“Why Leclerc?” some visitors ask looking at the Avenue de la Division Leclerc. This avenue in Paris is steeped in history. It stretches through the 14th arrondissement. Let’s uncover some of the secrets of the Avenue de la Division Leclerc.
From 1863 to 1948 it was known as Avenue d’Orléans. The avenue runs from Denfert-Rochereau Square to Place du 25 Aout 1944. This commemorates the Liberation of Paris.
It is one of Paris’ oldest roads. Pilgrims traveled this route to the cathedral of Saint Jacques de Compostelle in Spain. This pilgrimage began as early as the 9th century AD. The Pope officially recognized it as a major Christian pilgrimage in 1492.
Lenin frequented the Café du Lion at No. 5 when it was still Avenue d’Orléans. He organized meetings of the Bolshevik faction there.
The French police estimated about 25000 Russians lived in Paris around 1910. Of those about 1000 were revolutionary socialists. Around 500 were anarchists. Both the French police and the Czar’s secret police watched them. Once Lenin chased an agent spying on them along the sidewalk near No. 101.
A meeting Lenin organized at the Café Les Manilleurs at No. 11 in 1911 turned violent. Lenin’s Bolsheviks fought with Anatoli Lunacharsky’s Vpered faction.
Lenin opened a bank account at the Crédit Lyonnais branch at No. 19 in December 1908.
He also visited the Fantaisies de Montrouge music hall at No. 70. It later became the Grand-Cinéma in 1911. The building was rebuilt in 1922. It became the 1300-seat Mistral cinema. Gaumont closed it in July 2016 and sold it to a housing developer.
The headquarters of the Russian Social Democrats was at No. 110. The printworks for the ‘Social Democrat’ paper was in an office at the back. Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev were regulars there between 1909 and 1912.
Since 1948 the Avenue de la Division Leclerc has honored Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque. He was the first French general to enter Paris in August 1944. He arrived in American-loaned tanks and armored vehicles. They wore American helmets with the Croix de Lorraine. Leclerc died in a plane crash in 1947. He was about to argue for French withdrawal from Indochina. This was before the wars of national liberation began.
So, as you stroll along the Avenue de la Division Leclerc remember its layers of history. It was a pilgrim’s path a revolutionary haunt and a tribute to a liberator. Each step echoes with stories of Paris’s past.