St. Roch Church on rue de Rivoli in Paris (France) - 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the St. Roch Church on rue de Rivoli in Paris (France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I took a Concours Test in French to get into graduate school at “Langues O” at “Porte Daupine,” one of the locations of the University of Paris around the metropolitan area of the capital.

I passed the test, but found a job at Deloitte (Paris) in the Communications Department, which included working for the “Japan Desk.”  I took the job instead of getting a degree at that point in my life.

I walked from Porte Dauphine to the Champs-Elysées and then continued down to the Louvre.

I.M. Pei’s Glass Pyramid, designed by the Chinese-American, in the courtyard of the Louvre was being built at the time.  I could not get in, so I went down rue de Rivoli and visited other sites.

Ever the adventurer, I noticed the St. Roch Church on rue de Rivoli across from the Louvre and went exploring.  Louis XIV set the cornerstone to this church during the 17^th century.

St. Roch is dedicated to this priest, who cared for plague victims in 1315.  I thought Louis must have had this church built as an insurance policy.

St. Roch is famous for the people who are buried in the church:

-Pierre Corneille (1606 – 1684) – French playwright

-Le Nôtre (1613 – 1700) – the landscape designer, who created gardens at Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte for Louis XIV and Finance Minister Fouquet respectively

-Diderot (1713 – 1784) – the renowned intellectual, who edited the Encyclopedia that created the foundation for the Enlightenment.  The Enlightenment spawned the writers, who created the intellectual basis for the American and French Revolutions

Part 2 about St. Roch will follow…

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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