Weird And Wicked Street Names Of Paris

Some of the weird and wicked sounding street names of Paris I encounter bring smiles or wonder. Some are just plain laughable!

The more reasonable ones are historic in nature indicating that this street or area was well known for certain tradesmen or merchants.  Some are a dead give off of what you presume they were named for and others you wonder how did the city planners come up with this one!

Perhaps being a foreigner, I find the names even funnier to pronounce because they are sometimes a linguistic malformation of old French.

Take for another example  Rue des Ours(bears).   It now runs into a major artery that goes North from Châtelet dividing the Pompidou area from Les Halles.

Obviously, there was never an enclave of bears hanging around the centre of Paris.  Yet there were plenty of rotisseries of geese on this street, originally called Rue des Oes, Oes being old French for geese. Somehow Oes got slurred into Ours! 

Several ancient streets bearing sexualized themes in slang were eventually renamed.  Most of them were related to the ominous presence of prostitutes in what is now the Marais district, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd  arrondissements of Paris.

Just north of Les Halles in the 2nd was a true enclave of various brothels. Some were very exclusive, catering to the upper crust of Parisian society and visiting royalty.

The most famous was the one run by  Margarite Gourdan on the corner of Rue Grate Cul(bum/ass scraper), renamed Rue Dussoubs , thank goodness and Rue Saint Saveur.

Paris had a rather naughty reputation for centuries along this line of sexual debauchery.  Most of the vulgar names have been eliminated and replaced with more respectable ones.

Rue Tire Boudin was one. Boudin is a French sausage, mostly referring to blood sausages, but today is still used in slang to denote a fat or ugly whore or woman.

Rue Trace Putain(whore) is now a huge street that starts in the 3rd and runs down into the 4th arrondissement, rehabilitated to  Rue Beaubourg, now a high rent district.

Another vulgar one in the lower Marais called Putes Y Musse(hangout of whores)  has been deformed to a benign  Rue du Petit Musc(musk).

Yesterday, I took a long nostalgic walk to capture some of these strange streets in photos. It was a hot sweaty afternoon, but nothing like last week when I dared not to venture out at 107F!

The walk turned out to be well over 5 kilometres, but however long, I never felt a sense of fatigue and certainly not boredom, passing by some areas I don’t frequent often and some I do.

I started at Strasbourg Saint Denis, walking pass the monumental Porte Saint Denis.  Rue Saint Denis just south remains quite populated with prostitutes, some taking in the shade under a bus stop pretending on waiting on buses rather than “johns”.

I always feel a pull of my heart for these unfortunate abused women, mostly immigrants from Eastern European countries and Asia. Between Rue Beauregard and Rue Cléry is the shortest street if you can call it a street, in Paris.

Rue Degrés is composed of 13 steps rather than pavement.  As I am not a  fan of gaudy street art, I found its uniqueness vulgarized by the modern-day frescos, however colourful.

Rues Cléry, D’Aboukir and Beauregard are in the center of the wholesale rag trade.  Once mostly populated by Eastern European Jews, it is now more run by Asians.

This storefront selling sewing materials had such a pretty old dress in the window, I backtracked to get a photo.  As Rue Beauregard ends at Place des Victoires I was amused by Rue Vide Gousset(empty pouche).

Not surprisingly it got its name from being a hotspot of frequent purse and pant stealings. It is now quite cleaned up despite its wicked name.

I now headed down Etienne Marcel towards the Les Halles district.  Soon as I saw Rue Tiquetonne, a fun word to pronounce, I was tempted to stop in G Detou, my favourite pastry supply store for superb chocolates, vanilla, nuts and whatever.

I would have, but the thought of carrying a few kilos of stuff the rest of my walk quickly nipped that idea in the bud.

Besides I am often up this way for various reasons, mostly culinary in nature as the Montmartre and Montorgueil area are full of cookware and food speciality shops.

Just below is Rue Mauconseil or street of  bad advice.  Wonder how it got it’s name?

Nearby is the lovely tree-shaded square  between Rue de la Grande Truanderie and Rue Petite Truanderie.  Truanderie means swindling or defrauding.

