The Rue de Provence is a street in the

8th Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, , a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an interval b ...

and 9th

arrondissement An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, and certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissem ...

s of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It begins at the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre and ends at the Rue de Rome. Only the short part of the street between the Rue du Havre and the Rue de Rome is in the 8th arrondissement.

History

Where the road is now, there used to be a little river called the "Ruisseau de Menilmontant" ( Menilmontant brook). With the Parisian population increasing, this little river became the two-metre wide "Grand Egout" (great sewer) in the 17th century.

Letters patent Letters patent (plurale tantum, plural form for singular and plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, President (government title), president or other head of state, generally granti ...

on December 15, 1770 allowed the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde to create the Rue de Provence; which would cover the "Grand Egout". The width of the road was set at 30 feet, confirmed by two ministry decisions on March 20, 1813 and May 21, 1823. While "Provence" is the name of a region in the south-east of France, the street is actually named in honor of Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence, king of France from 1814 to 1824 under the name of

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

. In 1884, the Rue de Provence absorbed the Rue Saint-Nicolas-d'Antin, which extended it further west.

Notable places

* No. 22 (corner of the Rue Chauchat): 18th-century mansion transformed by

Samuel Bing Samuel Siegfried Bing (26 February 1838 – 6 September 1905), who usually gave his name as S. Bing (not to be confused with his brother, Samuel Otto Bing, 1850–1905), was a German-French art dealer who lived in Paris as an adult, and w ...

into an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

exposition building in 1895. Sold in 1904 to the ébénist Louis Majorelle as an exposition room. Now a post office, keeping the exterior decoration. * No. 32: Rare example of a building built in the late 1790s.Pérouse de Montclos (dir.), ''Op. cit.'', p. 405 * No. 34: The door is the only remainder of the Hôtel Thellusson, built in 1778 by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux for the widow of Swiss banker . The opening of the hôtel on the Rue de Provence was a huge triumphal arch. The hôtel was destroyed in 1826 when the Rue Laffitte was lengthened. * No. 122: location of one of the most famous former lupanars, the ''One-two-two''. * No. 126: Building built in 1911 by Henri Sauvage and Charles Sarrazin for the French decorator Louis Majorelle.

Notes

References

* Félix Lazare, ''Dictionnaire administratif et historique des rues de Paris et de ses monuments'', Paris, Imprimerie de Vinchon, 1844–1849 *
Histoire de Paris rue par rue, maison par maison
', Charles Lefeuve, 1875 * Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (dir.), ''Le Guide du Patrimoine. Paris'', Paris, Hachette, 1994 * Félix de Rochegude, ''Promenades dans toutes les rues de Paris. VIIIe arrondissement'', Paris, Hachette, 1910 *
Rue de Provence on the web site wikiparis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Provence

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...