Catinat street
(now Đồng Khởi)
It got its name from the Admiral-Governor de la Grandièrele on February 1st, 1865, in honor of the corvette 'Catinat' (Nicholas Catinat was Maréchal of France from 1637 to 1712), which had taken part in the actions of 1856 at Tourane (Da Nang), and 1859 in Saigon.
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The famous Catinat street Sarreau's Pharmacy in the 30's
- 119-121-123 Catinat street Majestic Hotel
- " 4 « Denis Brothers » The Saigon Palace
- at 18-16 "The Palace Hotel", owned by Patrice Luciani Au Ménestrel
- " 41-45 Radio & equipment shop « Au Ménestrel » Sipeo
- " 47 «Sipeo» Kodak Distributor Grocery Store
- " 58-62 A grocery store «Thai-Thach » Imprimeries & Librairies Indochinoises
- " 64-70 A stationery and bookshop Catinat Hotel
- " 69 the « Catinat Hotel » Au Chalet
- at the ground floor of : La Croix du Sud
- " 80-82 «La Croix du Sud» Nguyen Chi Hoa Novelties
- " 83 A cotton & silk shop «Nguyen Chi Hoa» The children’s playground of the
Specialty butcher shop
- " 108 Specialty butcher shop « Au Petit Saint-Antoine » Pharmacy from France
- " 109-113 A pharmacy« Pharmacie de France » Mr Mercier is the owner. Butcher shop A.Guyonnet
- " 121 A French butcher shop / deli, « A.Guyonnet »
Shoe shop Bata
- " 127-129 A shoe shop, The Maison Brodart
- " 131-133 The « Brodard café » |
L. Caffort Gunsmith
- " 135-139 « L. Caffort » gunsmith. Continental Hotel
- " 132-134 Continental Hotel
- French soldiers next to the
- French tourists next to the Photo Studio Paul Gastaldy
- " 136-138 138, photographer Paul Gastaldy’s “Photo Studio”. Provence Radio
- " 145 « Provence Radio »
Paris Tissus
- " 147 147 « Paris Tissus» de luxe silk goods Catinat Ciné
- " 151 the non-stop cinema « Catinat Ciné », from 1 p.m. to midnight. The Oasis
- " 152 « The Oasis » Bar Alfana Goldsmith
- " 154 « Alfana » Godsmith
Catinat Novelties
- " 165 Lucien Berthet & Co "
- " 164 The Special Security Albert Portail
- " 185 à 193 « A.Portail Library » La Pagode
" 209 at the corner with 47-57 Lê-Loi street - " 213 213 Antique shop «La Perle» Cathedral of Notre Dame
Made by Didot Bottin in 1954 |
Tu Do street after 1955
formely Catinat street
The famous Catinat Street would become Tu Do (Liberty) Street from 1955 to 1975 during the war between South- and North-Vietnam. After the fall of the South-Vietnamese government it would be renamed Dông Khoï (General Insurrection).
