/p>\n

Les Catacombes de Paris<\/h2>\n

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I had booked a guided tour of the Catacombs. This semi-private tour for 13:30 was with a small group of eight people. I did my best to try and book a french-speaking tour, but could not for this one. Our female guide, originally from Florida, was excellent. She moved to Paris about 40 years ago. She was with\u00a0 Memories France<\/a><\/em>, a local operator based in Paris. In our small group, there was a couple from Denver. There was even another Canuck in the group which was welcomed. She was from Quebec. She laughed when I joked to her in french that I tried to book a french-speaking tour because I didn\u2019t want to be translating for other tourists. We both laughed. Actually, I wanted to immerse myself in French and avoid speaking any English.<\/p>\n

I arrived early enough that I could go for a cold one across the street before going several six feet unders. I do have a funny story tell about my beer order, and it will be told later while at le Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay. One other funny story from Le Caf\u00e9 du Rendez-Vous<\/a> was of this couple from the U.S.A. sitting next to me, probably in their late forties or early fifties. They call over the young female server to their table. It looked like they had a quarter left of their cr\u00eapes<\/em> on their plates.<\/p>\n

English sentences don\u2019t translate at all in the head of the majority of the French and so I\u2019m laughing in my head when I heard the American male tell the server \u201cthese are not very good.\u201d His wife had Nutella with hers while the husband had jam with his. Poor Suzette<\/em>, she did not understand what he was complaining about.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t surpprise me if the couple Google translated Cr\u00eapes\u00a0<\/em>from the menu and voil\u00e0<\/em>, he must have said ch\u00e9rie<\/em>, how about we have pancakes. I did not see an image of thick buttermilk pancakes inside a cartoon thought bubble above his head. Growing up, I knew the difference between one cr\u00eape and and the next cr\u00eape, plus they totally taste different. I would love to read his comments on Tripadvisor.<\/p>\n

The Catacombes de Paris<\/em>, the Parisian ossuary covers 11,000 m\u00b2 of underground space where the bones of the remains of six million Parisians from various Parisian cemeteries rest in the 1.7 km labyrinth of tunnels. The height of the passages is 1.8 m and the temperature is around 14 degrees.<\/p>\n

The parts of the Catacombes de Paris which are accessible to the public remain manicured, curated, and easy to navigate. A little less than two miles are marked with helpful signs that are visited by tourists every day.<\/p>\n

A number of notable people likely had their bones transferred to the Catacombs. The list includes writers Jean de La Fontaine (Fables) and Charles Perrault (Little Red Riding Hood<\/em>, Cinderella<\/em>, Puss in Boots<\/em>, Sleeping Beauty<\/em>, and Bluebeard<\/em>), painter Simon Vouet (Baroque style of painting), and architect Salomon de Brosse (Luxembourg Palace). During the Revolution, people were buried directly in the Catacombs. Guillotine victims ended up there, too, including the likes of Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Lavoisier, and Georges Danton, all beheaded in 1794.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a secretive community of street artists, history buffs and other Parisians, known as cataphiles, who regularly prowl the subterranean network. The bulk of the network \u2014 more than 170 miles of tunnels and other chambers \u2014 has been off-limits to legal passage since 1955 and is a legacy of early quarrying in Paris. That is where the cataphiles roam. They\u2019ve mapped and memorized hundreds of entry points.<\/p>\n

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From the street level to the Catacombs, visitors descend through a series of rocky strata that date from about 45 million years ago. During that geological era, Paris and the surrounding area were covered by a tropical sea. Several meters of sediment and mud accumulated at the bottom of this sea and became limestone over time.<\/p>\n

The level of the Catacombs corresponds to this limestone layer, which represents the period known as \u201cLutetian\u201d, in reference to Lutetia, the name of Paris in Roman times. From 40 to 48 million years old on the geological scale, this bank ranges between the upper, middle and lower Lutetian.<\/p>\n

The quarries occupied the upper and middle levels, while a well nicknamed \u201cbain de pieds des carriers\u201d (Quarriers\u2019 Footbath) in the center of the circuit descends all the way to the lower level. This precise site, where the bank strata have been identified and described, has become an international reference for geological strata.<\/p>\n

