September 2024
Called Passy, the 16th was once a spa village known for mineral springs and countryside retreats; it was absorbed during Haussmann’s expansion.
The 16th is home to the Arc de Triomphe, the Bois de Boulogne, the Maison de Balzac, and a lot of really great museums. From there, it is a primarily quiet residential arrondissement.
Maison de Balzac
The Home of Balzac at 47, rue Raynouard
The modest house, with its courtyard and garden, is located within the residential district of Passy near the Bois de Boulogne. Having fled his creditors, Balzac rented the top floor from 1840 to 1847, under his housekeeper’s name (Mr. de Breugnol). It was acquired by the city of Paris in 1949, and is the only one of Balzac’s many residences still in existence.
The museum displays are all in French, but it is still a wonderful spot. It is here that he edited La Comédie humaine and wrote some of his finest novels, including La Rabouilleuse, Une ténébreuse affaire, and La Cousine Bette. You learn a lot about all of those at the house.
Chambre de Bonne
This year I took an apartment in the 16th, just a block and a half from the Arc de Triomphe. It was a Chambre de Bonne or Maid’s Room.
When standing outside of a building, you can spot the Chambre de Bonne at the top.
The Chambre de Bonne is a room in the attics of the residential buildings from the Hausman Era of Paris. It is estimated that there are well over 100,000 chambre de bonnes in Paris. While small, and when modernized and upgraded, they can be lovely; they can also be bleak. The Parisian public has always been aware that the conditions in the rooms were bleak as far back as Émile Zola’s 1882 novel Pot-Bouille; writers have been deploring them for some time.
My one window is not quite so large as the ones in the two pictures above.
That is mine – the porthole way at the top
But it does have a killer view.
The city has tried to regulate the rooms for over a century. As early as 1904, the city banned the rental of maids’ rooms smaller than 86 square feet, a limit that was extended in 2002 to a minimum of 97 square feet.
The view from my room
Mine has a small but upgraded bathroom with a washing machine. It has a kitchen with both an oven and a microwave and an undercounter refrigerator, which is all one needs to be perfectly honest. The bedroom is separate from the living room, which has a fold-out couch. The window is just exactly what you expect, a classic porthole window. Annoying because I have to stand up to look out. However, in my case, I could not complain.
I am here for the month of September. While the heat the first week or so was uncomfortable, it was not overwhelming. Then fall set in, and the weather has been delightfully crisp. The Chambre de Bonne is not a place you want to rent or live in during the summer. The famous zinc roofs of Paris, which the Chambre de Bonne sits directly under, become sizzling frying pans, exceeding 158 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2023, the heat wave killed nearly 15,000 people in Paris, and most of them lived in Chambre de Bonnes. The city is doing what it can, but these are usually units rented to the very poor, and the way to make them habitable as global warming becomes more severe is a true challenge. I loved my little space on the 7th floor, but only because it was a lovely time of year.
Views from my room throughout September.
*
*
The Eiffel Tower’s lighting system dates back to 1985. Designed by lighting engineer Pierre Bideau, it has 336 1kW high-pressure sodium lamps that are changed every 4 years (the last replacement took place in the spring of 2019).
These lights are both for aesthetic and safety purposes since they light the route for visitors and ensure the proper operation of the monument at night.
A beacon located at the top of the Tower also comes on at dusk. On a clear evening, its rays can reach up to 50 miles. It is reminiscent of the beacon that was installed on the monument in 1889. However, today the current beacon (which dates back to 1999) consists of 4 marine-type projectors, one on each side of the monument. These 4 projectors make a 90° rotation and turn on and off in sync, creating the illusion of a 360° rotating beam.
The night of the blood moon
*
This last picture is highly unusual. The lights to the tower turn off at midnight during the winter and at 1:00 am during the summer. I took this photo at 4:30 in the morning. It did, however, happen on my birthday – thank you, Paris!