The female monastic order of the Capuchins was approved by Pope Paul III in 1538. The charter of the order presupposed a special severity of rules, a strict seclusion and an extraordinary asceticism of the life of its members. The monastery, where the novices lived, stood in the very center of the French capital, and the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris was named after this monastic order.
Watered sprinkler
The modern traveler has certainly heard of Boulevard des Capucines. But it is not quite right to call it the Boulevard of the Capuchins, but it became famous for the fact that in 1895, the Lumière brothers organized the world's first public cinema show in house N14.
Ten short films were presented to the amazed audience. Among the masterpieces was the hapless lawn sprinkler, the workers leaving the factory, and the delegates who came to the Lyon photo congress. But "The Arrival of the Train", contrary to popular belief, was not shown at all that day.
View from the window
An interesting story is connected with another place on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. House N35 housed the studio of a photographer named Nadar. The view from its windows inspired the famous impressionist Claude Monet to create an immortal masterpiece, which at the end of the 19th century was not called anything other than "daubs". The painting Boulevard des Capucines in Paris became the pearl of the exhibition of the Anonymous Society, organized in the house of Nadar in 1874. It was attended by masters whose works were rejected by the Paris Art Salon when organizing an annual exhibition. Nadar provided his premises, and today the whole world admires a whole direction in painting called impressionism. In addition to Claude Monet, his ranks include Renoir and Sisley, Cezanne and Degas.
Constellation of celebrities
Boulevard des Capucines in Paris boasts that each of its houses is ready to tell about amazing residents, guests and visitors, whose names have long become history, but they are remembered by grateful descendants:
- House N43 served as a place of work and inspiration for the writer Henri Bail, who worked under the pseudonym Stendhal.
- Composer Jacques Offenbach chose the N8 house on Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. Here he created the operettas "Goffman's Tales" and "Bluebeard".
- Cafe de la Paix was preferred by Emile Zola and Oscar Wilde. Guy de Maupassant also drank a cup of coffee here. He sat at the window for a long time, watching the audience strolling along the boulevard, and inventing the characters of his famous heroes.
