Where is Rue de la Sauge you ask? Well it’s not here. Not anymore.
Rue de la Sauge doesn’t exist today. It vanished long ago. Swallowed by the city’s relentless growth. But its story is one worth remembering. A story etched in the very stones of Paris. Or rather the stones that are no longer there.
Imagine Paris in the 1300s. A bustling city of cobbled streets. Of merchants and tradesmen. Of the rich and the poor. Rue de la Saunerie existed then. This was its former name. It was a vital street. Near the Grand Châtelet a medieval fortress. The street was named for its proximity to the salt warehouse. Salt was a precious commodity. It was essential for preserving food. The salt warehouse was crucial to the city’s economy. It played an important role. The street was one of the few paved streets in 1400. That’s a notable fact. A smart-aleck fact if I may say so. This is not something you hear every day. A small detail about a long-lost Parisian street.
The street had a different name as well. A manuscript from 1636 called it Rue de la Petite-Poissonnerie. This translates to Little Fish Market Street. Another name for the same street. It was also mistakenly called Rue Sonnerie. This is an interesting piece of trivia about our street.
Rue de la Saunerie existed until 1854. It was erased from the map. The creation of Boulevard de Sébastopol led to its demise. A wider Place du Châtelet also contributed to its destruction. The Théâtre du Châtelet’s construction also contributed to the disappearance of Rue de la Saunerie. This was a significant urban transformation. The city was reshaped to fit the needs of a modernizing Paris. The old gave way to the new.
Today there is nothing left to see. No buildings. No cobblestones. Only the echoes of its past. Rue de la Saunerie a lost street of Paris. A testament to the ever-changing nature of the city. It lived. It thrived. And then it disappeared. Leaving behind only memories and stories for us to discover.