Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville

The public square in the 4th arrondissement of Paris that is now the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville (City Hall Plaza) was, before 1802, called the Place de Grève. The French word, "grève", means "a flat area covered with gravel or sand situated on the shores of the ocean or on the banks of a river." The location presently occupied by the square was the point on the sandy right bank of the river Seine where the first riverine harbor of Paris was established.

The Place de Grève

Later it was used as a public meeting-place and also as a location where unemployed people gathered to seek work. This circumstance accounts for the current French expressions, être en grève (to be on strike) and faire (la) grève (to strike, literally: "to do a strike").

However, the principal reason why the place de Grève is remembered is that it was the site of most of the public executions in early Paris. The gallows and the pillory stood there.

The highest-profile executions took place on the grève, including the gruesome deaths of the assassins Jacques Clément, François Ravaillac, and Robert–François Damiens, as well as the bandit-rebel Guy Éder de La Fontenelle. In 1310 the Place de Grève was also the site of the execution of the beguine heretic Marguerite Porete. In the words of Victor Hugo (in The Hunchback of Notre Dame), the grève was "the symbol of medieval and ancien régime justice: brutal, corrupt, and inadequate."

Location

The southern end of the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, the end closer to the river, is on the right-bank side of the Pont d'Arcole, which crosses eighty metres of water to reach the island, Île de la Cité, in the middle of the Seine. At this point on the riverbank, the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville is formed by the convergence of three streets: the Quai de l'Hôtel de Ville, the Quai de Gesvres, and the Rue du Renard. The Rue de Renard, which passes in front of the Parisian city-hall building, forfeits its name for one city block, adopting instead "Place de l'Hôtel de Ville" addresses.

Metro station

The Place de l'Hôtel de Ville is:

___
located near the metro station: Hôtel de Ville.

It is served by lines 1 and 11.

External links

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Filmsquare
9 December 2013
Jason Bourne works his way through John Michael Kane's phone records in Place d l'Hôtel de Ville in The Bourne Identity (2002) attempting find out what he was doing in Paris.
Vitalie Ș
10 December 2016
When comes the night, the Carousel on the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville lights ups for the joy of the children - and of the grown ups as well! ????
Lauren Bruni
15 February 2013
Shopping! If you are looking for a wide variety of shopping of all price ranges come here! H&M, Zara, Mango, and tons more places to check out! And they are all 2+ stories (walking shoes).
Ferhat Durannn
25 December 2014
Mükemmellik Sertifikası almış bir otel
Emmanuelle Lajoie
7 December 2015
Lieu incontournable de la vie parisienne! Patinoire, concerts et diverses animations sont souvent organisés. Le bâtiment vaut aussi le coup d'œil!
Jas
17 August 2014
Avant on y coupait des têtes, aujourd'hui on peut profiter de concerts, d'écrans géants pour les retransmissions, d'une patinoire en hiver et d'une plage en été.
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Map
58 Rue Des Plantes Hall 14, 75014 Paris, France Get directions
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