Molière Fountain – Fontaine Molière – 1st Arrondissement

Fontaine Molière (Molière Fountain) is a grand bronze fountain in the first arrondissement. We found it where rue Molière and rue de Richelieu meet. I love how these two streets seemingly form a wedge and the fountain dominates the point.  This image gives you an idea of the size of this fountain! It appears to be about 6 stories high.

rue Molière meets rue Richelieu

Molière is one of my favorite French playwrights, although his comedy and style of humour was probably less appreciated by his peers of the 17th century.

Molière

At first we thought this was just a massive statue of Molière but upon closer inspection we discovered the lion heads at the base from which the water flows. There was less than a trickle of water on this particular day!

The statue of Molière is of bronze but the two female sculptures are in marble. Each holds a scroll which is a  collective list of all of Molière’s works. One statue represents ‘serious comedy’ while the other represents ‘light comedy’.

Serious Comedy

Light Comedy

The Imaginary Invalid was Molière’s last work and as the name suggests, it involves a hypochondriac. Sadly, and ironically, Molière collapsed on-stage during a performance of this play and died shortly thereafter at the age of 51. Brittanica.com has an interesting write-up about his life.

Molière Fountain

Finding the Molière Fountain

We found the Molière Fountain on Place Mireille across from 40 rue de Richelieu, the home of Molière. While we were in the neighborhood, we took a sight-seeing break in the gardens of the Palais Royal ! We enjoyed the shade of the trees and the fine mist blowing from the massive fountain there.