Telecom since 1671
Un voyage à travers l'histoire des Telecom


1671 januvier 21 deux jeunes entrepreneurs
Leon Pajot et Louis Rouillé ont trouve le financement
pour acheter un bâtiment fascinant
l'Hôtel de Villeroy Bourbon (VB mansion)
pour y créer une affaire dans les Telecom:

Ils'ont apellé "La Poste"
devenu la Poste Royale de France
au service de Louis XIV.
ancêtre les PTT (Postes Telegraphes et Telecom)
gerée par l'Etat.


Louis XIV connaissait déja la maison quand il était encore un enfant
car il avait appartenu à son professeur
Nicolas V de Villeroy.

Son grand-père Henri IV venait souvent pour discuter politique
avec la grand père de Nicolas V,
Nicolas IV de Villeroy.
La famille de Villeroy était déja amie
avec Marguerite de Navarre
grand mère d'Henri IV, premier roi des Bourbon.

La poste Royale de France
Un voyage à travers l'histoire des Telecom

Les racines de nos Whitepages se trouvent
dans les murs de batiment au coeur de Paris
et dans l'histoire de deux familles
Pajot & Rouillé (since 1671) basés sur place à Paris
et Thurn & Taxis (since 1290) basés à Bruxelles et à Francfort.

Pajot & Rouillé avait la Poste
dans les territoires des Bourbons, Rois de France
Thurn & Taxis celle dans les territoires
des Habsbourgs, Empreurs du Saint Empire Romain Germanique.

Les deux familles avaient organises
des "Relais de Poste"
positionnés à environ 30 km les un des autres.
On pouvait ainsi echanger les chevaux fatigues par le voyage
par des chevaux reposés et prèt à partir.

Quand il y avait un courrier international
chaque famille avait besoin de l'autre
car leur reseaux postaux n'étaient pas les même.


Louis Leon Pajot
petit-fils commun de Leon Pajot et Louis Rouillé
était le Maitre des Postes en 3eme generation.

Anselm Franz, 2eme Prince von Thurn und Taxis
arrière-arrière-arrière petit neveu de Francesco Tasso / Franz Taxis
fondateur en 1490
de la Poste Thurn & Taxis.
Francesco Tasso lui même descendait d'Omodeo
qui avait commence l'activité en 1290 dans les alpes Italiennes.

Louis Leon Pajot était également un inventeur et scientifique
qui s'intrerassait aux instruments de mesure
afin d'optimiser son service Postal
qui fonctionnait sans téléphone, electricité, ordinateurs.
Les instruments était ranges dans un cabinet de curiosité
que les visiteurs importants de l'époque,
tels que le Tsar Pierre Le Grand aiaient visiter.


Dans les années 1730
Pajot & Rouillé possedait 300 relais postaux post
un peu partout en France et aussi en Italie.

Une corne postale était utilse pour annoncer
l'arrivée des chevaux.

Les deux postier se voyaient souvent.
Ils etaient amis et rivales en même temps.

Le voyage d'une lettre entre Paris et Bruxelles
durait 40h en été en 48h en hiver.

La Cremerie de Paris / Hotel de Villeroy Bourbon
et les deux Palais Postaux Thurn & Taxis (Bruxelles et Francfort)
étaient le coeur d'un reseau.
D'unombrables documents historiques
sont ainsi passé par la Cremerie de Paris.


Quand Louis XIV avait une lettre très importante
il se mefiait de son entourage et insistait de la remettre
à Louis Leon Pajot en personne.

Parfois Pajot se deplacait àau Château de Versailles.
Quand il faisait beau, Louis XIV
aimait venir à la Cremerie de Paris
car ca l'amusait d'observer les chevaux arriver et partir
et bien evidemment la maison lui rapellait son enfance.

Fin d'une histoire
Un voyage à travers l'histoire des Telecom

1738 / 1869 les deux familles ont perdu leur entreprises postales
mais l'esprit Telecom est resté dans nos murs.

Anselm Franz est reste dans notre logo
car outre la maison ont existe un autre lien directs
entre nos White Pages d'aujourd'hui
et les entreprises Postales.



Louis XV et Bismarck
prenent les entreprises postales
1738, may 14 Louis XV, suffered from jealousy.
and withdrew the Pajot & Rouillé post liciense,
but he did not have the power to take it
from the Thurn & Taxis
based outside France in Brussels and Francfort.


Maximilian Karl von Thurn & Taxis (1802 - 1871),
last postmaster.
1867, july 1 the sate of Prussia nationalised
the Thurn & Taxis Post, ancestor of the German PTT
but 3 million German thalers had to be paid in compensation.
Two, three of these thalers would 119 years later
come to Paris, rue des Halles ...