Again these streets earned their names by being a haven t for petty thieves many years ago. As for the grande and petite denominations, I can’t imagine why other than you could have gotten swindled in big or little ways?    Same holds true today, right?

A very old and once renown restaurant Le Pharamond is still here, though it has lost its thunder for modern day gastronomes.  Nearby is the mid-lower end of Rue Saint Denis, which is trashed by sex shops and erotic bars.

Never heard of the Snob Hotel, a hotel chain that apparently did not take into account being located on a un snobby street of Paris!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crossing over Blvd Sebastopol, l went to the Pompidou Center, where  I stopped once again at cute  tiny Rue de Venise, one of the most narrow streets in Paris.

It runs between Rue Quincampoix, and Rue Saint Martin in front of the Pompidou center. The funny sounding name(Quincampoix)  was notorious also for slick unscrupulous deals and where the scoundrel John Law who masterminded the swindling of the Louisiana Purchase lived. A quite appropriate street for him, I would say!

Despite it’s rather dreamy name, Rue Venise was the home of insalubrious rag scavengers and one of the most dangerous streets in Paris.

The pretty now-defunct fountain even had a dubious name.  You certainly wouldn’t have wanted to quench your thirst at La Fountaine Malbuee( bad mud)!

Trotting alongside the Pompidou Center, you run into the amusing large Stravinsky fountain set against the gothic architecture of the southern side of Saint Merri church, where besides attending Masses, you can listen to free classical concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoons.

The name of the street where you find lines of outdoors cafés overlooking the fountain is Rue Brisemiche(break ass). Brise comes from briser(to break) and miches can  either denote old fashioned rustic round loaves of bread or slang for buttocks.

Perhaps not a misnomer in so far that certainly the wait staffs must feel like they have to break ass sometimes serving hungry clients their baskets of bread!

Rue Verrerie is an ancient cobblestones street that takes its name from being where glassmakers were located.

I passed by a strangely titled exhibition written in English on the door of an art gallery in renovation.

“After examining the logbook, the doctors assume they are dealing with the plague” of Shahpour Pouyan.

Crossing Rue Renard which was once the tail end of Rue Trace Putain, I continue on Rue Verrerie behind the beloved BHV department store, where you can find just about everything and on the top floor get a nice view of the city.

Just beyond several fabulous pastry shops,  is the adorable sounding Rue des Mauvaise Garçons.  History has that this strange uneven street where one side is much higher than the other was indeed a street full of young delinquents and woe to anyone naive enough to venture that way!

As I was crossing over onto Ile de La Cité, I passed in front of the boarded-up Notre Dame and noticed that despite it being closed, the cathedral is still drawing in crowds of tourists that were busy photographing.

I continued onward to the Left Bank onto Rue Saint Jacques the oldest Roman road that went south towards Orleans. Turning on Rue de la Huchette leads into the maze of very tiny streets comprising the Medieval part of the Latin Quarter in the 5 arrondissement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately loaded with cheap restaurants geared towards a quick overturn of tourists, they are to be avoided.  Connecting Rue de la Huchette to the Quai Saint Michel is the very narrow and one of the shortest streets in Paris, Rue du Chat Qui Pêche, (the fishing cat).

Supposedly named after a black cat that was observed trying to catch fish off the banks of the Seine, it is considered the narrowest street in Paris.

Winding along another well-trodden cobblestone street of Rue Saint Severin that twists and turns and is uneven. I stopped to peer in the window at the old Tunisian pastry shop on the corner of Rue de la Harpe that has been there even when I was a student and probably long before.

This cute little kitty jumped next to the door, perhaps in hopes of catching some sugary crumbs falling her way.

Maybe she was the reincarnation of the cat who fishes?

 

Their various pastries are good, but better eaten in moderation due to the over sweetness in these type of Middle Eastern goodies.

It was a fun walk to do as usual, despite the heat.  Paris is truly a feast for the eyes and spirit!

I made it home just in time for some cooling sparkling crémant after downing several glasses of ice cold water!