Rue des Petits-Champs

Street in Paris

Shown within Paris

Former name(s)Rue Bautru
Rue Neuve-des-Petits-ChampsLength450 m (1,480 ft)Width12 m (39 ft)Arrondissement 1st, 2ndQuarterPalais-Royal
Gaillon
VivienneCoordinates48°52′01″N 2°20′10″E / 48.86694°N 2.33611°E / 48.86694; 2.33611From1, rue de la Banque et rue La VrillièreTo26, avenue de l'OpéraConstructionCompletion1634Denomination24 January 1881

Rue des Petits-Champs is a street which runs through the 1st and 2nd arrondissement of Paris, France.

Location

This one-way street, running east–west, is located between rue de la Banque and Avenue de l'Opera.

History

It was officially created in 1634 by orders of the king during the construction of Palais-Cardinal, it was named "rue Bautru" then "rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs", In 1881 it was given its present name. In 1944, the part of rue des Petits Champs which extends across Opera near the Place Vendome was renamed rue Danielle Casanova after a French Resistance fighter who died in 1943.

Name origin

The street received that name because of the small fields, or the large gardens. that used to be there (petits champs meaning small fields in French).^[1] There is a record of a street, in the same location and under the same name in the vicus de Parvis Campis (1273).^[2]

Buildings of note

Rue des Petits-Champs is lined by several impressive mansions:

4 - Galerie Vivienne, a registered historical monument, one of the most iconic covered passages in Paris.
8 - Hôtel du Président Tubeuf, built in 1635. houses the national library's departments of Maps and Plans and Etchings and Photography.
6 - Bibliothèque Nationale de France | site Richelieu (Galerie Colbert Entrance)
40 - Passage Choiseul, the longest covered passage in Paris.^[3]

Closest transport

Metro: Line 3 (Quatre Septembre), 1 & 7 (Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre), 7 & 14 (Pyramides)

Bus: Lines 39 (Bus Sainte-Anne - Petits Champs), 68 21 27 95 (Pyramides)

Trivia

Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived at number 57^[4]
Louis-Ferdinand Céline (né Destouches) grew up at No. 40 rue des Petits-Champs, in the Passage Choiseul where his mother owned a lace and lingerie shop with family quarters upstairs^[5]
Henri Paul Deputy Director of Security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris and driver of the car in the crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August 1997 lived in an apartment on the fifth floor at number 33 Rue des Petits-Champs.^[6]

References

^ Antoine Nicolas Béraud (called Antony); Pierre Joseph Spiridion Dufey (called Dufey de l'Yonne) (1825). Dictionnaire historique de Paris (in French).
^ Jean La Tynna (1812). Dictionnaire topographique, étymologique et historique des rues de Paris (in French). J. de La Tynna.
^ Base Mérimée: Passage Choiseul et passage Sainte-Anne, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
^ Jurgen Oelkers (23 October 2014). Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A&C Black. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-1-4411-5470-5.
^ David Burke (1 March 2009). Writers in Paris: Literary Lives in the City of Light. Catapult. ISBN 978-1-58243-958-7.
^ "The Operation Paget inquiry report into the allegation of conspiracy to murder Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed | Report" (PDF).