Rue de Richelieu
The Rue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the 1st arrondissement at the Comédie-Française and ending in the north of the 2nd arrondissement. For the first half of the 19th century, before Georges-Eugène Haussmann redefined Paris with grand boulevards, it was one of the most fashionable streets of Paris.
It is notable for the National Library of France and for scattered coin dealers and currency changers, being near the Paris Bourse, the stock market.
Name
The street is named for the Cardinal de Richelieu, chief minister of King Louis XIII from 1624 to 1642.The street was originally called the Rue Royale and then Rue de Richelieu soon after. The name was changed to the Rue de la Loi in 1793 during the French Revolution; its name was restored to Richelieu in 1806.
Notable buildings
- Palais-Royal, a Richelieu residence
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, Site Richelieu, a historical building
- Comédie-Française, main hall
- The old Fauré Le Page store located 8, Rue de Richelieu at the corner of the Rue de Richelieu and the Rue de Montpensier. The famous firearms played an active role to the French Revolution by distributing arms to the people in 1789 and in 1830.
- The former Royal Palace Hotel, which opened in 1909 was located in the same building as the Fauré Le Page store.
- The birth of the croissant itself—that is, its adaptation from the plainer form of kipferl, before the invention of viennoiseries—can be dated to at least 1839 when an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese bakery at 92, Rue de Richelieu. This bakery, which served Viennese specialties including the kipferl and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators. The French version of the kipferl was named for its crescent shape and has become an identifiable shape across the world.