Fontaine Wallace - Place des Droits de l'Enfant

Sunday Paris Market

Families and neighbors gather just off Rue d'Alésia 
in a tiny square of shade trees and a spot of grass on Sunday mornings. 
Dogs, children, and musicians play 
around the centerpiece of a Wallace Fountain.  

Although there are no closed streets, 
the only traffic seems to be the vendors and the shoppers.

Place des Droits de l'Enfant

88, rue de la Tombe Issoire,

75014, Paris

Fontaine Wallace -- Marais

This 1870s cast-iron sculpture is one of the more than 77 public water fountains scattered throughout Paris, financed, conceived, and drawn by Sir Richard Wallace, a British billionaire. He directed that these fountains be both useful and beautiful, blending in with his adopted city. The fountain above was the original design of Wallace, sculpted by Charles-Auguste Lebourg, the first of four designs to be installed. This one in the Marais (4ième arr.) incorporates 4 caryatids representing "kindness," "simplicity," "charity," and "sobriety" and features dolphins on the dome.

For years I saw these fountains and never knew the story behind them, how they have for over a century provided potable water to Parisians and visitors. Most of them are still in use.

In a few weeks I will be looking for the other three styles... just because.