 was invented at the Cremerie de Paris N°1 Telecom Hotspot since 1671 1671-1738 Royal French Postal Services by Pajot & Rouile with help of Thurn & Taxis 1987 - 2001 Sony Phones 1993 - 2005 Cybercafe since 1999 home of PBof.com Phone Book of the World |
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Franz Taxis
181 before Cremerie de Paris
became a Telecom Hotspot
invention of the postal service
181 years before the Hôtel de Villeroy (home of the Phone Book of the World)
become the Postal Company of the Pajot & Rouillé family
 Franz von Taxis / Francesco de Tasso (1459 - 1517) is considered to be the founder of the European Postal system. The official foundation date is 1490. Born in Italy in a small village, Camerata Cornello near Bergamo 60 km north of Milan he worked with his brother Janetto (1450 - 1518) and his nephew Johann Baptista (1470 - 1541) For the Holy Roman Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I (1459 - 1519) he organised a horse transport system from Innsbruck to Brussels. Horses are exchanged every 28 km, mail from Innsbruck to Brussels take 5 and 1/2 days. Brussels becomes the seat of the young organisation. Mail from Brussels to Paris takes 44 hours from Brussels to Blois 60 hours from Brussels to Rome 250 hours Franz von Taxis only child Augustin de Taxis becomes a member of the church, Johann Baptista becomes his successor in the postal service. |
 Johann Baptista (1470 - 1541) is the nephiew of Franz von Taxis. In the 2nd generation he further developed the postal connections in the Holy Roman Empire (including Germany). The family controls the totaly of European Postal connections with the exception of France. 1517 Emperor Charles Quint / Karl V (1500 - 1558) nominates Johan Baptista as General Postmaster. The Habsburgs need the realibility and efficiency of the Thurn & Taxis service. Johann Baptista has 16 children and is succeded by Franz II von Thurn & Taxis (1514 - 1543). |
3rd generation: Baron Leonhard I von Taxis (1521-1612) married to Louisa Boisot de Rouha (?-1610) 4th generation: Count Lamoral von Taxis (1557-1624) married to Genoveva von Taxis (?-1627) 5th generation: Count Leonard II von Taxis (1594-1628) married to Alexandrine de Rye (1589-1668) 6th generation:  Count Lamoral Claudius von Thurn und Taxis (1621-1676) married to Countess Anna von Horn (?-1693) 7th generation: 
Eugen-Alexander, 1st Prince von Thurn und Taxis (1652-1714) married to Princess Anna von Fürstenberg (1658-1701) |
 8th generation: Anselm Franz 2nd Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1681 - 1740) lived both in Brussels and Franfurt  The Thurn & Taxis operated from the Thurn & Taxis Palaces in Brussels and the newly constructed building in Francfort. Their postal territory went from the Dutch Netherlands to Germany, Austria and Italy as well. and constructed the new postal headquarter in Francfurt |
  scince 1671 a Telecom Hotspot with the creation of "La Poste", the "Royal French Postal Services" by Pajot & Rouillé, later French PTT, now seperated into "La Poste" and "France Telecom".  Their grandson Louis Leon Pajot (1678 - 1754) continued to develop the business and with Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis. They were using horses and post relais to carry mail through Europe.  The Pajot & Rouillé family owned 700 post relais, the most southern ones were located in Venice and Rome. The "technology heart" was the Cremerie de Paris on the rue des Dechargeurs side of the Hotel de Villeroy. King Louis XV became more and more jealous of the succes of "La Poste". He had no control over the Thurn & Taxis but being the King of France he had power over the Pajot et Rouillé family. 1738 mai 21 he withdraw the post license. Under orders from the cardinal Fleury, the prefet de police came in the early morning of that day to make an end to the postal empire. Unlike Nicolas Fouquet who also created feelings of jealousy because of his chateau Vaux le Vicomte the Pajot et Rouillé were not imprisonned. They only lost their company probably without any compensation payments. With the French Revolution trace of the family ceased. Nethertheless the destiny of the place was to remain a Telecom Hotspot .... The links with the Thurn & Taxis continued through time .... |
 Karl Anselm 4th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1733 - 1805) always remembered how Louis XV has just taken the Pajot & Rouillé Post in Paris. Under no means we wanted another king to be able to seize the Thurn & Taxis postal empire. |
Karl Anselm 4th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1733 - 1805) always remembered how Louis XV has just taken the Pajot & Rouillé Post in Paris. Under no means we wanted another king to be able to seize the Thurn & Taxis postal empire. |
 Maximilian Karl 6th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1802 - 1871) was the last Thurn & Taxis to be a Postmaster. 1867 july 1 the state of Prussia nationalized the Thurn & Taxis Post. 1870 the same state of Prussia provoked war with France resulting in the abdication of Napoléon III and the end of the Second Empire. Napoleon's wife Empress Eugenie also has a lot of links with both the Thurn & Taxis and the Cremeries de Paris but this is another (long) story ... |
