"Michael Moorcock - The Affair of the Bassin Les Hivers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

THE AFFAIR OF THE BASSIN LES HIVERS
by Michael Moorcock

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Illustrated by Robert Dunn

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PARIS, 2006

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I

Le Bassin Les Hivers

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Until the late part of the last century, the area known as Les Hivers was
notorious for its poverty, its narrow, filthy streets and the extraordinary
number of crimes of passion recorded there. This district lay directly
behind the famous Cirque dтАЩHiver, the winter circus, home to performing
troupes who generally toured through the spring and summer months.
Residents complained of the roaring of lions and tigers or the trumpeting of
elephants at night, but the authorities were slow to act, given the nature of
this part of the 11th arrondissement, whose inhabitants were not exactly
influential.

The great canal, which brought produce to most of Paris, branched
off from the Canal Saint Martin just below the Circus itself, to begin its
journey underground. For many bargees, what they termed Le Bassin Les
Hivers was the end of their voyage and here they would rest before
returning to their home ports with whatever goods they had purchased or
traded. Surrounding the great basin leaned a number of wooden quays and
jetties, together with warehouses and high-ceilinged halls where business
had always been done in gaslight or the semi-darkness created by huge
arches and locks dividing the upper and the lower canal systems. The
banks rose thirty meters or more, made of ancient stone, much of it re-used
from Roman times, backing onto tall, windowless depositories built of
tottering brick and timber. The sun could gain no access here and, at night,
the quays and markets were lit by gas or naphtha and only occasionally by
electricity. Beside the cobbled canal paths flourished the caf├йs, brothels
and cheap rooming houses, as well as the famous BargeesтАЩ Mission and
Church of Our Lady of the Waterways, operated since the 9th century by
the pious and incorruptible White Friars. Like Alsatia, that area of London