The Quai Voltaire is a street located in the

7th arrondissement of Paris The 7th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''le septième''. The arrondissement, called Palais-Bourbon in a r ...

. 308 meters long, it lies between the Quai Malaquais and Quai Anatole-France. The Quai Voltaire begins at the Rue des Saints-Pères and ends at the Rue de Bac and 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 Right Bank by the Pavillon de Flore with the Left Bank of Paris be ...

History

Originally the Quai Voltaire was the western portion of the Quai Malaquais. In 1644 it was renamed Quai des Théatins after some

Theatines The Theatines officially named the Congregation of Clerics Regular ( la, Ordo Clericorum Regularium), abreviated CR, is a Catholic order of clerics regular of Pontifical Right for men founded by Archbishop Gian Pietro Carafa in Sept. 14, 1524. I ...

built a monastery on the ''quai'' (Today located at No. 23 and No. 25 Quai Voltaire). In 1791, the wharf became known as the Quai Voltaire in homage to the

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, pla ...

who died in 1778 in the home of Charles, marquis de Villette. After

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

set his novel ''

La Peau de chagrin ''La Peau de chagrin'' (, ''The Skin of Shagreen''), known in English as ''The Magic Skin and The Wild Ass's Skin'', is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells t ...

'' in the Quai Voltaire, antique shops became common in the ''quai''. In the early nineteenth century the area became a well-known place for booksellers to peddle their wares.

Buildings of note

*no. 1: The Hôtel de Bouillon and the Hôtel de Tessé were built in 1768 by Pierre-Noël Rousset and Louis Le Tellier for Charlotte de Béthune-Charost and her son the Count of Tessé. In 1742, Jean-François Boyvin de Bonnetot equipped himself with wings and attempted to fly off the roof of the hotel. He briefly hovered 300 meters above the

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 plate ...

before falling into a boat and breaking his leg. The hotel was also the site of

Thomas Robert Bugeaud Thomas Robert Bugeaud, marquis de la Piconnerie, duc d'Isly (15 October 178410 June 1849) was a Marshal of France and Governor-General of Algeria. Early life He was born at Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and C ...

's death in 1849. After President

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as ...

left office in 2007, he moved his family into the Hôtel de Bouillon. *no. 3 and no. 5: Hôtel Le Barbier, Hôtel Perrault, and Hôtel de La Briffe were all one unit until 1733. They were connected by a tunnel with the other side of the Rue de Bourbon. Author

Maurice Joly Maurice Joly (22 September 1829 – 15 July 1878) was a French political writer and lawyer known for ''The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu'', a political satire of Napoleon III. Known life Most of the known informatio ...

lived there in a small apartment until his death in 1878. The Sennelier shop was opened on the site in 1887. It became famous for supplying art supplies to artists such as Cézanne,

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is esp ...

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...

Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...

, Soutine, Modigliani, Kandinsky, Bonnard, and

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is kn ...

References

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Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

Geography of Paris