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Tu Do Street
- at 1 Majestic Hotel The Saigon Palace
- 8-16 the Saigon Palace Hotel, at the ground floor Coya Tailor Coya Tailor
Eden Roc Hotel
- " 18-22 "Eden Roc" Hotel-Restaurant Bar Star Light
- " 45 Bar "Star Light"
The Neptuna swimming-pool
- " 59 The Neptuna swimming-pool Massage and Steam bath The Sporting Bar
- " 61 The Sporting Bar Botany Tailor
- " 64 Botany Tailor Esquire Tailors
- " 71 Esquire Tailor Tu-Do Cabaret
Akai information &
- " 80 Tu-Do Cabaret Bar Restaurant First
- " 87 Bar-Restaurant "First" Luong Tan
- " 91 Bazaar- Civil and military tailor Optician Michaux
- " 102 An optician Michaux Air France
- "122-130 Air France |
Hotel Caravelle
- "130 at the corner of Law-Son square (formely Theatre square) Star Hotel Tu Do
- " 123 Star Hotel & Windy Tu Do Snack Bar The Maison Brodart "Le Bougnat"
- " 131-133 The «Brodard café» Continental Hotel
- " 132-134 Continental Hotel Rotary Club from Saigon downtow
- " 134 The « Rotary Club » from Saigon downtown Viet Long Jewelry
- "135-139 Viet Long Jewelry opposite to Caravelle Hotel. Cars International
- " 138 Cars International "Honda" Princess Bar
- " 140 "Princess Bar" Chez Jeannine Hair Clinic
- " 142 Hair Clinic Bombay Catinat
- " 155 "Textiles Bombay Catinat" The Givral Bar, Delicatessen
- " 169 "Givral Un Régal sans Égal... " Eden Mall
- At right one of the Eden Mall entrance La Pagode
- " 209 "La Pagode" Pastries & Tea rom
During the American period, the businesses of the French colony would progressively disappear to make way for restaurants, cabarets, and night-clubs which would make an Asian Pigalle of the former Catinat Street.
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The Hotel Continental
The Hotel Continental was built in 1880 by Pierre Cazeau, a contractor for a construction materials company. The Duke of Montpensier bought the hotel in the beginning of the 20th century for his girlfriend and later sold it to Mr. Frazetti who remained its owner until 1930. During the ’20’s, Catinat St. where the Hotel Continental was located became the “Canebière” (historic
high street in the old quarter of Marseilles) of Saigon. The
famous writer André Malraux and his wife Clara stayed there from
1924 to 1925. In 1930, Mathieu Franchini, a figure in the
Corsican epic in Indochina, bought the hotel and successfully
ran it for 30 years. During the Second World War many weekly
magazine offices set up shop in the Continental: "Time" on the
first floor, "Newsweek" on the second. After the defeat at Dien
Bien Phu, Mathieu Franchini returned to Europe.
From 1964 to 1975 Mathieu Franchini’s son Philippe ran the hotel until the fall of the South Vietnamese government. In 1977 Philippe Franchini
published an excellent book through the publishing house of Olivier Orban about the “Saigon Continental”, from which comes
the following extract relating a situation that took place in the beginning of the 1950’s
At the Continental, at the table of the Senators which that of Oscar Berquet had followed in the first years of the century, and those of the twenty-two, were now seated the Corsicans, the old friends of my father, old colonials like himself. Whether they stayed inside the hotel at the edge of the garden or on the sidewalk, at the tip of the angle formed by Catinat St. and Theater square, they got together every day at apéritif-time and in the rediscovered aroma of pastis. Civil servants or peaceful magistrates, they always conversed in patois. It was their way of recapturing the spirit of the homeland, to feel the wind of the back country penetrating their lungs. Since they had been living in Indochina some of them had picked up the habit of opium. This explained the punctuality with which they arose to return home at the demanding time of the magic pipe. These reunions, to which the old colony had become accustomed, were nothing more than peaceful and normal, but to which new arrivals and transient foreigners attributed secret or less-than-honorable intentions. The Corsicans and their dialect both intrigued and irritated.
The reasons for which reporters chose the Hotel Continental were quite simple, since it was located in the
heart of Saigon across from the National Assembly (today the Municipal Theater) where the international press would get
together to collect information on the various wars on the Indochina peninsula. At the end of the ‘40’s and beginning of
the ‘50’s its terrace, nicknamed “Radio Catinat”, had again become the meeting-place for all-Saigon, the center of all
intrigue and all the town’s gossip. Its famous restaurant “Le Perroquet” was never empty.
Patrons considered themselves at home at the Continental as André Malraux had done in the ‘30’s, and in the beginning of the ‘50’s the British author Graham
Greene (a regular in room 214), author of the book “The Quiet American”, which was twice adapted for the screen in 1958 and
2002. It was a book that told of the last days of the French in Indochina, and the beginning of the American presence in the
future Vietnam. (Greene was under suspicion because he belonged to the Secret Services of the United Kingdom, and was placed
under surveillance by an agent of the Viet-Minh intelligence services).
