Le Vieux Paris
A stained glass window with a typically cheerful medieval scene © A. Harrison
Walking the Île de la Cité
Where else to begin exploring Paris, but where the city began? Walking through the Île de la Cité covers some 4000 years of civilisation, from when the first Gauls settled here, to those living statues who pose each day outside the Notre-Dame for tourists.
Paris began her life on a boat-shaped island in the middle of the Seine. The city’s coat of arms proudly displays a boat tossed by the waves, above the motto fluctuat nec mergitu: She is tossed by the waves but does not sink. By the 3rd century BCE, the Parisii tribe had established a fortified settlement on what was to become the Île de la Cité, although other Celtic tribes had lived here from at least 2000 BCE. (Canoes dating back to almost 4000 BCE have been found on the banks the Seine.)
The Parisii chose well: a temperate valley of fertile lands, with a river not only full of fish but perfect for trading from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean. Beneath the surrounding hills lay stores of lime and gypsum — now known as plaster of Paris — later used to build La Ville Lumière. So strategic a site, in fact, Julius Caesar invaded in 52 BCE, establishing a major Roman town — Lutetia (Lutèce) — which flourished until the Barbarian invasions.
Le Crypte du Parvis de Notre-Dame stretches for some 120m beneath the Parvis de Notre-Dame (un parvis being a square outside a church). In 1965 work on a planned car-park uncovered archaeological finds, dating not only from Roman times but back to the island’s first inhabitants. On view in the crypt are Galleo-Roman ramparts and streets, rooms with an underground heating system, cellars, and remnants of the original Parisii wall.
Emerge from the crypt, and the buttresses of Notre-Dame soar to the sky. This area had long been sacred; the Romans built a temple to Jupiter here (perhaps replacing a site of worship used by the Parisii), which in turn was replaced around 528 CE by the first Notre-Dame (built with stones from the Roman arena on the Left Bank).
The Salian Franks invaded from Germany in the 400s, founding the first Frankish kingdom under Clovis in 466 CE. In 506 CE Clovis made Paris her capital, moving the royal court to the Île de la Cité (as it then became known). With the Royal Court remaining here until the 14th C, the island became the seat of royal and ecclesiastical power in Paris.
In 1163 Maurice de Sully, Bishop of Paris, began plans to replace Notre-Dame and St-Etienne with a large church suitable for the city’s growing population. Taking some 200 years to complete, and partly destroyed during the French Revolution, the cathedral remains a breath-taking wonder, despite the tragic fire of 2019.
View of the Île de la Cité from the Seine © A. Harrison
Until the 19th century, Notre-Dame was largely obscured by a maze of medieval streets and buildings. Victor Hugo brought the surrounding slums vividly to life in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, including Le Rue des Marmousets, one of the narrowest and darkest streets on the island. Under a burgeoning population the Île de la Cité had become a place where ‘plants shrivel and perish, and where, of seven small infants, four die during the course of the year’ (Victor Considerant, 1845). Diseases such as cholera proved epidemic. Authorities viewed the island as a cradle of discontent and revolution, where narrow streets were easily barricaded by paving stones — with the widest street measuring only 5m, the army had difficulty dislodging rioters.
Using Napoleon III’s decree to renovate Paris as an excuse, Baron Hausmann swept away the Île de la Cité’s alleys and homes, beggars and brothels, churches, cabarets, markets — and much of the island’s character. The eastern end of the island was once a city within a city, a maze of streets under the control of the Cloister of Notre-Dame. Little remains of the bustling medieval heart, where the likes of Abélard studied and taught. A few medieval maisons survived, as did narrow streets such as Le Rue de la Colombe, which dates from the 1400s. Traces of the Gallo-Roman wall are outlined in paving stones on the street, and №4 boasts a door reputedly from the 13th century tavern which occupied the site.
The elegant buildings of the Conciergerie © A. Harrison
On the nearby Rue Chanoinesse, a 14th century baker was renowned for his pâtés — until it was discovered they were made from murdered foreign students. Both №22 and 24 are 16th century gabled canonical houses, while at №26 the entry is paved with tombstones. №10 is reputed to be the house of Héloïse’s uncle, where she and Abélard fell in love.
To find revolutionary Paris, simply start at the Marché aux Fleurs, (one of the few flower markets in Paris) and walk along the Boulevard du Palais. Ay №10 is Le Cour du Mai. Crowds gathered here during The Revolution to watch the condemned cross the courtyard from the Conciergerie to carts waiting to take them to the guillotine at La Place de la Révolution.
Le Conciergerie was built as an extension of the Capetian Palace. The prison held the likes of Marie Antoinette during the Revolution (her ghost has been seen both here and at Versailles); of the 4,164 ‘enemies of the people’ who passed through the Conciergerie during the Reign of Terror, more than half were guillotined.
Pass back along Le Boulevard du Palais to Le Quai de l’Horioge. At the end of Le Quai de l’Horloge stand the Tour de César, Tour d’Argent, Tour de l’Horloge and the Tour de Bonbecis, all built between 1250 and 1300 as part of the now vanished Capetian Palace. On the Tour de l’Horloge is Paris’ first clock, built in 1371.
A short stroll but an ethereal world away is the Sainte-Chapelle. Often called “The Gateway To Heaven”, it was commissioned by Louis IX in 1238 to house a piece of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns. The upper chapel is considered one of the highest achievements of Gothic art. Many of the windows date from the 13th C, depicting Biblical scenes beginning with Adam and Eve and ending with the Apocalypse of the great Rose Window. That the building and its windows have survived war and revolution — and more war — is in itself a miracle.
Where Le Rue de l’Horloge reaches Le Pont Neuf is La Place Dauphine. Made by joining two small islands to the Île de la Cité, it was designed by Henri IV as a discreet meeting place for bankers and merchants. Even today it brings a touch of the countryside into Paris. It opens onto the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris (which is actually two bridges.) The first stone bridge in Paris not lined by houses, the Pont Neuf was once a lively place where Parisians did their banking, were entertained by street performers, and could even have their teeth pulled. Reputedly, at any hour of the day, one would see here a monk, a loose woman, and a white horse.
Beyond the Pont Neuf is Le Square du Vert-Galant, (the sobriquet of the amorous Henri IV). A perfect place for a rest or a picnic, the square actually lies at the original level of the Île de la Cité during the Gallo-Roman period, some 7m lower then Le Parvis du Notre-Dame.
Fluctuat nec mergitu: Paris may be tossed by the waves, but she does not sink.
Le Square du Vert-Galant © A. Harrison
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