The Journées du Patrimoine and my local town hall

On the weekend of September 17 and 18, France had its 28th annual Journées du Patrimoine, a sort of nation-wide open house for government and public buildings including a host of museums, churches, some fancy places like the Senate Buildings and the Elysées Palace (where the President works), and yes, our local town hall. Valentin, having just been released from the hospital four days earlier, was not exactly allowed to be walking outside for more than ten minutes at a time. However, for someone who's not used to sitting still for more than a few minutes (unless thoroughly absorbed in his medical books), eleven days and eight hours in a hospital bed (not that he was counting or anything) is not very easily followed by weeks of house arrest. He convinced me that he simply had to partake in the Journees du Patrimoine, so we set out sights local: our Arrondissement's (or district's) town hall.

The townhall of the Fifteenth Arrondissement of Paris (photo from wikipedia)

We live in the Fifteenth Arrondissement which wasn't always part of Paris. In fact, when the great Louis Pasteur did his science, his home was a veritable country (or at least suburban) house that's now at the heart of the Pasteur Institute a few minutes' walk from our apartment. The Fifteenth is a residential but active neighborhood. There's not much in the way of nightclubs, but there are loads of restaurants of every ethnic cuisine, a good collection of bars, and a bustling train station (Montparnasse) as well as plenty of science happening right down at the Pasteur Institute. (The HIV virus was first isolated right here, for which Pasteur researchers were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology!)

Back in the day (meaning before Napoleon's decree in 1859 to enlarge Paris,) the Fifteenth used to be composed of three small towns: Vaugirard, Grenelle, and Javel. In 1860, Vaugirard's town hall became the new town hall of the freshly created Fifteenth Arrondissement.

The town hall (mairie) of Vaugirard was converted into the first town hall (and the site of today's town hall) of the Fifteenth Arrondissement of Paris.

Having found the modest town hall insufficient for a real Parisian arrondissement, in 1873 a new building was commissioned for the site, and construction was completed in 1876. The deco is in the style of Louis XVI, though one room, the Salle des Fêtes (literally, Party--as in Fiesta!-- Room) is entirely art deco from the 1920's and was just this year declared an historical monument. Sadly, the Party Room has been closed this year for renovation, so we had to content ourselves with the Salle des Mariages, or Marriage Room, the room where civil marriages are performed.

The view you'd have of the Salle de Mariages when attending a civil ceremony.

In France, whether or not you are married in the church (or temple or mosque or what have you), you must also have a civil ceremony for the state to recognize your marriage, so this room is pretty key. The room was decorated in the 1886 by painters with impressive resumés, Ferdinand Humbert and Pierre Lagarde. Humbert had already painted the Paris city hall (Hôtel de Ville) and the Pantheon. According to our town hall, the works treat the themes of "marraige, school, apprenticeship, the arts, peace, and war," so in short, they're a bit all over the place but generally (despite the inclusion of a war theme) serene and idyllic.

Valentin seated in the Salle de Mariages.

The townhall was impressive but fell short of le Sénat, where we'd spent our previous Journées du Patrimoine. Feeling a bit disappointed (and Valentin having caught his breath on the red velvet chairs in the Salle de Mariages), we decided to be a bit daring and venture the bus system to continue our Journees du Patrimoine at a more interesting locale. Story to come...