The busy Gare d'Orléans, so prominent a modern structure along the quay, covers the site of the old Palais d'Orsay, and an ancient barracks burnt to the ground in 1871. In an inner courtyard at No. 1 we find the remains of the ancient hôtel de Robert de Cotte, royal architect-in-chief, in the early years of the eighteenth century.
Quai Voltaire was known in part of its course in eighteenth-century days as Quai des Théatins. It was constructed under Mazarin, restored in 1751. Many names of historic note are associated with the handsome house at No. 27, built in or about 1712, for Nicolas de Bragelonne, Treasurer of France. Its chief point of interest is connected with Voltaire. Here he died in 1778; here his heart was kept till 1791. No. 25 was the home of Alfred de Musset. The ground between 25 and 15 was occupied from the days of Mazarin till 1791 by the convent of the Théatins. The short Rue de Beaume close here shows us many interesting old-time houses. No. 1 was the hôtel of the Marquis de Villette, who became a member of the Convention, and called his son Voltaire. At No. 3 were his stables. Boissy d'Anglas lived at No. 5, in 1793, and Chateaubriand stayed here in 1804. No. 17, dating from about 1670, was the house of the Carnot family. At No. 10 we see vestiges of a house belonging to the Mousquetaires Gris, for this was their headquarters. No. 2 was built for the Marquis de Mailly-Nesle. Nos. 11 to 9, along the _quai_, formed the habitation of Président de Perrault, secretary to the Grand Condé. The duchess of Portsmouth lived here in 1690, and here the great painter, Ingres, died in 1867.
Quai Malaquais began as Quai de la Reine Marguerite, but was nicknamed forthwith Quai Mal-acquet (_Mal-acquis_) because the Queen, Henri IV's light-lived, divorced wife, had taken the abbey grounds of the Petit Pré-aux-Clercs whereon to build her garden-surrounded mansion. At No. 1 the architect Visconti died in 1818. In 1820 Humboldt lived at No. 3. The statue of Voltaire by Caillé was set up opposite No. 5 in 1885. The house at No. 9 was built about 1624 on the ground _mal-acquis_ by Margaret de Valois. No. 11, École des Beaux-Arts, is on the site of the ancient hôtel de Brienne, Louis XIV's Secretary of State. Joined later to the house next door it became the home of Mazarin, by and by of Fouché, and was made to communicate with the police offices at a little distance. Nos. 15 and 17, built by Mansart in 1640, restored a century later, after long habitation by persons of noted name, was taken over by the State, and in 1885 annexed to the Beaux-Arts.