Rue de Rennes

Rue de Rennes is a thoroughfare in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It is a major shopping street on the left bank of the capital.

Location and access

Rue de Rennes begins at Place du Québec and ends at Place du 18-Juin-1940. It is a straight north-south street, over one kilometer long and twenty meters wide. Opened in the mid-nineteenth century, it is a recent thoroughfare in terms of Paris history: its buildings, of fairly homogeneous scale, are all post-1850. ^[1]

Rue de Rennes is served by line 4 at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Placide stations, line 12 at Rennes station and lines 4, 6, 12 and 13 at Montparnasse - Bienvenüe station. ^[2]

Origin of the name

The street is named after the city of Rennes, because in 1853, the street ended at the “gare de Rennes", today the Gare de Paris-Montparnasse, from which lines serving Brittany depart. ^[1]

Rue de Rennes circa 1853-1870 (photograph attributed to Charles Marville), from boulevard Raspail, towards the station.

History

Rue de Rennes was built during the Second Empire. It was originally intended to join the Seine. For this reason, the numbering begins at 41, the previous numbers having been reserved for the part of the street that was to be cut north of Boulevard Saint-Germain. The existing section was excavated twice. ^[3]

The Grand bazaar on Rue de Rennes, 1907.

It was opened by decree on March 9, 1853, from rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs and rue de Vaugirard to place du 18-Juin-1940. The plan appended to this decree gave the road a width of just 20 meters. However, it was opened up, following different alignments, to a width of 22 m, as shown on the plan appended to the decree of July 25, 1855, setting its level between rue de Vaugirard and place du 18-Juin-1940. ^[4]

The second section, from boulevard Saint-Germain to rue de Vaugirard and rue du Regard, follows the decree of July 28, 1866. The construction of this thoroughfare led to the disappearance of several streets: ^{[5] [6]}

• Beurrière street,
• Guillemin new-street,
• Égout street  [ fr ],
• Saint-Benoît crossroads  [ fr ].

The third section was never built; the route finally chosen involved the destruction of the Institut de France. ^{[7] [8]}

In 1880, the point where rue de Rennes meets boulevard du Montparnasse was renamed “place de Rennes” (now place du 18-Juin-1940). In 1977, the area in contact with Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés  [ fr ] became part of the latter. ^[9]

On March 30, 1918, during the First World War, a shell fired by Big Bertha exploded at the corner of rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. The following day, another shell exploded at no. 106. ^[9]

Rue de Rennes is often referred to as the rue de Rennes bombing, which took place in front of the Tati store on September 17, 1986. It was the latest and deadliest (7 dead and around 60 injured) in a series that began on September 4 (11 dead in all). Carried out in broad daylight, it was claimed by CSPPAC, a false name concealing Hezbollah acting on behalf of Iran, which demanded the release of Lebanese leader Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. The leader of the terrorist commando responsible for the attacks, Fouad Ali Salah, was arrested in March 1987. A plaque inaugurated by President François Mitterrand honors the memory of the victims. ^[10]

Rue de Rennes was redeveloped in the early 2010s. The first stage, involving the southern section between Place du 18-Juin-1940 and Boulevard Raspail, was launched in May 2011 and completed on June 30, 2012, with the widening of sidewalks, the creation of bicycle lanes and delivery spaces. ^[11] To make these improvements possible, the bus lanes have been removed, although four bus lines, including two Mobilien lines, run on them. ^[12]

• 
  Late Haussmann building at no. 72.
• 
  No. 120: building towards the middle of the street.
• 
  The southern end of the street; in the background, the Montparnasse Tower and Paris-Montparnasse station.