  Johannes 11th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1926 - 1990) knew about the Cremerie from his grandfather Albert. Albert was always telling his young grandsons Johannes, Anselm and Gabriel about the fascinating postal adventures of his ancestors. 1980s Johannes and his wife frequently came to Paris. Johannes liked contact with young people and talked to them out of the blue. 1986, during the fashion week january he run into a young student .... The Thurn & Taxis Telecom stories were just fascinating. Nobody knew such amazing stories, even though they sounded almost unbeleivable ... for a student used to La Poste beeing a State owned Monopoly conglomerate.  And sometimes Johannes said, you know when the horses of my great great grandfather were carrying letters, they were faster and more reliable than today ... When in Paris he always stayed at the Ritz and like Coco Chanel he had know twenty years earlier he walked over to Les Halles to spend his afternoon at cafes while his wife was attending fashion events in Paris or New York. This was the time for "Telecom stories". May 1986 he showed the student a fascinating building, The Hôtel de Villeroy, this was the place where is ancestors went 300 years earlier. It was the Telecom hotspot of the 17th and 18th century. 50 meters from the old postal building there was a little Boutique "for sale" today Cremerie de Paris N°2 .... They returned the next day and the day after and Thurn & Taxis told the young student: "Why don't you restart a Telecom company, with this location right next to this ultra historic postal building it can only work. Our Thurn & Taxis buildings from Brussels and Francfort have been destroyed in Paris everything is still there. The money you need is not even what my wife spends for an evening outfit. I will help you ..." "Telecom has been blocked by State monopolies, one day these monopolies will fall you will see the business my family once has invented has a lot of future ..." "At age 20 you have a lot of energy and people will be surprised that you are still so young this will help you ..." |
 Working part time to pay for university the student had nothing to match the jetset lifestyle of many people around Thurn & Taxis. But there was one thing that fascinated Thurn & Taxis far beyond any hollywood or night life connection. He had a link to the Romanovs from Russia resulting in equaly unbeleivable stories to tell ... As a child the student had a great aunt and a great uncle that were the young cousins of Anastasia and Alexei Romanov. They had both survived the Russian Revolution and the World Wars. Unfortunately Tsar Nicolas II, once the world's richest man, never had the idea to open an international bank account for them so the great aunt made her living producing honey as a bee keeper. The great unclewas very shy and lived with books. They had endless time to tell Romanov stories to children. Anastasia Romanov knew a lot of legends about the same Cremerie de Paris but legends were completely different from those transmitted by the Thurn & Taxis ancestors. They came from a friend of her mother ...  Anastasia (1901 - 1918) and Friederike (1905 - 1995) always wanted to come to Paris to see if these Cremeries described to them by the last Tsarina of Russia, their mother or aunt really existed. Both girls dream about coming to Paris to make a career as an actress ...
Johannes Thurn & Taxis had met a lot of fascinating people but except of Coco Chanel (1883 - 1971) and Aimée de Heeren (1903 - 2006) nobody else has had such direct acces to the Romanovs ... And while Chanel was 43 years older, the student was 39 years younger. There was a lot to talk about ... Chanel also had some links with the Thurn & Taxis and lots of links with the Cremeries de Paris but this is another (long) story ... 
The student was constantly invited to come to the Thurn & Taxis palace in Regensburg. The first invitation was for a birthday party. When he arrived he nobody, when he left he had met a Lady that would also play an important role in the soon to come restart of the Telecom activities. The invitations were unbeleivable, including one from Fidel Castro to join the Thurn & Taxis for a trip to Cuba. But as - in the meantime - the Telecom Buisness, at the time our little Telephone Boutique - now N°2 - had already started, most of the times he could not go. So it was in the cafes of Paris les Halles or on the phone that most of the Telecom stories were transmitted ... |
  The Postal stories were so captivating, the student was no longer interested in studying ... and instead, 1986, got the small shop with plans to turn it into a Sony Telephone Boutique. The Boutique finally opened in 1987. Due to a monopoly of the state owned PTT it was impossible to sell the Sony phones, but there was no law forbidding repairing them nor to sell 220v power adaptors or phone batteries. Everybody travelling to New York or Hong Kong tried to bring them back to Paris and the little Boutique was the only place in town to offer that service. |
  Telephones were a good business and in 1993 it was possible to reopen Cremerie N°1, first turning it into one an avantgarde Internetcafe. Chanel's friend Aimée de Heeren gave a little help. Before the turn of the century the cafe was only visited by Americans travelling to Paris where Internet was still unknown. There were technology pioneers, most of the times we did not even realise who they were or who they were going to become. Some were already a little older, one, already mentioned before, had once been a friend of the inventor of the phone, Alexander Graham Bell, another one had been on the first flight to the moon. Under their influence were registered many spectacular domain names and was invented, 1999, the Phone Book of the World. |
coming soon
registring internet
domain names
Remaining through time ...
  Two pictures of our courtyard the first from 1699, the second from 2017. 318 years seperate the two images but the spirit of Telecommunications is still around. Thank you for using our Phone Book of the World. |
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