Mº Basttille .
The landmark column topped with the
gilded "Spirit of Liberty" on place
de la Bastille was erected not to
commemorate the surrender in 1789 of the
notorious prison, but the July
Revolution of 1830 that replaced the
autocratic Charles X with the "Citizen
King" Louis-Philippe. When Louis-Philippe
fled in the more significant 1848
Revolution, his throne was burnt beside
the column and a new inscription added.
Four months later, the workers again
took to the streets. All of eastern
Paris was barricaded, with the fiercest
fighting on rue du Faubourg-St-Antoine.
The rebellion was quelled with the usual
massacres and deportation of survivors,
and it is of course the 1789 Bastille
Day, symbol of the end of feudalism in
Europe, that France celebrates every
year on July 14.
The Bicentennial of the Revolution in
1989 was marked by the inauguration of
the Opéra-Bastille , Mitterrand's
pet project and subject of the most
virulent sequence of rows and
resignations. Filling almost the entire
block between rues de Lyon, Charenton
and Moreau, it has shifted the focus of
place de la Bastille, so that the column
is no longer the pivotal point; in fact,
it's easy to miss it altogether when
dazzled by the night-time glare of
lights emanating from this "hippopotamus
in a bathtub", as one critic dubbed it.
The Opéra's construction destroyed no
small amount of low-rent housing, but,
as with most speculative developments,
the pace of change has been uneven:
cobblers and ironmongers still survive
alongside cocktail haunts and sushi bars
that make up the simultaneously trendy
and gritty quartier de la Bastille
. Place and rue d'Aligre still
have their raucous daily market and, on
rue de Lappe , Balajo is
one remnant of a very Parisian tradition:
the bals musettes , or music
halls of 1930s " gai Paris ",
frequented between the wars by Edith
Piaf, Jean Gabin and Rita Hayworth. It
was founded by one Jo de France, who
introduced glitter and spectacle into
what were then seedy gangster dives, and
brought Parisians from the other side of
the city to the rue de Lappe lowlife.
Nowadays the street is full of fun,
trendy bars, full to bursting at the
weekend. You'll find art galleries
clustered around rue Keller and
the adjoining stretch of rue de
Charonne ; and indie music shops and
gay, lesbian and hippy outfits on rues
Keller and des Taillandiers .
