Parc Montsouris in the 14th district of Paris is shrouded in legends and mystery. I appreciate my Parc Montsouris Vintage postcards more fully after learning about the 13th century 15 foot Portugese giant named Issoire, Isore, or Ysore who was slain there.
This monster of a man camped at Montmartre and accosted and robbed travelers. He banged daily at the gates of Paris roaring for combat and hoping for a fight and a bit of mayhem. The prudent Parisians cowered and refused to fight this strong scoundrel.
King Louis the Pious sent a pleading message to the courageous monk William of Orange. The desperate king asked the former warrior to take up arms against the dreaded Issoire. William donned his old armor and set off to face this 15 foot challenge. William lopped off the giant’s head with his rusty sword after a heated hand to hand fight.
The giant was buried in the labyrinth of Roman gypsum quarries which were later turned into the Catacombs at the end the 18th century. If the bones of Issoire were ever in this quarry they will never be found. The remains of six million Parisians have been poured on top of him from all of the discontinued cemeteries in Paris
This was necessary due to the desperate overcrowding in the medieval cemeteries in the center of Paris, which had also become a hygienic problem. From 1785 to 1786 millions of bones and rotting corpses were transported from the unsanitary city cemeteries to the catacombs. It was a monumental project to transport the bones in huge carts at night across the city!
The Park is thankfully no longer the home of a beastly giant. It is a serene green get away from the hustle and bustle of Paris that has been captured in this series of vintage postcards.
Jacques Prevost captured the park’s charm best in his poem The Garden:
Thousands and thousands of years
Would not be enough
To tell of
That small second of eternity
When you held me
When I held you
One morning
In winter’s light
In Montsouris Park
In Paris
On earth
This earth
That is a star