Did you like our story of the Birague’s street? Our beautiful little street is also named after a fountain that was created in the 16th century. It was also called Fontaine Sainte Catherine.
A bit of history
Leymonnerye, Léon 1853 , Dessinateur
CC0 Paris Musées / Musée Carnavalet
La Fontaine de Birague was created by René de Birague in 1579 to supply water to his residence (“On n’est jamais mieux servi que par soi même” – ” If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!“) and also to supply water to the whole neighborhood. Unfortunately, the spring that fed it dried up and it was destroyed to be rebuilt in 1627 in front of the Church of Saint Paul Saint Louis, on the square that was then called Place de Birague.
Bad luck for our fountain, it was demolished again to be rebuilt in 1707 and then, “jamais deux sans trois” as we say in French (“good things come in threes”), this third Fontaine de Birague disappeared definitively in 1856 when the Rue de Rivoli was extended under Haussmann.
By the way, you have learned two very French expressions!
In his book “Histoire de Paris”, Jacques-Antoine Dulaure describes the Birague Fountain in not very flattering terms :
“In spite of the changes it underwent, the Fountain has never ceased to bear the disgraced name of Birague, and to offer an architecture without taste and character.”
Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, depuis les premiers temps historiques, Jacques Antoine Dulaure -1823
According to Jacques-Antoine Dulaure, this is the seventeenth fountain in Paris, fed by water from the Notre-Dame bridge pump. Still in “Histoire de Paris”, the author keeps on criticizing René de Birague.
“René de Birague, one of those men lost of morals that Catherine de Medicis lured to Paris, one of the authors and actors of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacres, covered with crimes…as ignorant as they were cruel”.
Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, depuis les premiers temps historiques, Jacques Antoine Dulaure -1823
Did you know that?
• In 1882, Honoré de Balzac published a novel entitled “L’héritière de Birague” under the pseudonym Lord R’Hoone (Honoré’s anagram).
• Mathilde keeps the Fountain of Birague alive by offering a drink to all our four-legged friends who walk down the street of Birague!