Pilgrimage
I recently visited both Paris and Arras on a Robespierre pilgrimage. If you'd like to do the same here is where to go!
Paris
Where better to begin than the musee de Carnavalet on the rue des Francs Bougeois to see one of the most famous paintings of Robespierre (entrance is free). Then walk down the road a short way to the Place des Vosges (stopping at Victor Hugo's house if you wish), down the rue des Tournelles and to the Place de la Bastille to admire the statue erected there in honour of the revolution on 1830. From there head along the rue St Antoine, which leads into the rue de Rivoli. Along this road you will find the Hotel de Ville, where Maxime was arrested and shot. The building burnt down in later years so this is not exactly the same but from engravings they seem to have rebuilt it as it was originally.
Cross the river via the pont d'Arcole and you will end up on the Ile de la Cite. Here you could stop to visit Notre Dame before walking along to the other end of the island. Here are the imposing buildings of the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie, where Maxime spent his last few hours of agony before his execution. The main draw for visitors here seems to be a reproduction of Mari-Antoinette's cell but there is also a cabinet with two busts of Robespierre, a couple of plaques about him and even a couple of letters written in his hand. Entry is about 6 Euros.
Cross back over via the Pont Neuf and walk along the riverbank a short way till you reach the Louvre. This building housed the Convention for a time and you can stroll through the lovely garden of Tuileries. At the far end of the garden is the Place de la Concorde, once the Place de la Revolution and one of the best known execution sites. It was here that Maxime was guillotined. Now walk up the rue Royale and turn into the rue Saint Honore. During the revolution the Duplays house was number 366 but with the changes to the road over the years it is now number 398. The place is vacant at present but over the years it has been various shops, a cafe, a nightclub...Take a moment here to read the plaque on the wall that tells of Robespierre's time in the house.
From here return to the Place de la Concorde and cross the river to the other bank via the Pont de la Concorde then walk along the river to theTour Eiffel. Or, if your feet are tired, take the metro there. It is not the Tour that we are here for though but rather the parkland behind it - the Champ de mars. It was here that the massacres by Lafayette's forces took place as well as the Fete de la Federation and later the Fete de l'Etre Supreme (the Supreme Being).
Robespierre may not yet have been granted a road in the fair city but he is still present and you can find him if you look.
Paris Pilgrimage Image Gallery
Arras
Maxime's home town. I am indebted to the Amis de Robespierre as the information on their site helped me know where to go and what to look out for. So here is my version of a Robespierre-Arras walk...
We begin in the Place des heros, where we can admire the Hotel de ville and belfry, already there in Maximee's time. Many of the gorgeous houses in this and the Grand Place were destroyed in WW1 but they have been beautifully reconstructed. Inside the town hall is a Salle de Robespierre where you can find a bust of him but this room wasn't open to visitors the day I was there. Walk round to the back of the Hotel de Ville and enter the gates and there, on the left, you will find the memorial for the Rosati group.
Leave the Place des heros via the rue des Balances, turn left down the rue Emile Legrelle and then take the rue Ronville. Here you will find a plaque at the place were the Carraut's lived. These are the grandparents that Maxime and Augustin stayed with after the death of their mother and the disappearance of their father.
Returning along the rue Ronville carry on across and along the rue Wacquez Glason, then the rue du Cardinal till you reach the Grand Place. Here is where all the grain markets used to be. An important place in the Arras of the 1780's for both the rich and the poor alike. Walk through the Grand Place and then take the rue Saint Croix then the rue du Marche au file. Here is the house where Dubois de Fosseux once lived. It is in this area as well that many of the meetings of both the Academie d'Arras and the Rosati took place.
The rue des Trois Visages leads now to the Cathedral (only a church in Maxime's time) and walking alongside it we eventually arrive at the front facade and the rue des Teinturiers. Maxime lived here for a short time in 1781. At the end of this road, on turning left, we find the Place de la Madeleine. Here the church used to stand where Maxime was baptised. Also here is the old Abbaye St Vaast (constructed just 9 years before Maxime was born) , which is now the Musee des Beaux Arts.
Take the rue des Agaches then turn right and walk up the rue Saint Aubert and you will find the lovely Fountain of Neptune. Now follw the rue d'Amiens and you will discover (via the rue Notre Dame) the Place de la Prefecture. Maxime frequented these environs in performing his duties as juge episcopal. Once a Cathedral stood by here where the delegates of the three orders gathered in 1789 before the final elections.
Leaving the way we came we follw down the rue Saint Aubert until it leads to the Place du Theatre. The theatre was constructed while Maxime was a lawyer here though it is undergoing conservation works until 2006 so it cannot really be seen at present. Off this square though we find the rue Robespierre and here is the house he lived in from 1787-9. It mainly houses an exhibition on local crafts but there are a few palques dedicated to him and a bust. Entrance is free.
At the top of rue Robespierre we arrive at the rue de la Gouvernance and we can see the building where Maxime was admitted as a lwayer in 1781. It is now the College St Joseph.
We find ourselves back at the Place de la Madeleine and now if you turn right you will enter the rue Paul Doumer, follow down a short way then take the rue Recollets. You are now in the rue Desire Delansorne and can see the Palais de Justice (once the palais des etats), which was the seat of the Artesian government in Maxime's time - denounced by him in his "Adresse a la Nation Artesienne" before the Estates General elections. Continuing along this road we arrive back once more at the Place des heros.