The Esplanade on the northern side of the hôtel des Invalides, once Plaine-des-Prés-St-Germain, stretches between three long and old-world streets--Rue de Grenelle, Rue St-Dominique, Rue de l'Université--all crossing the 7th arrondissement in almost its entire extent.
Rue de Grenelle, in the fifteenth century Chemin de Garnelle, then Chemin des Vaches, a country road, has near its higher end where we start two ancient streets leading out of it, Rue de la Comète (1775), named to record the passage of the famous comet of 1763, where at No. 19 we see a curious old courtyard, and Rue de Fabert with an ancient one-storied house at its corner. No. 127 hôtel de Charnac, abbé de Pompadour, was the palace Mgr. Richard was forced to give up in 1906--now Ministère du Travail. Nos. 140-138, a fine mansion built in 1724, inhabited till the eighteenth century by noblemen of mark, is now hôtel de l'État-Major de l'Armée and Service Géographique de l'Armée. At No. 115, formerly l'hôtel du Marquis de Saumery, the _actrice_ Adrienne Lecouvreur died and was secretly buried. The short Rue de Martignac, opening at No. 130, showing no noteworthy feature, was built in 1828 on the ancient grounds of the Carmelites and the Dames de Bellechasse. No. 105 belonged to Berryer, the famous lawyer, 1766, then to Lamoignon de Basville. No. 122, l'hôtel d'Artagnan, to Maréchal de Montesquieu. At No. 101 l'hôtel d'Argenson, 1700, where Casimir Perier died of cholera in 1832; now Ministère de Commerce de l'Industrie. No. 118 l'hôtel de Villars, etc., has very beautiful woodwork. No. 116, the Mairie since 1865, an ancient _hôtel_ transformed and enlarged in modern times. No. 110 l'hôtel Rochechouart, built on land taken from the nuns of Bellechasse, inhabited at one time by Marshal Lames, duc de Montebello, is the Ministère de l'Instruction Publique. At No. 97 Saint Simon wrote his diaries and in 1755 died here. No. 106, in 1755 Temple du Panthémont, the abode of a community of nuns from the Benedictine abbey near Beauvais, was sold in lots after the Revolution; its chapel was taken for a Protestant church. No. 87, known in a past age as hôtel de Grimberghe, has a fine staircase. No. 104 formed part of the Panthémont convent. No. 85, l'hôtel d'Avaray 1718, abode, in 1727, of Horace Walpole when ambassador. No. 83 hôtel de Bonneval, 1763. No. 81, Russian Embassy, was built by Cotte in 1709 for the duchesse d'Estrées. No. 102 was built by Lisle Mansart in the first years of the eighteenth century. At No. 90 we turn for an instant into Rue St-Simon to look at the Latin inscriptions on Nos. 4-2, dating, however, only from 1881. No. 77, École Libre, originally l'hôtel de la Motte-Houdancourt, was inhabited in recent times by marquis de Gallifet. No. 75, seventeenth century, built by Cardinal d'Estrées. No. 88 l'hôtel de Noailles. No. 73, Italian Embassy, built by Legrand in 1775. At No. 71, annexed to the Italian Embassy, the duke of Alba died in 1771.