Rue Soufflot

Rue Soufflot is a street in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the border between the quartier de la Sorbonne and the quartier du Val-de-Grâce. It links boulevard Saint-Michel with the Jardin du Luxembourg at place du Panthéon.

History
Rue Soufflot at night from place du Panthéon
Rue Soufflot from the boulevard Saint-Michel.

The street follows the ancient Roman decumanus.[1] From the 13th century, the medieval municipal government was based in the "Parloir aux bourgeois", on the site of what is now 20 rue Soufflot.

The street is named after Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780), architect of the Panthéon de Paris. It was built to give a perspective towards the Panthéon. It was completed as far as rue Saint-Jacques around 1760 and known as rue du Panthéon-Français during the French Revolution. In 1805 a plan was produce to extend it as far as what is now boulevard Saint-Michel, but it took until the second half of the 19th century for this plan to be carried out. It was renamed Rue Soufflot in 1807.[2]

24 rue Soufflot once housed the bookshop for the publishers éditeur Cotillon and F. Pichon, bookshop of the Conseil d'État in 1889. It also housed the neurophysiologist Alfred Vulpian and bears a plaque to that effect. In the 19th century the street was regularly visited by a celebrity of the Latin Quarter - the femme au perroquet or parrot woman, carrying a macaw and handing out toys and sweets to children.[3] The street is also mentioned in several 20th century chansons such as Quartier Latin by Léo Ferré and Place des grands hommes by Patrick Bruel.

On 21 May 1981 (the day of his investiture as president) François Mitterrand took rue Soufflot from place Edmond-Rostand to get to the Panthéon, where he laid roses on the tombs of Jean Moulin, Victor Schœlcher and Jean Jaurès. It is also usually part of the route used when transferring someone's remains to the Panthéon.

References
  1. Le tracé des rues de Paris, Bernard Rouleau, Presses du CNRS, p.38, 1988
  2. Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, Jacques Hillairet, éditions de Minuit, p.528
  3. L. de B. La femme au perroquet, Le Monde Illustré du 24 octobre 1868, page 272.

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