Rue Godefroy

Arrondissement 13

Number 17

In 1826 under Charles X a royal decree allowed the joint owners (M. Geoffroy and M. Godefrey) of land to the south of Paris, to build a 13m-wide road between the Customs Office at the Place d’Italie to the Customs Office at the Gobelins. The street was therefore called rue Godefroy. today it runs from the Place des Alpes to the Place d’Italie.

Zhou Enlai lived at No. 17 in a now demolished hotel from 1922-1924, sharing a room for some of the time with Deng Xiaoping.

A rare plaque on No 17 remembers a revolutionary who became a leading political figure in China and who then participated in many of the regime’s crimes against humanity

PLACES