Hôtel de Saint Fiacre

The Hôtel de Saint Fiacre was an inn and tavern on Rue Saint-Martin in Paris.

[4] In 1645, Nicholas Sauvage, proprietor in Paris of the coaches for Amiens, decided to set up a business in which horses and carriages were to be kept in Paris and rented out.

He set himself up in the Hôtel de Saint Fiacre and rented out his four-seater carriages at 10 sols an hour.

Within twenty years, Sauvage's idea had developed into the first citywide public transport system "les carossses à 5 sols" ("5-sol carriages").

[5] The sign of the inn was known to display an image of the saint.