Lucien Bodard was a famous reporter for “France-Soir” from 1948 to 1975, nicknamed “Lulu le Chinois” (“Chinese Lulu”) by his
colleagues because of his birth in Chongging, Sichuan province, China in 1914.He was a war correspondent in Indochina from 1948
to 1955, and naturally, stayed at the Hotel Continental.
of course we can’t forget Jean Lartéguy either, who wrote “Farewell to Saigon” in 1975. It was written day-to-day in a room of the Hotel Continental in Saigon. Jean Lartéguy describes the final
hours of a city he loved which bore the pretty name “Saigon”, and the birth of another, “Ho Chi Minh City”, which he doesn’t
much care for. It’s also the farewell of the soldier, of the journalist, of the writer, to the country where he had known
extraordinary adventures, the memory of which comes back during the long nights of the curfew.
The hotel closed in 1975 a few weeks after the fall of Saigon and reopened in 1989 after being nationalized. Today the Hotel Continental remains one of the
greatest symbols of the French presence in Cochin China.
A magnificent bronze statue of Napoleon in the lobby remains as a
testament to its Corsican owners.
The Book and Stationery store of Albert Portail
Mr. Albert Portail, founder of the company which bears his name, arrived in Saigon on April 13th, 1905, having been hired by the Ménard-Rey printing company, of which he became the manager in 1908.
In 1910, he acquired the New Coudurier & Montegout Printing Company, formerly the Claude Company, established in 1881. This printing company also featured a small book shop located at 109 Catinat Street, on the future site of the Pharmacie de France. In Phnom Penh it took up five storefronts on the docks. It was from these fragile beginnings that Mr. Portail would build the largest French book- and stationery establishment in the Far-East.
The store moved for the first time, to No. 177 Catinat Street, then in 1920, to No. 185 of the same street. Mr. Portail also built, starting in 1914, a large printing facility on the corner of Cornulier-Lucinière and Rudyard Kipling Streets. Finally in 1930, the expansion of his business in Phnom Penh led Mr. Portail to acquire a building located at No. 14 Avenue Boulloche, where he set up a modern printing shop as well as a book- and stationery store.
After the war, on January 1st, 1948, the Portail Printing Company of Saigon was sold to the Imprimerie Française d'Outre-Mer (The French Overseas Printing Company), Mr. Portail having decided to devote all his activities in South Vietnam to the book- and stationery business which was growing ever larger and which in 1949 led him to expand his stores which at the time took up five storefronts, from No. 185 to No. 193 Catinat Street..
Mr. Albert Portail, who had left Saigon for good in 1953 and had entrusted the management of his businesses in Indochina to his two sons, René and Ernest, had also created a Purchasing Bureau in Paris which was now located at No. 10, Chaussée d'Antin. From of the end of the Second World War, this Purchasing Bureau was run by his son René and his businesses in Indochina by his eldest son Ernest, who was assisted, until May 15th, 1953, by its Director, Mr. Henri Duqueyroix. Mr. Duqueyroix retired in 1954 and was replaced in his duties by Mr. René Marquet.
Propelled by this spirit of enterprise which remains an attribute of men of his generation, Albert Portail gave Indochina its largest distribution center for books, newspapers, magazines and periodicals from every nation and source.
The International Cultural Organisation of UNESCO and the UN also entrusted the sale of their publications to the A. Portail Bookstore.
Its creator could not have received a better tribute.
During the Second World War, despite his years, Mr. Albert Portail's conduct was a fine example of civic courage, worthy of his working past, as he was interned for many long months in the prisons of Chambéry, Saint-Paul d'Eyjeaux, Compiègne, and Fresnes.
It was therefore with some pride that he was able to regain what was always his motto:
Ad Augusta per Augusta
In his loose translation:
"The road to success bristles with difficulties".
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