Transmission d'une histoire
Un voyage à travers l'histoire des Telecom


Albert's aunt Sissi of Austria (1837 - 1898)
and his uncles Ludwig of Bavaria (1845 - 1886)
and Paul Thurn & Taxis (1843 - 1879)
were more fascinated by the legends around Louis XIV
than by the ones around the postal service.


According to Albert, the grandfather of Johannes,
King Ludwig II came to our VB mansion back in 1867.
At that time the construction of our rue des Halles wasn't finished.
Too bad King Ludwig II did not take pictures,
until now we never found any images of the construction,
but maybe one day we will discover one in a Bavarian castle.
He returned in 1874
(a month after the invention of the phone
by Alexander Graham Bell)
seeing the Cremerie functioning as a "Cremerie" (cheese store).

It is possible that the magic of the Cremerie
and the spirit of Paris contributed a little to
the fairy tale palaces Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee?
Ludwig II was named after
Louis XVI , godfather of his grandfather Ludwig I of Bavaria.
Louis XVI was the great-great-grandson of Louis XIV.


Albert von Thurn & Taxis (1860 - 1952)
transmits the stories of the families post adventures
to his grandsons Johannes et Anselm.
Our VB mansion was part of them.
Albert knew them from his mother Helene in Baveria,
daughter-in-law of the last postmaster Maximilian Karl Thurn & Taxis.


1952 Johannes Thurn & Taxis
inherited the Telecom fortune from his grandfather Albert.
Like Albert he was very cultivated and he knew his family's history better than an encyclopedia.
His stories would later create a link between the Telecom activities
of the old Thurn & Taxis Postmasters
and the not yet invented Phone Book of the World.

Retour d'une histoire
Un voyage à travers l'histoire des Telecom


1986 when travelling to Paris
Johannes Thurn & Taxis (1926 - 1990) loved to come
to the unconventional area of Châtelet les Halles.
He enjoyed talking to young students
in the cafes, the Maison Rouge (today Cremerie N°7),
Bistrot des Halles or the no longer existing Cafe Costes.

One of them (now editor of this website)
was captivated by the entrepreneurial spirit
of the old Thurn & Taxis that carried mail with horses
between their post relais and our house in Paris, unbeleivable postal stories,
that happened - centuries ago.

The T&T story started in Cornello in the Italian alps
with Francesco Tasso / Franz von Taxis (1459 - 1517)
who set up a postal route to Brussels.

Johannes's great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-father
Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis (1681 - 1739)
used to go to the VB mansion
opposite the cafe, on the other side of the street
(today Cremerie N°1).
No Thalys, no TGV no ICE trains, Anselm Franz
was using horses.
It was a 44 h trip in the summer and 55 h in the winter
with one or two nights sleep in between.


Spirit of telecommunications had stayed in our walls
and in the mind of the Thurn & Taxis family.
Above pictures were taken in 1986 / 1987
one in the living room of the T&T Regensburg Castle,
the other one in front of the just opened Cremerie de Paris N°2
The woman in the first picture that looks in her 50th,
Aimée de Heeren was much older than anybody beleived.
She would later become the link
between Chanel and the not yet reopedened Cremerie N°1.


The T&T stories were so crazy & funny
that they must have woken up
the sleeping Telecom genes of our old old building.
Thurn & Taxis had nobody as much interested
in his never ending Telecom anecdotes ...
Whenever there was some time conversation
went to the post legends.

While his family's Postal Palaces in Brussels and Francfort had been destroyed
the old Hôtel de Villeroy / VB mansion was still around,
... pratically unchanged.

Walking around the VB mansion
Thurn & Taxis was fascinated to feel the spirit of the old postmasters.
He was captivated the student also knew
about the exact same place,
but what he knew had nothing to do with Telecom
his stories came from Russia (see above) ...


A few weeks later, summer 1986,
a small Boutique, once a milk store at the foodmarket,
was for sale next to the old Postal Building (today Cremerie N°2).
A cariatide of Empress Eugenie is above the facade.
Thurn & Taxis pushed the student to open the store,
not as a milk but as a phone store ...
"You should go into the business my family once started ... Telecom.
Here is the equivalent of one thaler
so you have someting left by the old Thurn & Taxis postmasters
that will help you to start,
get the place and you see with the energy of this spot
things will just happen and come to you."
Well when you are 20 and you open a shop in Paris
a lot of adventures are waiting ...


Everything started with Sony answering machines
and cellular home phones:
IT A 550 or SPP 150.
Banned by the French PTT
holding a monopoly over the market
it was impossible to sell them in Paris.

1990 state owned PTT took us to court
to close down the Boutique as the phones were not "agrée".
Lawyer Laurent Salem saved us as there was no law
prohibiting repair service.
So we launched the fashion of bringing home to France
these wonderful electronic miracles
when travelling to Asia or the US.
Soon Paris Match talked about the Boutique
which came to the ears of Lady Diana
walking into our doors when visiting Paris.


The beginning of a new Telecom adventure
later resulting in the Phone Book of the World ...