Christelle Gonzalo and her work Heavens, my Marsh! in front of the bookstore “Sur le fil de Paris”, Photo: Axel G.

In the field of publishing, nothing remarkable has been published on the Marais for years. The thing is now repaired with Heavens, my Marsh! (an illustrated history of the neighborhood), a book self-published by Christelle Gonzalo, a mad lover of Paris and the Marais who runs the bookstore Sur le fil de Paris, on the corner of rue Saint-Paul and rue de l'Avé-Maria (4th).

Photo: Axel G.

Half magazine, half sales catalog, Heavens, my Marsh! is an essential cultural object in a “square back” format (like the monthly Connaissance des Arts or auction catalogs) which has its place in all Marais homes.

Poster “Scandal in the 4th”

The author, who is a trained historian and specialist in the work of Boris Vian, tells, with an elegant style, the history of the district from 1544 to the present day, drawing on nearly 300 old documents, some of which have never been published.

Books, engravings, photographs and other archival objects allow him to tell the story of the evolution of the district, from the royal era when it was dotted with vegetable gardens, to the modern era, including the storming of the Bastille, the Haussmann period and the Commune (1871).

View of the Hôtel de Saint-Paul and the Arsenal district, at the beginning of the 15th century

We learn a lot of things and we visualize the vanished Marais: the fortified enclosure of the Hôtel Saint-Pol (where King Charles resided in the 14th century), the Palais de Tournelles of Charles VI, the headquarters of the Order of the Templars (Temple district), the Bastille prison, the Saint-Paul port on the Seine, the cinema on rue Saint-Paul and the Sainte-Catherine market, which has now disappeared, on the square of the same name.

Written with a communicative passion, Ciel, mon Marais! is for all those who love Paris and the history of their neighborhood. It is also the subject of an exhibition at the Sur le fil bookstore in Paris starting October 9, where iconographic objects related to the catalog and collected by the bookseller over the past ten years will be on sale. Not to be missed.

Heavens, my Marsh! (an illustrated history of the Marais), 96 pages, 23 euros.

On the edge of Paris (old books and documents)
2 Rue de l'Ave Maria, 75004 Paris
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 14 p.m. to 19 p.m.
Saturday from 11 a.m. to 13 p.m. and from 14 p.m. to 19:30 p.m.
Closed wednesday
Tel: +01 71 20 41 46

Text: Axel G.

30.09.24

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