2014 BBC 10-part TV version of 'Les Trois Mouquetaires'

Peter Capaldi to be the cardinal duc

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/feb/26/peter-capaldi-adaptation-the-musketeers-bbc

Pont Louis XVI and the statue of the cardinal

The widened bridge 'de la Concorde' in Paris today

L'architecte Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, qui a créé en 1775 avec Daniel-Charles Trudaine l'École royale des ponts et chaussées (aujourd'hui École nationale des ponts et chaussées), est chargé en 1787 de la construction de ce pont en arc.

Ce pont était en projet depuis 1725, lors de la construction de la place Louis XV (aujourd'hui place de la Concorde), pour remplacer le bac qui assurait alors la traversée à cet endroit.
Assurant la construction en pleine tourmente révolutionnaire, il utilise pour la maçonnerie des pierres de taille provenant de la démolition de la Bastille, prise d'assaut le 14 juillet 1789. La construction sera terminée en 1791.

En 1810, Napoléon Bonaparte y fit placer des statues en l'honneur de huit généraux morts au champ d'honneur pendant les campagnes du Premier Empire.

The architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, who in 1775 created (with Daniel Charles Trudaine) the "Royal School of Bridges and Roads" (now the "National School of Bridges and Roads") was responsible in 1787 for the design and construction of the new arched bridge.

A bridge had been planned since 1725, during the construction of the Place Louis XV (now the Place de la Concorde), replacing a former ferry crossing, then at this location.

Ensuring that the construction continued during revolutionary turmoil, Perronet used the stones and masonry from the demolition of the fortress of the Bastille, which had been stormed on 14 July 1789. Construction of the bridge was completed in 1791.

In 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte placed on it statues in honor of eight Generals killed in battle during the campaigns of the First Empire.

the pont Louis XVI on 1830, with the 12 colossal statues

the pont Louis XVI in 1829, more-or-less  the date of the statue by Claude Ramey père
that is now located in the town of Richelieu in Touraine

À la Restauration, on les remplaça par un ensemble de douze statues monumentales en marbre blanc de quatre grands ministres (Colbert, Richelieu, Suger, Sully), quatre militaires (Bayard, Condé, Du Guesclin, Turenne) et quatre marins (Duguay-Trouin, Duquesne, Suffren, Tourville). Mais cet ensemble est trop lourd pour le pont, et Louis-Philippe Ier fait enlever ces statues pour les transférer à Versailles.

At the Restoration, these eight were replaced by a set of twelve monumental white marble statues of four Ministers (Colbert, Richelieu, Suger, Sully), four soldiers (Bayard, Condé, Du Guesclin, Turenne) and four sailors (Duguay-Trouin, Duquesne, Suffren, Tourville). But all this was too heavy a load for the bridge's structure, and Louis-Philippe I removed the statues and transferred them to Versailles.

In 1932 the monumental statue of the cardinal duc de Richelieu was erected in his eponymous town in Poitou.

SEE THE MAP OF LOCATIONS ON THE RIGHT COLUMN FOR THE LOCATION OF THE STATUE TODAY

English description of the statue of Ramey père of 1830

These three pages are from the following book;

"Museum of painting and sculpture, or, Collection of the principal pictures, statues and bas-reliefs in the public and private galleries of Europe."

Author:

Etienne Achille Réveil (drawings); Jean Duchesne (text)

Publisher:

London, Bossange; Paris, Audot

1828

page 222 of "the Museum of painting and sculpture...."

The inauguration of the statue in Richelieu town on 17 July 1932

CLICK HERE FOR THE SCULPTURE TODAY

the signature at the statue's base

ANOTHER POST ABOUT THE STATUE OF THE CARDINAL DUC

the statues in place

Perronet's original concept drawing for the pont Louis XVI

The statue itself, now in 37120 Richelieu

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the last duchess...

Elinor Douglas Wise was the eighth and last duchess of Richelieu.  These two photos popped up on e-bay recently and show her  in 1923, at the age of 33.  She was born in 1890 in Baltimore, USA,  and died in 1972 at the age of 82, without issue. She had married the eighth, and as it transpired, last duke of Richelieu, Marie Odet Jean Armand de la chapelle de Saint-Jean de Jumilhac, 8th Duke of Richelieu (1880 - 1952).

