Isn’t it intriguing how a single street can encapsulate the spirit of an era? Here on Rue Delizy, we’re standing on a historical artery of Pantin. This is one of Pantin’s main thoroughfares. It’s a street named after the Delizy family. They were prominent industrialists.
Rue Delizy follows the path of the D20 departmental road. It meets the side road to the Chemin de Fer and the D115 departmental road. The street begins at the railway lines of the Gare de l’Est. It heads south. After a bend westward, it crosses the Canal de l’Ourcq via the Pont Delizy. This bridge connects the quai de l’Ourcq and quai de l’Aisne. Rue Delizy intersects with rue Victor-Hugo. It then meets avenue Jean-Lolive. This avenue was formerly rue de Paris. On the same axis, the D20 becomes rue Jules-Auffret.
Let’s rewind to 1851. The Delizy-Doisteau absinthe distillery was founded right here. Absinthe was quite the popular drink back then. These buildings still stand today. Chanel now owns them. Further north, from 1891 to 2007, Bourjois had workshops. They manufactured lipsticks here. The raw materials came from the slaughterhouses of Porte de la Villette. In 2013, Chanel moved its offices into these buildings.
Now, imagine a grand private mansion once located at 100 avenue Jean-Lolive. This was the Delizy family’s home. Madame Delizy had the salons of the dancer Marie-Madeleine Guimard reinstalled here. Sadly, it was destroyed in 1970. Its decorative elements were transferred to the Musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux.
Rue Delizy wasn’t immune to the turmoil of war. On January 30, 1918, during World War I, a bomb dropped from a German plane exploded at number 16. On March 24, 1918, a shell fired by the Grosse Bertha also struck Rue Delizy.
Today, Rue Delizy is also home to the Tribunal d’Instance de Pantin. As you wander along Rue Delizy, remember its layers of history. Consider the industrialists, the distilleries, and even the echoes of wartime. It’s a place where the past and present intertwine.