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photo on left<\/em> \u2013 Quarrymen extracting Lutetian limestone from an underground quarry at Bagneux in 1906. The difficult conditions were the cause of many accidents. Ceiling height was about 1.5 metres (5 feet), it was dimly lit, cold, damp, and there was a constant risk of injury or being crushed.<\/p>\n

photo on right<\/em> \u2013 The blocks of stones were cut up in the quarry before being hauled to the surface in a special shaft. The deeper quarries reached a depth of 30 metres. (98.4 feet)<\/p>\n

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All along the underground route are engraved inscriptions of this type: 5.J.1847, meaning that this pillar was the fifth of a series executed in 1847 under the orders of Juncher, Inspector General of Quarries from 1842 to 1851.<\/p>\n

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There are old tool marks on the ceiling made by the kevel hammer. These marks were made when the ossuary was opened to the public. There\u2019s a black mark on the quarry ceiling which allowed 19th century visitors to get their bearings in the galleries.<\/p>\n

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A quarryman named Fran\u00e7ois D\u00e9cure, working between 1777 and 1782, sculpted an alter used for the blessing of the bones and also a footbath for the workers. Prior to his work below Paris, however, he had served in Louis XV\u2019s armies during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and had
\nbeen held captive by the English at the Port-Mahon fortress located in the major city of the Spanish island of Menorca.<\/p>\n

But within a small room off the tunnel now known as the Port Mahon corridor, he also spent five years secretly carving a small group of sculptures, doing so
\nduring lunch breaks and after or before his work shifts. He worked with the simple tools of his quarryman\u2019s trade, lighting his work with
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The Port-Mahon corridor is so named because of D\u00e9cure\u2019s sculpture depicting that fort. There are also sculptures depicting Port Phillipe and the Quartier de Cazerne, the most detailed of the three. The depictions were carved from memory, and reflect considerable artistic license.<\/p>\n

Yet they are fairly complex \u2013 the port city, for example, is roughly 40 feet long, and built perfectly so that the natural water that pools within the catacombs comes up to the correct level at the edge of the city. There are both bas-relief and protruding elements in each of these sculptures.<\/p>\n

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D\u00e9cure was crushed during a cave-in that occurred while he was carving a separate stairway that would have allowed easier access to his sculptures
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There were four inspectors who worked for 15 years on the service reconstruction, and also on the reconstitution of the quarries Atlas, which were done with the help of De Four\u00e7y. These four inspectors were: Descottes (1872-1875), Tournaire (1875-1878), Gentil (1878-1879), and Roger (1879-1885). One of them was very friendly.<\/p>\n

They did lots of work in the south of Paris, essentially bourrages of search galleries. Roger also worked in le 15i\u00e8me arrondissement and under Montsouris where some of his classification slabs can be found.<\/p>\n

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Translation:<\/p>\n

This work started in 1777 by D\u00e9cure (known as Beaus\u00e9jour), veteran of his Majesty, and finished in 1782.<\/p>\n

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Named bain de pied des carriers <\/em>(quarrymen\u2019s footbath), this well was an initiatory place for quarrymen and more recently for students graduating from the Ecole des Mines<\/em> that get themselves baptized in this fountain, whose water is so pure that one can soak one\u2019s feet involuntarily if one does not pay attention. This water flushes from the ground water and previously allowed to measure the variations in the water\u2019s height, as well as draw water for the surrounding working sites around.<\/p>\n

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Arr\u00eate! C\u2019est ici l\u2019empire de la Mort<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The entrance to the ossuary bears a haunting inscription, which can be translated to \u2018Stop! This is the Empire of the Dead\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Translation:<\/p>\n

Catacombs established by order of Mr. Thiroux de Crosne, Lieutenant General of Police, by the care of Mr. Charles Axel Guillaumot, Inspector General of Quarries, in 1786. Restored and enlarged by order of M. le Comte Frochot, State Councilor, Prefect of the Department of the Seine, by M. Hericart de Thury, Chief Engineer of Mines, Inspector General des Carri\u00e8res in 1810.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In 2006, more than 200 skeletons were discovered in mass graves unearthed under
\na Monoprix R\u00e9aumur-S\u00e9bastopol on boulevard de S\u00e9bastopol (2i\u00e8me arrondissement). Under the F\u00e9lix-Potin building once stood the cemetery of the Trinity Hospital, founded in the 12th century but destroyed at the end of the 18th century.<\/p>\n

Eight mass graves were discovered and one thing seems certain: the deceased died en masse.<\/p>\n

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