Boulevard du Palais

This is a Wallace Fountain that I must have walked or cycled past dozens or even hundreds of times over the years, without ever stopping for a closer look — which is perhaps not surprising, since Paris has over a hundred of these ‘large model’ fountains (the ones with four lovely caryatids supporting the roof), all of which look the same, except for a few that are painted different colors.

Closer view of the Wallace Fountain on Boulevard du Palais

This particular Wallace Fountain is located on the island of the Cité, on the east side of the Boulevard du Palais in front of a police headquarters. The people across the street, in the background, are queuing to get into the Sainte-Chapelle.

See also: Chamber music in the Sainte-Chapelle.

Allée des Justes

Wallace Fountain on the Allée des Justes

This street in the Marais district of Paris is also known as the Allée des Justes de France or the Allée des Justes parmi les Nations (Allee of the Righteous among the Nations). It adjoins the Memorial to the Shoah, in memory of the 76,000 Jewish men, women and children who were deported from France and murdered in Nazi concentration camps between 1942 and 1944.

Allée des Justes

These weatherproof stands set up on the Allée de Justes show excerpts from farewell letters written by Jewish deportees in the years 1942-44. This first one is entitled: “It’s tomorrow when we are leaving…”

The woman in the photo is our tour guide, Livia, and the wall in the background is the Wall of the Righteous, listing the names of people in France who risked their lives to rescue persecuted Jews during the Second World War.

See also: Jewish Marais Tour with Livia.

Rue Poliveau

Wallace Fountain on Rue Poliveau

Rue Poliveau is a quiet residential street in the 5^th arrondissement, not far from the National Museum of Natural History, which includes the Grand Gallery of Evolution.

I discovered Rue Poliveau on a Sunday morning, when I was riding around more or less at random on one of the Vélib’ bikes.

Wallace Fountain on Rue Poliveau

Later I looked up Rue Poliveau and found that its name was derived from the Pont Liveau, a small bridge that crossed the Bièvre River in earlier times. This bridge no longer exists, because the Bièvre was banished underground more than a century ago.

In the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, Jean Valjean was fleeing on foot (in 1824), carrying the child Cosette and trying not to be seen by Inspector Javert and his men. It was a night with a full moon. “Nonetheless, in all the deserted alleys which adjoin the rue de Poliveau, he felt certain that no one was following him.” (Volume I, pages 578-579 of the folio classique edition.) But this certainty was short-lived, as I have mentioned in my post on the Austerlitz Bridge, which they crossed in the shadow of a heavy horse-drawn cart to reach the other side of the Seine.

My photos and text in this post are from 2022.

See also: The Paris Water Pavilion and my earlier post on the Wallace Fountains.