Remarkable buildings and places of memory

• François Hollande and Ségolène Royal lived at an unknown number in the 1980s. ^[13]

• No. 44: on March 22, 1895, the Lumière brothers gave their first public film screening here, before the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale. ^[14]
• No. 46: painter Charles Wislin (1852-1932) lived here.
• No. 50: above the doorway is a bas-relief depicting Saint Marguerite's dragon, created in 1732 by Paul-Ambroise Slodtz. It originally stood above a gateway leading to an inner courtyard, the Cour du Dragon. The courtyard was demolished in the mid-20th century, and the portal, although listed as a historic monument, was demolished in 1935 to make way for a concrete building. The fresco on display today is a copy, the original being in the Louvre Museum.
• No. 54: Charles Pigeon died here.

• 
  View of the entrance to the Cour du Dragon.
• 
  Au Dragon sign by Paul-Ambroise Slodtz (Louvre).
• 
  Copy of Le Dragon bas-relief at no. 50.

• No 62: Gaston Prost (1881-1967), painter and lithographer, lived here.
• No 64: during the siege of Paris, Bourg-la-Reine's town council met here from September 1870 to March 14, 1871, first in the former building No 43, boulevard Saint-Germain (the present building dates from 1890), then here, with Jean Alphonse Gosse as mayor. ^[15]
• No 71: in 1919, Simone de Beauvoir, who was still a child and had been living until then in the beautiful apartment where she was born in 1908, at 103, boulevard du Montparnasse, ^[16] her family having suffered reverses of fortune, moved to this new address, to a less plush apartment on the sixth floor, with no elevator or running water; she lived there until 1929. ^[17]
• No. 76: L'Arlequin cinema.
• From 1948 to 1956, part of the building's basement housed the cabaret-theater La Rose Rouge (150 seats), directed by Nikos Papatakis (1918-2010), who had co-founded it when it opened in 1947 in a restaurant of the same name at 53, rue de la Harpe. The fiction film La Rose rouge (1951) by Marcel Pagliero (1907-1980) captures the ambience of the place. ^[18]
• No. 112: former Crédit municipal de Paris building. Since 1983, the André-Malraux library. ^[19]
• No. 129: architect Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer (1829-1922) lived here in 1868.
• Nos. 136-138: former Grand bazar building on rue de Rennes, inaugurated on September 29, 1906, by architect Henri Gutton (who made his mark in Nancy with the Art Nouveau movement). The building's metal beams come from the workshops of engineer Armand Moisant. In 1910, it became the Grands Magasins de la rue de Rennes, which in the 1920s became the property of Magasins Réunis. Around 1960, the latter placed a new, more plain facade on the original one. The original building was demolished and rebuilt. In 1974, the building became a Fnac store, the first Fnac store in Montparnasse to sell books. ^[20]

• 
  No. 112: André-Malraux Library.
• 
  Nos. 136-138: Interior of the former Grand Bazaar.
• 
  Nos. 140-140 bis: Former Félix Potin building.

• No. 140-140 bis: building of the former Félix Potin store, opened in 1904, designed by architect Paul Auscher, a six-storey food superstore richly decorated in Art Nouveau style, which notably offered a “cuisine service for the city” with its catering department. The building's facade and roof are listed historic monuments. The building was later taken over by Tati. The Rue de Rennes bombing took place here on September 17, 1986. The shopping area is now occupied by Zara. ^[21]

• No. 153: site of the first church of the Notre-Dame-des-Champs parish, created in 1858 and covering part of this district. The building was made of wood. It has since been replaced by the new Notre-Dame-des-Champs church, built from 1867 to 1876 on the corner of boulevard du Montparnasse and rue du Montparnasse. In 1931, it was reassembled in Fermanville. ^[22]

Commemorative plaques

• 
  Writer J.-H. Rosny aîné died at no. 47 in 1940.
• 
  Philippine independence activist José Rizal lived at no. 124 in 1883.
• 
  Robert Fouré, military leader of Libération-Nord, who died in deportation, lived at no. 128.
• 
  Plaque in memory of the rue de Rennes bombing at no. 140 bis.
• 
  Composer Joseph Canteloube lived at no. 146.
• 
  Aviatrix Hélène Boucher lived at no. 169.

