PRÉCIEUX ÉDICULES: LES VESPASIENNES ET LA PAGODE BASTILLE

Please REGISTER AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE by calling The French Class at (415) 362-3666

A conference in French presented by Renée Morel
$25

The same conference will be offered twice at The French Class:

Tuesday, March 3, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 7, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

In 1834, the Count of Rambuteau, Prefect of the Seine, had 478 structures installed on major Parisian boulevards to relieve men’s bladders. These vespasiennes, named after Roman Emperor Vespasianus, who created public urinals, soon became the place of an atypical sociability where fleeting loves or fast friendships were born. Find out about their place in gay literature (Proust, Jean Genet, Roger Peyrefitte) or the fabled lore of the Résistance, as well as the battles fiercely fought around them. Then discover another édicule that has similarly disappeared from the Paris cityscape: the Pagode Bastille, a glass and cast iron métro entrance designed by Art nouveau architect Hector Guimard.