Rue d'Odessa is a street located in the Montparnasse district of the 14th arrondissement in Paris.
Start : 3, rue de Départ End : 56, boulevard Edgar-Quinet Length : 184 m Width : 18 m
This street was opened in 1881, on the site of the "city of Odessa" built at a time when the Anglo-French fleet was bombing the city of Odessa, during the Crimean war (1853-1856).
Odessa road seen from the Départ road
Odessa road seen from Edgar-Quinet boulevard
Today, the street is best known for its crêperies of Breton origin which are the result of the Breton migration to the region at the end of the 19th century.
Odessa road seen from Edgar-Quinet boulevard, circa 1900
The city of Odessa is not in the Crimea, but further west, on the shores of the Black Sea. However, its name is linked to the Crimean war: one of the first acts of the Crimean war was the bombardment of Odessa on 22 April 1854.
The Bombardment of Odessa
In the 19th century, Odessa was the fourth largest city in imperial Russia, after Moscow, St. Petersburg and Warsaw.
A number of Russian cities have Greek names. Odessa is one example. The city was named by the Empress of Russia Catherine II (Catherine the Great) (1729-1796) after the ancient Greek city of Odessos, which was mistakenly thought to be located here. Ancient Odessos was further west along the coast, which is now Varna, in Bulgaria.
