Inventing La Poste at Cremerie de Paris - a story that starts in 1671 by Whitepages.fr

1671 Starting a new Telecom Adventure
"La Poste"

9, 11 Rue des Dechargeurs in the heart of Paris

1671 January 21
two young transport entrepreneurs from Tours
Leon Pajot (1625 - 1668) and Louis Rouille (1630 - 1694)
buy the historic VB mansion (Hotel de Villeroy Bourbon / VB)
in Paris.

The children of the Villeroy family, childhoon friends of Louis XIV,
sell their house as the King of France has invited them
to live with him at the future Chateau de Versailles
The historic VB mansion was a childhood place of Louis XIV
and has been a hotspot in the history of France since 1370.

1671 - 1738 The Pajot & Rouillé families
The business associates Louis Pajot et Leon Rouillé
create a succesful shipping company for letters
which they called "La Poste" .

They organise a network of Post Relais,
located at a distance of about 30 km
where horses can rest and mail can be transmitted to fresch horses.
The Pajot and Rouille organisation transports letters from Paris to other cities in France.

Their children fall in love.
Leon Pajot II (1647 - 1708), the son of Leon Pajot
and Marie Anne Rouillé (1659 - 1684), daughter of Louis Rouille
get married and continue the business.

Everybody of the family works for "La Poste",
the children, the grandchildren, their respective wives and husbands
and all the cousins they can find.

The children are very clever so they are able to organise
a reliable transport organisation without the help of
modern features like computers, phones, automobiles ...

1708 Louis Leon Pajot

Louis Leon Pajot, Count Ons en Bray

Louis Leon Pajot (1678 - 1754)
is the common grandson of Leon Pajot et Louis Rouille
and the oldest son of Leon Pajot II and Marie Anne Rouillé

He becomes the "President" of the Pajot & Rouillé organisation in 1708
Louis Leon is much appreciated by King Louis XIV
for the reliability of his services.

Louis XIV 3rd Bourbon King of France

When a letter is really important Louis XIV
doesn't trust anybody in his entourage and insists
on giving the letter to Louis Leon Pajot in person,
either at his home, the Chateau de Versailles
or at the VB mansion / Cremerie de Paris 9 rue des Déchargeurs.
The King likes to come to Paris as the house reminds him of his childhood.
Also Louis XIV enjoys to watch the postal horses come and go.

Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn und Taxis

Louis Leon Pajot needs an international Mail exchange partner
as his own postal network only covered the Bourbon territories.
The Habsburg Territories, rivals of the Bourbons
were under control of another Postal family
the Thurn & Taxis.

The "president" of the Thurn & Taxis company
Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn & Taxis
is based between Brussels and Francfort.

Pajot and Thurn & Taxis used horses to visit each other,
the trip from the Thurn and Taxis Palace in Brussels
to the VB mansion / Cremerie de Paris took about 33 hours.

Have a look at the Logo of the Whitepages ...
in the left corner
the man with the red coat and a Posthorn ...

Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis

how does it come the man
that came by horse
to VB / Cremerie de Paris back in the 1730s
is still there ??
in today's Whitepages logo ??

Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn und Taxis
in the logo of the Whitepages

Next ... 1738 Continue the story

Telecom History in France