Rue d'Alésia

Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge church, avenue du Général-Leclerc, avenue du Maine and rue d'Alésia. Paris (XIVth arrondissement). Oblique airview northwards. Area: avenue Jean-Moulin, place Victor-Basch. 1955. Photograph by Roger Henrard (1900-1975). Paris, musée Carnavalet.

Rue d'Alésia is a major street in the south of Paris, which runs along the entire east-west length of the XIVe arrondissement. It is one of the few streets in Paris named after a French defeat, or more precisely, a Gallic defeat: the Battle of Alesia. Lined with trees, the street extends to the east as Rue de Tolbiac into the XIIIe arrondissement, and to the west as Rue de Vouillé into the XVe arrondissement. It intersects Avenue du Général Leclerc at the Place Victor et Hélène Basch (Carrefour Alésia), the location of the Église Saint Pierre de Montrouge, as well as of the Alésia Métro station.

Lowry's short story 'Hotel Room in Chartres' opens with the bosun looking out over Rue d'Alésia in Paris comparing the industrial landscape of smoking factories to the “forlorn pain of the sea” with its fog and rain. Psalms 19