HISTORY OF THE AREA
 Let
us step back in time to the Plaine Monceau quarter in the year 1880.
The tiny rue de Chazelles has retained its old Parisian suburban
charm.
Large workshops start to spring up amongst long-established craftsmen's
boutiques.
In one of these large workshops important work is being undertaken:
it is the
24th October 1881 and festivities are underway in the workshops
run by
mechanical constructors MM. Caget, Gauthier and Cie at 25 rue de
Chazelles.
The buildings are decked in French and American colors. The occasion:
the
inserting of the first rivet linking a gigantic statue by the sculptor
Auguste
Bartholdi to its pedestal. The work in question was "La liberté
éclairant le
monde", or the "Statue of Liberty", which was destined
to be erected at the
entrance to New York harbor. France elected Bartholdi to create
the historic
monument to mark the centenary of the independence of the United
States.
Let us go into house number 23, rue de Chazelles: the modelling
workshop is
located here. Here, plasterers work away on the many life-size sections
of
"Miss Liberty". At number 21 of the same street is Bartholdi's
private workshop,
where he eventually set up home so as to better supervise his work.
In another
area of the workshop, at number 23 rue de Chazelles, is Vulcan's
lair.
Craftsmen work away creating structural sections under the direction
of G. Eiffel,
and copperware workers fashion copper sheets for the outer layer.
 It
was not until one Sunday, in early 1884, that several Paris residents
burst through the doors of number 25, rue de Chazelles, to visit
the workshop
where the great statue had taken form. At that point, the statue's
head stood high
over the rooftops of Paris. The statue was subsequently dismantled,
and in
early 1884, was sent by train and ship over to New York.
The statue was inaugurated on 28th October 1886. Bartholdi himself
was there
to unveil the statue, and the great torch was lit in the very same
place
where, little more than a century previously, the great figure of
Liberty, symbol
of a great idea, had taken her first steps, and which the modern
spirit still
encapsulates today.
Below are some images we took while visiting the area not too long
ago.
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