[An illustration of a ship, symbolizing the symbol of Paris]

Histoire de Paris

סיראנו דה ברז’ראק
Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) effectue ses études ici, au Collège de Dormans-Beauvais ,avant de s’illustrer au combat, ou son ardeur lui vaut le surnom de démon de la bravoure, et dans les polémiques littéraires. Mousquetaire à 19 ans et duelliste intrépide, il quitte l’armée pour se consacrer à l’écriture après une grave blessure à la gorge reçue au siège d’Arras. Ce disciple de l’astronome Gassendi se fait connaitre par une comédie, le "Pédant joué", qui inspire Molière; après une "Physique ou Science des choses naturelles", il donne libre cours à sa fantaisie dans les "Histoires comiques des Etats et Empires de la lune et du Soleil". La veine burlesque de ces publications posthumes amuse, mais leurs idées annoncent les philosophes des Lumières: non content d’imaginer la première montgolfière ou la rotation de la terre, Cyrano s’y livre à une satire de la religion et de l’absolutisme pour exposer une conception matérialiste de l’univers proche de l’athéisme.

One of the series of signs describing historical places in Paris. The signs were placed starting in 1992 and are also called sucettes Starck (Starck’s Lollipops) after Philippe Starck who designed them.

The sign is dedicated to the French writer and playwright Cyrano de Bergerac. The sign is in the college he studied in Paris "College Beauvais".

The facade of the college which is the Church of Saints-Archangels was photographed on the same day Click for a larger image

Translation of the text on the sign:

[An illustration of a ship, symbolizing the symbol of Paris]

History of Paris

Cyrano de Bergerac
Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) studied here, at the Collège de Dormans-Beauvais, before distinguishing himself in combat, where his ardor earned him the nickname of demon of bravery, and in literary controversies. A musketeer at 19 and an intrepid duelist, he left the army to devote himself to writing after a serious throat injury received at the siege of Arras. This disciple of the astronomer Gassendi made himself known through a comedy, the "Pedant played" (Le Pédant Joué), which inspired Molière; after a “Physics or Science of Natural Things”, he gives free rein to his fantasy in the “Comic Histories of the States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun” (Histoire comique des états et empires de la Lune). The burlesque vein of these posthumous publications amuses, but their ideas announce the philosophers of the Enlightenment: not content with imagining the first hot air balloon or the rotation of the earth, Cyrano engages in a satire of religion and absolutism to expose a materialist conception of the universe close to atheism.