References

1. "Rue de Rennes: The Ultimate Parisian Shopping Street Guide". Paris top ten. 2025.
2. "Station de Métro Rennes". Bonjour RATP.
3. Estienne, Nicolas (2015). "Dictionnaire amoureux de Paris". Plon. 716 (1): 341. ISBN   978-2-259-24866-2.
4. "PARKS AND GARDENS: PARISIAN STROLLS OF THE SECOND EMPIRE". Napoleon.
5. Janson (1867). "Percement de la rue de Rennes entre Saint-Germain-des-Prés et la rue du Vieux-Colombier" (in French).
6. Alphand, Adolphe. "Ville de Paris : Recueil des lettres patentes, ordonnances royales, décrets et arrêtés préfectoraux concernant les voies publiques" [City of Paris: Compendium of letters patent, royal ordinances, decrees and prefectoral orders concerning public roads]. Imprimerie Nouvelle (in French).
7. "La rue de Rennes, un siècle d'hésitations" [Rue de Rennes, a century of hesitation]. www.ruederennes.com (in French).
8. "On l'a échappé belle !" [That was a close one!]. www.ruevisconti.com (in French).
9. "Carte et liste officielles des obus lancés par le canon monstre et numérotés suivant leur ordre et leur date de chute" [Official map and list of shells fired by the monster cannon, numbered according to their order and date of fall.]. Excelsior (in French). 9 January 1919.
10. Auboin, Michel; Teyssier, Arnaud; Tulard, Jean (2005). La Police. Histoire et dictionnaire. Bouquins (in French). Éditions Robert Laffont. p. 1059. ISBN   2221085736.
11. "Rue de Rennes, les piétons au pouvoir" [Rue de Rennes, pedestrians in power]. Le Parisien (in French). 2012.
12. Ramnoux, Sébastien (2011). "Un premier couloir de bus disparaît" [First bus lane disappears]. Le Parisien (in French). Archived from the original on 26 March 2011.
13. Raffy, Serge (7 September 2011). François Hollande (in French). Fayard. ISBN   978-2-213-66799-7.
14. "22 mars 1895 : première projection publique des frères Lumière" [March 22, 1895: first public screening by the Lumière brothers]. France inter (in French). 2013.
15. Lenormand, Xavier (1994). Bour g-la-Reine, Histoire des Rues[Bour g-la-Reine, Street History] (in French). PAO Imprimerie Nouvelle Orléans. p. 46. ISBN   2-9509068-0-X.
16. "Le Paris de Sartre et de Beauvoir" [The Paris of Sartre and Beauvoir]. Paris ZigZag / Insolite & Secret (in French).
17. "Simone de BEAUVOIR à Paris, Marseille, Rouen et ailleurs" [Simone de BEAUVOIR in Paris, Marseille, Rouen and elsewhere]. Terres d'écrivains (in French). 2004.
18. Schlesser, Gilles (2006). Le Cabaret « rive gauche » : De la Rose rouge au Bateau ivre (1946-1974)[Left Bank Cabaret: From the Rose Rouge to the Bateau ivre (1946-1974)] (in French). Éditions de l'Archipel. p. 682. ISBN   978-2-84187-849-9.
19. "Centre André Malraux". Societe historique du VI arrondissement (in French).
20. "Le Grand Bazar de la rue de Rennes - Paris 6e". paris199.lartnouveau.com (in French).
21. Dumay, Jean-Michel (2010). "Félix Potin réinvente l'épicerie". Le Monde Magazine (in French): 36–39.
22. Hillairet, Jacques (1997). Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris. 2: L - Z (in French). Éd. de Minuit. p. 752. ISBN   978-2-7073-1053-8.

Bibliography

• Hénard, E (1910). Le prolongement de la rue de Rennes, à Paris, et le projet de pont en X sur la Seine (in French). Le Génie civil.