The column surmounted by the gilded "Spirit of Liberty" on place de la Bastille was erected to commemorate not the surrender of the prison – whose only visible remains have been transported to square Henri-Galli at the end of boulevard Henri-IV – in 1789, but the July Revolution of 1830, that replaced the autocratic Charles X with the "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe. When Louis-Philippe fled in the more significant 1848 Revolution, his throne was burnt beside the column and a new inscription added. Four months later, the workers again took to the streets. All of eastern Paris was barricaded, with the fiercest fighting on rue du Faubourg-St-Antoine, until the rebellion was quelled with the usual massacres and deportation of survivors. However, it is the events of July 14, 1789, symbol of the end of feudalism in Europe, that France celebrates every year on Bastille Day, and the square remains an important rallying point for political protest, as seen in the huge anti-Le Pen demonstrations in 2002.The Bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989 was marked by the inauguration of a new opera house on place de la Bastille, the Opéra Bastille, one of François Mitterrand's pet projects. Filling almost the entire block between rues de Lyon, Charenton and Moreau, it has shifted the focus of place de la Bastille, so that the column is no longer the pivotal point; in fact, it's easy to miss it altogether when dazzled by the night-time glare of lights emanating from the Opéra. One critic described it as a "hippopotamus in a bathtub", and you can see his point. The architect, Uruguyan Carlos Ott, was concerned that his design should not bring an overbearing monumentalism to place de la Bastille. The different depths and layers of the semicircular facade do give a certain sense of the building stepping back, but self-effacing it is not. Time, use and familiarity have more or less reconciled it to its surroundings, and people happily sit on its steps, wander into its shops and libraries, and camp out all night for the free performance on July 14. The opera's construction destroyed no small amount of low-rent housing, but as with most speculative developments, the pace of change is uneven: old tool shops and ironmongers still survive alongside cocktail haunts and sushi bars; and laundries and cobblers flank electronic notebook outlets. On rue de Lappe, Balajo is one remnant of a very Parisian tradition: the bals musettes, or music halls of 1930s gai Paris, frequented between the wars by Piaf, Jean Gabin and Rita Hayworth. It was founded by one Jo de France, who introduced glitter and spectacle into what were then seedy gangster Dives, enticing Parisians from the other side of the city to savour the rue de Lappe lowlife. Today, the rue de Lappe is one of the liveliest night-time spots in Paris, crammed with animated, young bars, full to bursting on the weekends. Hip bars and cafés have also sprung up in the surrounding streets, especially on rue de Charonne, also home to fashion boutiques and wacky interior designers, while alternative, hippy outfits cluster on rues Keller and de la Roquette.
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