"In 1913, he married miss Elinor Douglas Wise (aged 23?), of Baltimore. The ceremony was performed by the late Cardinal Gibbons, who gave the opening benediction at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. The Duchess, who studied voice in France with Mme Emma Eames, the noted American singer, gave many concerts for the benefit of tubercular French soldiers."

"Marie Odet Jean Armand Chapelle de Jumilhac (Paris, December 21, 1875 - New York City, June 30, 1952). He became the 8th and last Duke of Richelieu and of Fronsac and Marquis of Jumilhac on the death of his father on June 28, 1880, in Athens. In 1919, he married Eleanor Douglas Wise (1890-1972) (aged 29?), of Maryland, United States, daughter of John Sergeant Wise. Without issue."

A portrait of her husband HERE...

http://richelieu-eminencerouge.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/last-duke.html

A NY Times article about the eighth duke and his wife

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Flip-flop Xmas Tree from OZ

Merry Christmas 2012

Threading the town...

parking quickly in the handicapped bay on the place du Marché

More pictures of Alice Heine

click here for other posts on the Heine family

December 22, 1925

The Associated Press is reporting the death of the Dowager Princess of Monaco. The former Marie Alice Heine died suddenly today in Paris.

The daughter of a New Orleans banker, Alice Heine was born on February 10, 1858. She married the 7th Duke of Richelieu in 1875. He died in 1880.

After his death, Alice married in 1889 to Prince Albert I of Monaco. The new Princess of Monaco sought to establish the principality as a cultural center. Her marriage was not happy one, and in 1902, the couple separated officially, but were never divorced.

Marie Alice was born at 900 Rue Royale in New Orleans' French Quarter. Her French-born father Michael came from a prominent German banking family. He was also a cousin of the German writer, Heinrich Heine. Her mother, Marie-Amelie Miltenberger, was the daughter of a New Orleans architect.

The Dowager Princess is survived by her son, Armand, the 8th Duke of Richelieu.

Portrait by Pierre Auguste Cot

Marie-Alice is buried far from her second husband Albert 1 in Monaco; in the cemetary of Père Lachaise in Paris

where's that horn gorn?

Harold Jacobs

The painter, Harold Jacobs, who lives in Ligré, has a decennial reason to celebrate.  Below a link to a u-tube movie about him...

 

bonne anniversaire!

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...progress at la halle

....Fluent french....

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French expressions that one does not learn at school...

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The old Grenier à Sel ?

From much before the 17th century, the King of France had raised a tax on his subjects called the Gabelle.  It was a tax based in later years on the supply of domestic salt.  As salt was the principal method of preserving meats, fish or even vegetables, it was a very necessary product for daily life.  The King produced the salt in his own salt farms on the Atlantic to the west, and it was distributed to his greniers à sel - salt 'barns' - located by privilege all over his kingdom.  In this way an important tax that was dependent on domestic consumption was spread to the entire population.

A modern parallel is hydrocarbon fuel duty, where a tax, much higher than the market value of the product itself, is raised on a necessary daily product.  Read Here about this tax in the UK.

The locations of the warehouses that sold the protected royal product were important, as they would required constant visits, and would attract all sorts of other commerces to their side.

When the King, Louis XIII, gave royal patents to the newly-founded town of Richelieu, among other particular benefits to privilege the venture was the re-location of the local grenier à sel for the region. It was moved from the bustling town of Loudun, twenty kilometres away, to the new town of his powerful cardinal duc.

Of course this was not a popular act in the town of Loudun, as it required them to change their habits and make frequent visits to the new but isolated town of Richelieu.

Click here for the history of the salt tax, the Gabelle.

Below we show photos of the 'alleged' former grenier à sel de Richelieu.  (See the 'comment' of Richelieu's historian Marie-Pierre Terrien, below). It has recently been sold by the Sorbonne to a new owner, who prepares to restore it, presumably as a residence.  If one looks at this blog's map of locations (see RHS) there is an indication of where the building is to be found, exactly between the town walls and the ducal château parc, between moat and canal, on the axis that terminates in the statue of the cardinal in the place du Cardinal.

Seems it is more likely one of the ducal parc's many support buildings ... but who knows?

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below

 is a map of the gabelles at a national scale; note that Richelieu is the only town marked in the region; no sign of Loudun for example!

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