The Founding Fathers in Paris

This past Sunday, I participated in a Literary Walking Tour hosted by Lire et Partir, a "literary tourism" company. Led by three American expatriate women, the promenade entailed a three-hour stroll through the 6th and 7th arrondissements of Paris, with stops at sites of particular relevance to American revolutionary history.

We met at this statue of Thomas Jefferson, located along the quai near the bridge Pont Senghor, across the street from the Musée D'Orsay - and from another, less famous museum: the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur. This latter museum is housed in the Hôtel de Salm, evidently Jefferson's favorite building in Paris and the architectural inspiration for Monticello, the White House, and the main quad of the University of Virginia. The building was undergoing repairs, but here's a painting to give you an idea of what it looks like.

The statue of Jefferson shows him to be holding an old blueprint for Monticello - a sketch to which the actual building bears little resemblance (being much more akin to the Hôtel upon which the statue gazes) .

Other cool stops along the tour: a jardin across from the Institut de France which features a statue of Voltaire. The facial expression of this statue is priceless - just as nasty and mischievous as you can imagine the philosopher to have been in real life.

We also stopped at this building on Rue Jacob, at the heart of St. Germain des Prés (just steps away from the Ladurée shop with it's pastel-colored macaroons). Formerly the Hôtel d'York, it's the site of the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763, whereby England recognized the Independence of the United States of America.

On a personal note, I've finally solved the mystery of the Treaty of Paris four-star restaurant located on Main Street in Annapolis. I've often walked by the restaurant and puzzled over the Paris connection: here it is. After the Treaty was signed in Paris - at the Hôtel d'York - it needed to be brought back to the States to be ratified by the Continental Congress, which was at the time convening in Annapolis, at the Maryland State House. On January 14, 1964, enough delegates were finally present in 'naptown to reach a quorum. The treaty was ratified and sent to England, arriving just in time for the 6-months-from-initial-signing deadline that had been agreed upon in Paris.

While the Congress was convening in Annapolis, many delegates stayed at The Maryland Inn, the historic hotel which houses the previously mentioned four-star Treaty of Paris restaurant. According to Wikipedia, it was here that the signatories from Paris (Franklin, Adams, Jay) came to dine in celebration of the treaty's ratification. Mystery solved!