Paris Avenues

[tod2]

Paris is known for it's streets and avenues named after great men and figures from history. But I would reckon not many tourists are interested in that particular person from way back when. We just accept the name, pronounce it incorrectly so that any kind French person helping with directions hasn't a clue where we are trying to go. This is just one avenue that I have stayed on during a visit to Paris and took no notice of the name until now.
This last Sunday I was glancing at the Sunday Newspapers and a small article caught my eye. I found it so interesting I did a bit of Googling and am now the wiser about AVENUE DUQUESNE in the 7th Arrondissement.

www.openstreetmap.org/relation/11830029#map=17/48.85183/2.30976

First the man who gave his name to Avenue Duquesne:

He was Abraham Duquesne, Marquis du Bouchat (1610- 2nd Feb, 1688) and was a French Naval Officer, who also saw service as an Admiral in the Swedish Navy. Born in Dieppe a seaport, and was a Huguenot. He was the son of a Naval Officer and therefore became a sailor himself spending his early years in Merchant service.

Now to the article that caught my eye on Sunday.

Heading: Duquesne Spy Ring Nabbed in the US
January 2, 1942 - The FBI obtains the conviction of 33 members of a German spy ring headed by South African born Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in US history. Agents of the Duquesne Spy Ring were placed in key jobs in the US in the late 1930's to gather information that could be used in the event of war.
William G. Sebold became a double agent and helped the FBI gather evidence. Of 33 spies arrested on June 28, 1941 on charges of relaying secret information on US weaponry and shipping movements to Germany, following a two-year investigation, 19 pleaded guilty. The remaining 14 were found guilty in the Federal District Court, New York City, on December 13 , 1941.
Less than a month after the US was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbour and Germany declared war on the US, the group members are sentenced to a total of over 300 years in prison. Duquesne, who operated under many aliases, was born in East London Cape Colony, on September 21, 1877. He was a captain in the Boer army in the Anglo-Boer War, and later a colonel in the German Abwehr.
He was captured and imprisoned three times by the British, once by the Portuguese and by the Americans in 1917, and escaped each time.

So, there you have it. A small article that led me to look further into the Avenue Duquesne.
I also found a town in the US called Duquesne - so fascinating how a name gets to be in so many places.

[kerouac2]

The stories behind the street names in Paris are always interesting, and I read the Wikipedia articles for both Abraham and Frederick "Fritz" Duquesne, who do not seem to have any close blood ties. Fritz was definitely a nasty piece of work with one of those endless grudges that one finds in the superhero movies in the category of archvillains. His entire family was massacred by the British in the Second Boer War which made him hate the English forever. That's what pushed him into the arms of Germany. Anyway, he spent 14 years of his 18 year prison sentence in Leavenworth military prison in the US. He was released due to ill health, but he died pretty quickly in 1956.

Paris has been weeding out a few names in recent years but without the fervour of some other countries. For example, my market street a block away was named after one of the more aggressive colonisers of Guadeloupe, Charles Liénard de L'Olive. In 2011, the Paris city council decided to eliminate the official name "rue L'Olive" and change it to "rue de l'Olive" since that's what everybody was calling it anyway. It's a pedestrian street, so they put some potted olive trees along the way. Basically, nobody knew who l'Olive was in the first place (I didn't), so it was one of the easiest changes ever made.

In the last decade, street naming in Paris has been trying to right a historical wrong -- the lack of women. Just about every new street is now named after a woman. For example in the new Rosa Parks area near my place (a former industrial zone and rail yard), we have Passage Susan Sontag, rue Césaria Evora, Jardin Anaïs Nin, rue Chana Orloff, etc.

[tod2]

Thank you so much for delving a little deeper into the Duquesne history. Even here in South Africa, names of street, cities and towns are ever changing. Must be a nightmare for the map people.
However, I am so enthralled with Paris history no one could ever bore me.

[mich64]

The city of Toronto is in the midst of preparations to make all the changes for renaming Dundas Street aft erthe success of a petition and council vote. It is estimated to cost the city up to 6.3 million dollars to complete all facets of the removal from the street, subway station and 3 parks in his name.


Henry Dundas worked to prolong the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

[kerouac2]

That's why they are super careful about naming new things these days.

[bjd]

Yes, but I wonder how long people in Toronto will continue to think of it as Dundas Street, since it's a really long street with a streetcar line on it. I mean that it's a big part of many peoples' daily commute.

[whatagain]

I had a very good meal in rue de l'olive not long ago.
Restaurant name could be l'olivier, some frenchs have a great imagination...

We have the same in Belgium, renaming some streets with 'better' names.

Lately, we renamed the Tunnel Leopold 2 as Annie Cordy.
One shot 2 birds : getting rid of a king associated with slaughter in Congo and renaming after a well loved woman.

I knew Duquesne was a seaman but would have placed him.in the 19e century.
(I had a teacher called Duquesne de la Villee - a little bit like Robin Williams in the movie).