Origins of Paris 15th district
Paris 15th district is often referred to as the Quartier de Vaugirard.
It includes: Quartier de Grenelle, Quartier Necker, Quartier Saint-Lambert and Quartier deJavel.
It is the largest of Paris’s 20 arrondissements (848 hectares), and the most populated, with approximately 235,000 inhabitants!
However, Paris 15th district is a relatively recent. Until the end of the 18th century the sandy Plain of Grenelle was a royal hunting reserve, that extended from the current Hôtel des Invalides to the town of Issy-les-Moulineaux to the east, outside the ringroad.
For centuries, the land was divided into two vast estates. The castle and farm of Grenelle belonged to the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, and Vaugirard belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The poor, sandy soil was unsuitable for cultivation, and the plain was dotted with fields and vineyards and limestone quarries.
Paris 15th district is, today, one of the most dynamic and sought-after in Paris. It offers more than 100 hectares of public spaces, promenades along the Seine and landscaped squares. From an arid, sandy plain dotted with hamlets, quarries and factories, it has completely reinvented itself.
The QUARTIER DE GRENELLE is the smallest of the four neighbourhood, and takes its name from Beaugrenelle, a speculative real estate development launched in the 1820s.
The Mur des Fermiers Généraux (Wall of the Farmers General), a tax barrier built around Paris in the 1780s, had already profoundly transformed the area. Three tollbooths, where merchants had to pay customs duties before entering the capital, stood in the Grenelle plain. The area north of the wall was annexed to Paris during the administrative reorganisation of the capital in 1790. The land south of the wall, however, remained part of the commune of Vaugirard and remained essentially rural until 1830.
In 1824, a group of Vaugirard town councillors purchased approximately 105 hectares of land, which they quickly subdivided into plots forming the Lotissement Violet (named after the speculator Jean-Léonard Violet). The village of Beau-Grenelle (beautiful Grenelle) was built according to a rigorous grid plan with perpendicular streets and structured around the Rue des Entrepreneurs and the Rue du Commerce. Beaugrenelle separated from Vaugirard in 1830 and became a separate commune, before being annexed to Paris in 1860, when Paris 15th district was created. Grenelle underwent a further transformation in the 1970s with the creation of the Front de Seine: modern towers, pedestrian promenades and the Beaugrenelle shopping centre.
The QUARTIER NECKER developed around the Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades (hospital for Sick Children), founded by Suzanne Necker, the wife of Louis XVI’s finance minister. The hospital was built on a vacant lot that marked the boundary between Paris and the village of Vaugirard.
The district boasts several other iconic buildings such as the Montparnasse train station and the Montparnasse tower; the Lycée Buffon, a prestigious school founded in 1885; and the famous Institut Pasteur, where Louis Pasteur lived, worked and was buried in a magnificent Art Nouveau.
The QUARTIER SAINT-LAMBERT corresponds to the old village of Vaugirard. The village developed along an old Roman road, in a small valley, with hillsides covered in vines and dotted with limestone quarries that were exploited for the construction of Parisian monuments. Its parish church, Saint-Lambert de Vaugirard, is dedicated to Bishop Lambert of Maastricht, who died around 705 AD.
Vaugirard was close to the city centre, but still rural, and became a popular holiday destination for Parisians who flocked to its cabarets and open-air taverns (guinguettes) on Sundays. It was annexed to Paris in 1860, and its main street, the Rue de Vaugirard, is the longest in Paris. Among the main sites of interest are the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, partly located in the 15th district, and La Ruche, a former artists’ residence (now a listed historical monument) which once housed the studios of Modigliani, Chagall and Brancusi.
With its 85,000 inhabitants, the Saint-Lambert district is today the most populated in Paris.
The QUARTIER DE JAVEL developed from the small fishing port of Javetz, whose name, of Gaulish origin, referred to its ‘sandy and silt-rich soil’. We are indeed on the banks of the Seine! In the 17th century, Javetz (then known as Javel), boasted a windmill and a popular open-air tavern on the water’s edge, where bathers, fishermen, and pleasure boaters gathered. Javetz had indeed become the Parisians’ ultimate leisure destination!
Everything changed in 1777 when the Count of Artois (the future King Charles X) chose the village to establish a chemical factory producing sodium hypochlorite (bleach), which became famous as Eau de Javel.
Javel was part of the commune of Issy until 1860, when it was annexed to Paris. Its flat terrain and direct access to the river attracted heavy industry: the Thomson electric factories and, later, the vast Citroën automobile factories, which operated from 1915 to 1975. This industrial landscape was demolished in the 1970s-80s, to make way for the Parc André-Citroën and the Quai de Javel along the Seine.
Today, the Quartier de Javel district is home to the Georges-Pompidou hospital, the National Printing Office of Paris, numerous office towers and television studios, and, on its southern border, the Paris-Issy heliport, the Suzanne-Lenglen sports park and the huge Aquaboulevard leisure centre.
Metro stations serving Paris 15th District
Line 10: Duroc, Ségur, La Motte-Picquet-Grenelle, Avenue Emile Zola, Charles Michels, Javel
Line 8: La Motte-Picquet Grenelle, Commerce, Félix Faure, Boucicaut, Lourmel, Porte de Balard
Line 6: Bir-Hakeim, Dupleix, La Motte-Picquet Grenelle, Cambronne, Sèvres-Lecourbe, Pasteur, Montparnasse-Bienvenüe
Line 12: Montparnasse-Bienvenüe, Falguière, Pasteur, Volontaires, Vaugirard, Convention, Porte de Versailles
