r/TheParisianGuide

A century ago, Gustave Xhrouet dealt with rats by staging festive fights between dogs and rats.

At 83, in 1936, old Gustave still lives in his caravan on the edge of Saint Ouen, wearing a hat made of rat fur. Rats were his whole life: livelihood, past glory, pride. He still breeds a few hundred for the modest ratodrome he runs there, nothing like the grander one he'd opened at Porte Maillot at the turn of the century, the first in Paris.

Sundays drew crowds to watch dogs fight rats: a dog (ratter, fox terrier, German shepherd) thrown into a small wire cage with a swarm of panicked rats. Timekeepers clocked the kills, up to five in under thirty seconds, while bettors watched frenzied.

Gustave invented variants like the cigar box and the cooking pot; most popular was the flowerpot game, five or six overturned pots hiding one rat, the dog racing to sniff it out. In July 1907, his ratodrome hosted the Ratier Club de France finals before 300 spectators. The real purpose was hygienic: training dogs to hunt rats efficiently in stables, warehouses, and homes.

Gustave had picked up the idea as a child in Spa, Belgium, where it was popular at the local velodrome, before moving to Paris in 1863. During the 1870 Prussian siege of Paris, food shortages forced people to eat dogs, cats, even rats, and at 17 he became a skilled rat hunter selling his catches.

His ratodrome declined after 1914. Feeling old and forgotten, he found one last use in 1915: training 1,200 army dogs to clear rat infested trenches.

Headed to Le Fournil Didot in the 14th arrondissement (103 rue Didot), which won 1st prize at the concours de la meilleure baguette tradition of Paris.

Golden, thin crust with an open, airy crumb, very good baguette ;)

The whole facade is covered in glazed stoneware by Alexandre Bigot instead of stone or exposed brick. Built right after Paris changed its building code in 1902, which let architects break away from the usual Haussmann style. Was originally artist studios, but not the cramped kind, these were designed as full luxury apartments for painters, sculptors, writers, even had an elevator serving duplex units on the courtyard side. Got 2nd prize in the city's façade competition in 1912.

La France 🇫🇷** — Avant e**t après
Un aperçu de la France d’une autre époque. Les rues, les bâtiments et l’ambiance ont beaucoup changé au fil des années, mais l’histoire reste fascinante. 🕰️📸

After the Bastille was destroyed in 1789, the square remained largely undeveloped. Napoleon I wanted to modernize Paris and improve its water supply. Beginning in 1806, he ordered the construction of fifteen new fountains in the capital and expanded the city’s canal system, including the Ourcq and Saint-Martin canals.

In 1809, Napoleon decided to build a monumental fountain in the shape of an elephant on the Place de la Bastille.

The elephant was to be made from about 177 tons of bronze, including metal from cannons captured from the Spanish. It would have been about 15 meters high and 16 meters long, or 24 meters high with the tower on its back. Water would have come from its trunk. A staircase inside the statue would have allowed access to the tower.

The choice of the elephant also had a political and military significance. It could refer to the campaigns of Alexander the Great and Hannibal, as well as Napoleon’s ambitions in the East. Napoleon had considered using the elephant as a symbol of the Empire before choosing the eagle.

A life-size model made of wood and plaster was completed in 1814. The actual bronze monument was never built. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, the project was abandoned. The model remained there until it was destroyed in 1846.

The circular basin built for the fountain was later used as the base of the July Column, erected to commemorate those killed during the Revolution of 1830.

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Just went to Peniche Marcounet near Ile Saint Louis. Great location and nice atmosphere, I had fun (loved the live band). Prices are not cheap but reasonable.

In 1900, during the Paris World’s Fair, an original attraction was installed: a large moving walkway called the “Street of the Future.”

It was 3.5 km long and allowed visitors to move more easily between the different places of the exhibition.

There were two moving walkways, one going at 4 km/h and the other at 8 km/h. About 40,000 people used it every day, and it only took 26 minutes to complete the whole journey.

This invention was very modern for the time and was even filmed by Thomas Edison (video here).

Has anyone been to La Coupole recently? Tourist trap or Paris classic brasserie that’s still worth visiting?