PA R I S I A N WA L K WAY S ❘ L E V I A D U C D E S A R T S
LE VIADUC DES ARTS Jeffrey T Iverson meets the artists and artisans behind the rebirth of the Viaduc des Arts in the 12th arrondissement
PHILIPPE ATIENZA 53 avenue Daumesnil Tel. +33 (0)1 46 28 98 41 Before opening his bespoke shoe company in 2015, Philippe Atienza worked for decades in the world of luxury shoes, eventually rising to director general of Massaro, maker of iconic haute-couture footwear. He has now returned to the essence of his craft, creating both timeless and timely designs for men and women, entirely by hand, using turnof-the-century tools and the rarest of leathers.
ATELIER STÉPHANE GUILBAUD
85 avenue Daumesnil Tel. +33 (0)1 44 73 45 71
63 avenue Daumesnil Tel. +33 (0)9 81 83 58 67 A world-renowned art lithographer, in 2010 Stéphane Guilbaud was awarded the title Maître d’art (Master of Art) by France’s Ministry of Culture. Now working in a spacious, windowed Viaduc atelier, the public can watch Guilbaud use his 19th-century press and peruse his vast gallery of rare prints.
F IMAGES © J T IVERSON, LE FOUR, ATELIER C
PARASOLERIE HEURTAULT
or more than a century, one of the main arteries feeding the heart of the French capital was a train line that arrived from east of Paris and reached its terminus at place de la Bastille. Built in 1859, the project required the erection of a monumental viaduct across the 12th arrondissement of Paris made up of 64 splendid arched vaults. It heaved with traffic for 110 years, until in 1969 the creation of the RER A rendered the line redundant. The viaduct was subsequently abandoned and by the 1970s this once proud example of French industry had become just another example of urban decay in eastern Paris. By the 1980s many were calling for the viaduct’s demolition, but the City of Paris instead hatched a bold plan. As part of a vast urban renewal programme, it would seek to give the abandoned train line a new lease of life in these neglected neighbourhoods, by injecting vitality of another kind. Above, where locomotives once fumed, thousands of trees, flowers, shrubs and grasses would be planted as a promenade plantée, a verdant, elevated promenade passing over the 12th district and continuing toward Vincennes.
Founded by Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert in 2015, Le Four is the only glass-blowing studio in Paris
Michel Heurtault had a career as a high-flying costumier, equipping the opera and creating corsets for the Christian Dior fashion house, but he left that in 2008 to embrace his childhood passion for the umbrella. Blending haute-couture extravagance and unparalleled craftsmanship, Heurtault uses precious woods and damask silk to create umbrellas and parasols to last a lifetime.
Below, the 64 vaults would become workshops and galleries to host arts and crafts professionals, who were increasingly being forced out of the capital. The last vaults opened in 1997. In the 20 years since then, the Promenade Plantée, also known as the Coulée Verte, has become a beloved green walkway for nature-starved Parisians. And the vaults below have been transformed into le Viaduc des Arts, one and a half kilometres of arcades along avenue Daumesnil occupied by 52 artisans of every sort imaginable – glass blowers, shoemakers, couturiers, jewellers, printers, cabinetmakers, instrument makers, metal smiths and gallerists, as well as restaurants, cafés, and other gourmet havens. Yet the Viaduc des Arts was not an instant success. Only five years ago the French press reported on struggles to attract clientele. But, today, a fresh crop of artisans is creating a new dynamic for the Viaduc, and hopes are growing that the City’s bold experiment might just triumph after all. While not all Parisians have even heard of the Viaduc des Arts, master shoemaker Philippe Atienza seems to have been watching it his whole life. “I still remember
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