Expatica France is pleased to offer a historical and cultural tour of Paris from City of Light expert Thirza Vallois. We continue our tour in the seventeenth arrondissement, highlighting sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

When the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi travelled to America in 1871, to choose a suitable site for the Statue of Liberty, the steamer aboard which he made the voyage bore the name Le Pereire! Like many prominent figures at the time, Bartholdi was a resident of the 17th arrondissement.

And it was in the 17th arrondissement too, at 25 rue de Chazelles, that he set up the workshops and foundry  where he moulded the most important statue of modern times, officially named La Liberté éclairant le monde. While travelling in Egypt in 1855, he had been impressed by the colossal dimensions of the monuments of Ancient Egypt. His friend Ferdinand de Lesseps was about to complete the Suez Canal and Bartholdi was commissioned to make a statue Le Progrès apportant la lumière à l'Asie (Progress bringing light to Asia), to stand at the entrance to the Canal.

Bartholdi was disappointed when the project was abandoned due to a lack of funds, but he took the preliminary sculptures back to Paris in 1869 and used them for a new project, which would bring light not to Asia but to the wretched of Europe, who hoped for a better life in New York and beyond.

Building on rue de Chazelles began with the hand and torch, then came the head, which was exhibited on the Champ-de-Mars during the 1878 Universal Exposition. A huge crowd gathered along the streets during the transfer of the head to the Fair. Le Petit Journal reported on 30 June 1878: "A colossal, fantastic head emerges in the opening of the Arc de Triomphe, while cries of "Long live the Republic" resound in powerful volleys at the far end of the avenue." Viollet-le-Duc, who was in charge of the metal structure of the statue, had died meanwhile and was replaced by Gustave Eiffel, who moved to the neighbouring rue de Prony, so as to be able to supervise the work from close quarters, anxious as he was about its colossal weight (200 tonnes) and fearing that the lady might not withstand the violent winds that occasionally sweep across the eastern coast of the United States.

On 24 October 1881 the yards at 25 rue de Chazelles were decked with American and French flags, ready for a ceremony presided over by the American Ambassador, who inserted the first rivet of the central pylon.

For the next three years rue de Chazelles was the favourite outing for the inhabitants of the 8th and 17th arrondissements, who came to watch the progress the lady was making. At the beginning of 1884 she was all set, towering 46 metres above the plain of Monceau. On the 4th of July the brass band of Batignolles, which some 50 years earlier had celebrated the first train journey ever undertaken in France, came once more to the fore, when it struck up the American and French anthems on the occasion of the official presentation of the Statue — a somewhat belated gift from France to the young republic for its first centennial. The statue was then dismounted, dispatched to Le Havre, and, after floating for 25 days across the Atlantic, arrived safely in New York.

Around and About Paris (volume 1, 2 and 3) is published by Iliad Books, UK
For more information, and to order Thirza Vallois's titles, go to Link: www.thirzavallois.com