The Quai Anatole-France () is a

quay A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

on the south bank of the

River Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...

in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France.

Location

At 585 meters long, the Quai Anatole-France begins after the

Quai Voltaire The Quai Voltaire () is a street and quay located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. 308 meters long, it lies between the Quai Malaquais and the Quai Anatole-France. The Quai Voltaire begins at the Rue des Saints-Pères and ends at the Rue du Bac ...

, at the level of the

Rue du Bac The Rue du Bac () is a street in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The street, which is 1,150 m long, begins at the junction of the quais Quai Voltaire, Voltaire and Quai Anatole-France, Anatole-France and ends at the Rue de Sèvres. Rue du Bac ...

, and continues as the

Quai d'Orsay The Quai d'Orsay ( , ) is a quay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde. It becomes the Quai Anatole-France east of the Palais Bourbon, and the Quai Branly west of the ...

, from the

Boulevard Saint-Germain The Boulevard Saint-Germain () is a major street in Paris on the Rive Gauche of the Seine. It curves in a 3.5-kilometre (2.1 miles) arc from the Pont de Sully in the east (the bridge at the edge of Île Saint-Louis) to the Pont de la Concord ...

and at the level of the

Palais Bourbon The Palais Bourbon () is the meeting place of the National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament. It is in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Rive Gauche of the Seine across from the Place de la Concorde. The offi ...

History

The Quai Anatole-France is the eastern part of the Quai d'Orsay, bounded by the

Pont Royal The Pont Royal is a bridge crossing the river Seine in Paris. It is the third oldest bridge in Paris, after the Pont Neuf and the Pont Marie. Location The Pont Royal links the Rive Droite, Right Bank by the Pavillon de Flore with the Rive Gauche ...

and the Pont de la Concorde. It took its current name in 1947.

Anatole France (; born ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters.Rive Gauche The Rive Gauche (; Left Bank) is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two parts. When facing downstream, the southern bank is to the left, whereas the northern bank (or Rive Dr ...

: he had lived at 15, quai Malaquais and his father had run a bookstore at 9, quai Voltaire. First called the Quai de la Grenouillière by the Council decree of 18 October 1704, it had been renamed the Quai d'Orsay by the decision of the Council of 23 August 1707. It was called the Quai Bonaparte by the decree of the Consuls of 13

Messidor Messidor () was the tenth month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was origin ...

year X, and reverted to the name "Quai d'Orsay" in 1815. The part of the quay between number 5 and the Rue de Bellechasse was named the Place Henry-de-Montherlant in 1982.

Buildings and places of interest

*Nos 9 bis-11 (and 2-2 bis, rue de Solférino): mansion at the end of the 19th century. *No 11: campaign seat of

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (; born 7 March 1961), sometimes referred to by his initials NDA, is a French politician serving since 2008 as president of the minor party Debout la France. He was its only member in the National Assembly (France), Nationa ...

during the 2012 presidential election. *No 15: Caisse des dépôts et consignations, formerly owned by the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

, the building houses part of the services of the Banking Department. *No 19: back of the garden of Hôtel Beauharnais, 78, rue de Lille. *No 21: back of the garden of the Hôtel de Seignelay, 80, rue de Lille. *No 23: apartment occupied by

Claude Chappe Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore line, semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within l ...

. *No 25: Hôtel Collot, designed by

Louis Visconti Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti (Rome February 11, 1791 – December 29, 1853) was an Italian-born French architect and designer. Life Son of the Italian archaeologist and art historian Ennio Quirino Visconti, Visconti designed many Paris ...

in neoclassical style and built in 1840–1841 by Antoine Vivenel, for Jean-Pierre Collot (1764–1852), supplier to the armies and director of the

Monnaie de Paris The (, ''Paris Mint (coin), Mint'') is a government-owned institution responsible for producing France, France's coins. Founded in AD 864 by King Charles the Bald with the Edict of Pistres, it is the oldest continuously running minting instituti ...

from 1821 to 1842. The facade, adorned with superimposed columns, is set back slightly on a basement with bosses, leaving a terrace where two statues imitated from the Antique stand up. The hotel stands on the site of the gardens of the former Hôtel du Maine, built for the

Duke of Maine The capital of Maine was Le Mans. In the thirteenth century it was annexed by France to the royal domain. Dukes of Maine (''duces Cenomannici'') * Charivius (fl. 723) – appears as ''dux'' in a document of 723. Controlled twelve counties and th ...

by Antoine Mazin,

Robert de Cotte Robert de Cotte (; 1656 – 15 July 1735) was a French architect-administrator, under whose design control of the royal buildings of France from 1699, the earliest notes presaging the Rococo, Rococo style were introduced. First a pupil of ...

and Armand-Claude Mollet between 1716 and 1726. Hôtel Collot was sold in 1852, on the death of his sponsor, General

Mahmoud Ben Ayed Mahmoud Ben Ayed, Mahmoud Ben Ayad (), born in 1805 in Tunis and died in 1880 in Istanbul, was a Tunisian politician. His misappropriation of funds while in office led the Tunisian state to bankruptcy and financial dependence on Europe, and was thu ...

, from an important Djerba family dating back to the 17th century. Appointed director of the state stores by the

Bey of Tunis Bey, also spelled as Baig, Bayg, Beigh, Beig, Bek, Baeg, Begh, or Beg, is a Turkic languages, Turkic title for a chieftain, and a royal, aristocratic title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of various ...

Ahmed I Ahmed I ( '; ; 18 April 1590 – 22 November 1617) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617. Ahmed's reign is noteworthy for marking the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide; henceforth, Ottoman rulers would no ...

, gradually holder of all the rents of

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, he created a bank in 1847 and obtained the monopoly of the issue of refundable bearer notes, guaranteed on funds of the state. According to the report of a financial inspector sent on a mission to

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, he embezzled 50 to 60 million francs. In 1850, the general obtained French nationality and, in 1852, he left Tunisia with his treasure while keeping certain businesses there. In addition to the Collot hotel, he bought investment properties in Paris, as well as the

Château de Bouges A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking reg ...

in 1853. But he was the subject of legal proceedings which forced him to flee to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and resell his property. The hotel then housed the Spanish Embassy from 1864 to 1880. It was acquired in 1923 by the antique dealer Isaac Founes, a specialist in French furniture, then in 1932 by the Société générale commerciale de l'Est, which installed its offices there. offices and whose owners made it their home until 2004, when it became the property of the antique dealers Nicolas and Alexis Kugel who had it carefully restored by the architect Laurent Bourgois and the decorator François-Joseph Graf and have installed their gallery. *No 27: building built in 1905 by Richard Bouwens van der Boijen. *No 27 bis: Agency for the dissemination of technological information (Adit).

References

Quais in Paris Streets in the 7th arrondissement of Paris {{Paris-geo-stub