Felicity – Rotunda of la Villette

7:51 AM – Do you remember Felicity from Melbourne, Australia ? (See the post here.)
Two years ago, we ran along the river Seine. This time, our route led us to the North East of Paris, since Montmartre up to the Ourcq canal, then to the Saint-Martin canal and to the Grand boulevards.

First of all, we followed the former plan of the Wall of the Farmers Generals. 
Paris grew as an onion, protected successively by various surrounding walls (as for example, Philippe Auguste’s surrounding wall, see the post here). All these walls had a protective function except one: the Wall of the Farmers Generals.

The different city walls of Paris


The Wall of the Farmers Generals served to collect the tax on all the goods entering Paris (the “Octroi”). Its construction began before the Revolution in 1784, it was destroyed in 1860.
At the time, we thus entered Paris by passages, barriers. Most of these barriers contained buildings called “bureaux d’octroi” (“offices of granting”). 61 “bureaux d’octroi” were created by the architect Nicolas Ledoux.
There remains of these constructions among which the beautiful rotundas of the Parc Monceau and of the Villette. We can see the Rotunda of the Villette at the beginning of this article.

We then followed the Saint-Martin canal, which construction was decided by Napoleon the 1st.

Felicity – Saint-Martin Canal


A little later, we joined the Grand boulevards and admired the Arc de Triomphe of the Saint-Denis gate, arc created by king Louis XIV, arc dedicated to the consecration of his glory (” Ludovico Magno “!). You will find the history of this Arc de Triomphe and the Grand boulevards in an article of the blog=> here.

Felicity – “Porte Saint-Denis”

Finally, back to Montmartre, we crossed the Moulin Rouge.

Felicity – The “Moulin Rouge”

Contrary to the “Moulin de la Galette” (see the picture here), the “Moulin Rouge” was never a real windmill, but from the beginning, a cabaret, this famous cabaret which saw the birth of the “French cancan” and which is always in service.

Merci Felicity !

The route of the tour :

 

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