Medieval Paris
I invite you, dear visitor, to continue our voyage through the epochs on the way to meet the medieval Paris this time.
We get somewhere between the 5th and 15th centuries. The future Paris lives hard times. The Roman Empire collapsed. The city is occupied by Francs, whose king Clovis I makes of Paris his capital and Christianizes the Parisians. Actually, the latter is considered to be “the first king of what would become later France.”
The middle-ages have the reputation of being quite dark, dirty, smelly and suffering. Water is considered to be contaminating, people were dying from black plague, dysentery, smallpox.
However the devil is not only as black as it is painted. In the 13th century Paris is the largest city in Europe. It is an important religious and commercial center. The newborn Gothic style of architecture finds its realization in Notre-Dame de Paris, Sainte Chappelle, Saint-Denis Basilica. The first covered market les Halles appears on the right bank of the city. The intellectual world prospers thanks to La Sorbonne on the left.
The local population grows rapidly and needs space and protection. It was soon provided by Philippe August starting from 1180. The urban heart of the city becomes delimited by the 5 km long walls commissioned by the king. This wall punctuated by nearly 80 turrets intended to protect the inhabitants from a possible military attack.
Amazingly so, 800 years later, the part of this wall had still survived. Today it allows us to know and to see the limits of Paris in those days. To find out where it is I advise you to go to number 9 rue du Louvre, in the 1st arrondissement. You find there the remains of one of the 77 towers of Philippe Auguste's enclosure. And at the corner of rue Charlemagne, rue des Jardins and Saint-Paul, in the 4th arrondissement, you will discover the remnants of almost 60 meters of the wall!
Here is another portion of places not to miss if you’re fond of middle ages as do I:
Museum of Cluny, the tour Saint Jacques, the museum of Carnavalet, the museum of Louvre (to see the remnants of the fortress commissioned by Philippe Auguste)
And if you want to know more on the subject don’t hesitate to go for a walking tour with a guide.
When tired of the flamboyant gothic architecture, charming medieval streets, and never dying, monuments, I propose you move on to the renaissance then. There are still so many things to discover together…
