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A Scholar’s Treasure Hunt (and Journalist’s Headache) : What and Where Is the Oldest House in Paris ? Text by Arthur Gillette* , Photos by Phil Chavanne |
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According to legend, a pair of doves nested on the window sill of the mason/sculptor’s house. The flood-induced collapse trapped the female bird in the wreckage, but the male got away. He brought her kernels of grain in his beak and water sucked from the nearby river in a straw until she could be freed. Whence not only the street’s name but also dove medallions on the walls of what is still a restaurant and wine store. The Medieval masonry is obvious, on the left facing the main entrance. “Without a doubt”: Oh really?
Despite this anomaly, Larousse’s collective 1964 Dictionnaire de Paris didn’t hesitate to state that 3 rue Volta “is said to be, without a doubt quite rightly, the oldest in Paris.” As late as 1979, another collective book, the Guide de Paris Mystérieux, unabashedly repeated this affirmation, as did several successive editions of the Guide Vert Michelin to Paris.
As early as 1972, however, Dictionnaire Historique author Hillairet, and Pascal Payen-Appenzeller - his partner in preparing a supplementary update volume – , were indeed beginning to have doubts: “According to the latest studies concerning this house, it does not seem certain that it is ‘the oldest house in Paris’.” The Supplément wonders if 3 rue Volta might not in fact be 16th century. By 1994, the Ile de France Regional Council’s official Guide du Patrimoine: Paris put it unequivocally: “long dated from the 13th or 14th century /this house/ is from the first half of the 17 th century.” Bye, 3 rue Volta! Anyone for… alchemy?
Hmm… Where do we go from here? Well, let’s try a little… 15th century alchemy.
Badly restored at the end of the 19th century, and now being – hopefully more carefully – refreshed, this is either “one of the oldest houses in Paris” (the 1994 Guide du Patrimoine) or, more simply and less prudently (Albert Ferro’s 1996 Histoire et Dictionnaire de Paris), “recognized as the oldest house in Paris.”
Whence the unexpected – or at least unexplained - fortune? Flamel and wife Pernelle apparently made real estate killings, and he may also have gotten his hands (less publicly) on the expropriated wealth of Jews expelled from France. He has long been thought to have dabbled in alchemy, and claimed in his diary to have succeeded in turning mercury into silver and lead into gold. Or, more simply, was the house built with Pernelle’s magnificent dowry? Game over?
Scared silly, “Fearless John” had this fortified townhouse built – with his bedroom at the top of the keep-like tower the public can now visit - between 1409 and 1411. Lured from his lair eight years later, he in turn was assassinated. --- |
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