La Rue Des Petits-Toits, William T. Horton, A Book of Images. Look carefully, else you’ll miss the people dancing in the street.
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Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
La Rue Des Petits-Toits, William T. Horton, A Book of Images. Look carefully, else you’ll miss the people dancing in the street.
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I see them!
I’ve been to Paris two or three times. On one of my visits I devised a whirlwind tour for myself, which included La Rue de Passy. At that moment, I fell in love with Paris!
Lots of shopping there! Lot of history in Passy. The artists in Passy had a great deal to do with promoting the then new movement of cubism, as well as surrealism and orphism.
I am not sure of the origin of the term. In Southeb French patois it’s “Rue du Touat” (which is why I was puzzled by the British insult) -- it’s where all rhe merchants are. “Petits toits” is “small roofs” but I wonder if it’s mediaeval or ancient gallic for “shops”
When I was a kid there were honest-to-goodness working blacksmiths who could tell you how many greats- back was the ancestor who made the hinges for the cathedral, or made trunnions for the cannon that went to Moscow and never returned. I didn’t learn to speak French very well because I mostly listened -- little Marcus was a weird serious kid who’d walk up to people and ask if they had any cool stories.
The petits toits are usually the medieval high street -- so they are cramped, valuable real estate in the medieval town within the walls -- the bourg, where the bourgeois came from.
It’s as well to remember that this book was published in 1898, I have no doubt there’s been quite a bit of street renaming since that time, as well as possible local slang names for particular places. It’s a pity that Horton did not include any commentary. I’m pretty sure the dancing in the street is significant, but what that significance is, I don’t know. Perhaps this was a well known party street? Lots of taverns, perhaps?
Marcus:
Little Caine was the same way.