Rue du Pont-Neuf

Type	Street
Length	327 m (1,073 ft)
Arrondissement	1st arrondissement of Paris
Quarter	Les Halles Quartier Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois

Rue du Pont-Neuf is a street in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, shared between Les Halles to the north and Quartier Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois to the south. It was pierced in the second half of the 19th century.

Location and access

The street gives access to the Pont Neuf from the right bank to the south, and to the Forum des Halles from its other end to the north.

The lane continues via this last end and becomes rue Baltard, closed to car traffic since the closure of the old halls of Paris, then rue Montorgueil, rue des Petits-Carreaux, rue Poissonnière, rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière for lead to the Barrière Poissonnière.

The current street is an important crossing point because it crosses several arteries such as the tracks of the banks of the Seine, the rue de Rivoli and the rue Saint-Honoré. There was previously an entrance to the Forum des Halles car park, now filled in and converted into a sidewalk.

Origin of the name

It bears this name because it leads to the Pont Neuf.

History

On 21 June 1854, a decree approved the plan for the restructuring of the Halles Centrales. This plan provides for the opening of a new street between the Pont-Neuf and Les Halles.^[1] The plot plan of the properties to be expropriated for « the widening of Rue Tirechape and the extension of this road to the Pont Neuf » was published on 6 September 1865.^[2]

Rue Étienne, de la Tonnellerie and Tirechape are absorbed by the new road. Part of the rue de la Monnaie and the place des Trois-Maries, located at the mouth of the Pont Neuf, also disappeared. In 1867, the new road was named « rue du Pont-Neuf ».^[3] The part between rue Berger and rue Rambuteau was renamed « rue Baltard » in 1877;^[4] this street was removed during the construction of the Forum des Halles.

• 
  Superposition of the current road network on the neighboring road network at the end of the 18th century.
• 
  Rue Tirechape, from rue de Rivoli.
• 
  Rue Tirechape, from rue Saint-Honoré.
• 
  From rue du Contrat-Social to rue de la Tonnellerie.

Remarkable buildings and places of memory

• N° 1, at the corner with the quai du Louvre: La Samaritaine department store, Monument historique logo Registered MH (1990). On the top floor, Le Kong, a restaurant fitted out in 2003 by designer Philippe Starck, whose glass roof is in line with the Pont Neuf.^[5][6] A scene from the film Tell No One (2006) was filmed there.^[7]
• N° 2, at the corner with the quai de la Mégisserie: former site of the À la Belle Jardinière store (1867–1972).^[8]
• N° 31, Molière would have been born in a house which was on this site; a bust above an engraved inscription pays homage to him. Nearby, 96 rue Saint-Honoré, is a commemorative plaque stating the same.^[9] We owe this inscription, indicating the birth of the man of letters in 1620, while he was born in 1622, to an unscrupulous owner who, by buying the building, thought that he could give it an capital gain by erecting this false plaque.^[10]
• N° 33, restaurant Au chien qui fume, Monument historique (1984).

• 
  N° 1.
• 
  N° 2.
• 
  N° 31.
• 
  N° 33.

References

See also

• Haussmann's renovation of Paris