Left Bank Tour

Wearing my Notre Dame (High School)
shirt in front of Notre Dame (Cathedral)

Success! I met up with Marie, the Discover Walks Left Bank tour guide, on time in front of the horse by Notre Dame Cathedral. She was my favorite guide. In part because the group was small enough we took a break for the best croissant in Paris, but mostly because of the details she shared with us. I later learned she normally does private tours. 

Paris dates back to the 3rd century BC when it was called Lutetia.

The nickname for policemen is poulet because the first police station was near the chicken market (now a flower market). They don't like

that nickname. The one I was familiar with is flic, which was a good guess but the wrong answer.

For the second time Hotel Dieu was pointed out on a tour. Dating back to 651, it is the oldest hospital in Paris. It is free. The word Hotel refers to hospitality. Dieu is because it is (was) run by nuns, whose job it was to help you die with dignity. The building is from the 1400's and is in the Italian Renaissance Style.

Marie led us inside to the courtyard. There is a statue of Guillaume Dupuytien, the man how invented hand surgery. Upon graduation, tradition called for students to enter the courtyard and dress him up with paint and clothing, which someone else then had to clean up. I hope the above link works, otherwise google his name and images. About four months ago they covered his statue in a plastic box to thwart the students from being able to do it again. Time will tell if that really stops them.

Back to the tour.

The Right Bank of the Seine River is the North. The Left Bank is the South. We headed south across Le Pont au Change -- the moneylenders' bridge. During the Middle Ages the moneylenders, jewelers, goldsmiths, and bankers had a double row of businesses along this bridge. This was the only place where they could practice their trade. People had to pay a tax in order to cross the bridge. The bridge burned down in 1621 and was rebuilt in stone about 20 years later.

Today iconic green bouquinstes line the sides of the Seine. These charming green boxes have sold used books since the 1600's. They are passed down from one generation to the next. While they can sell other items, the true spirit must be to sell books. It is an UNESCO site.

The Latin Quarter got its name because the Sorbonne University students would speak Latin to each other.

We passed the oldest tree in Paris (from the 1600's), which is by St. Julien le Pauvre, a Roman-style church built in Gothic times. It is one of the oldest churches in Paris.

Next we passed Shakespeare and Company -- a famous English bookstore. This is not the original shop. The original 1919 shop on rue de l'Odeon opened by author Sylvia Beach so expats could read anything they wanted to, and so she could help starving writers. It was a cultural center for English speaking people in Paris. Writers could stay there if they:
1) read a book a day
2) wrote about their time in Paris
3) helped out in the shop.

Ms. Beach refused to sell books to a Nazi so her shop was torched. In the late 1950s, Ms. Beach bequeathed the name to George Whitman who opened the shop in its current location and lived there until his death in 2011. His daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman, is the current proprietress. 

In front of Shakespeare and Company is a green Wallace fountain. Once seen, I could not un-see it. According to this article, there were 50 fountains built to provide free, drinkable water. They are mostly iron painted green in order to blend in with the park-like feel of Paris. Now that I know this, I will be refilling my water bottle at them. The city does close them from November to March in order to keep the pipes from freezing.

Space Invader street art appears throughout Paris, and the world. Created by UFA (Unidentified Free Artist) these mosaics of monsters pop out on sides of buildings. Another case of once seen, cannot un-see.

We passed the famous Caveau des Oubliettes jazz club. Following World War II some black GIs stayed in Paris and built jazz clubs rather than return to the restrictions of the United States. This one's name comes from the nickname for the king's prison -- once you enter, people forget (oublier) about you. For many years they had an active guillotine inside this bar, until someone realized a guillotine is not a good thing to have around drunk people. Go figure. The club was recently sold.

Like Le Marais, the Latin Quarter has twisty, windy Medieval streets. It, too, was not destroyed by Baron Haussman in the 19th century because it was the poor district where the students lived. The area still has some "belly houses" from that era -- homes built with slanted limestone walls to prevent fires from spreading.

Some non-sequiturs:
* the trashcan (poubelle) was named after Eugene Poubelle
* 70% of Parisians don't own a car
* rue des Anglais got its name from where the English (Anglais) settled
* universities used to be outdoors, students would sit on haystacks

Continuing on to boulevard St. Germain. Marie pointed to a building and asked us to identify which floor was where the wealthiest people lived. The correct answer is (what us Americans) call the third floor. It is the one with the highest ceilings and fanciest windows. The top floors were for the hired help (chambres des bonnes).

Our group was small and our guide efficient, so we made a quick stop at La Maison d'Isabele, winner of the 2018 first prize for best croissant. I opted for a petit pain au chocolat instead -- chocolate croissant. 

Marie pointed up the 57 meter tall hill to the Pantheon. Next she showed us Astronomy Tower in the biology and chemistry department at Sorbonne. Unfortunately the tower is not still in use, but it is built into the wall of the building. La Sorbonne was founded in 1253 by King Francis I so men could receive a free education in French. Early subjects included useful ones such as theology, history, astronomy, and philosophy. Education was free, but they did not receive a diploma. The first class had fifty students. By the end of the century, 1,000 students were enrolled. They couldn't afford to feed the students.

Cardinal Richelieu (the bad guy in the "Three Musketeers") gave money to the

university with the catch that they must include a chapel inside and that he would be buried in that chapel. During the French Revolution, students stole his skull. Today Sorbonne is made up of several universities, each with their own specialties. Paris VIII (where I was an exchange student) is not one of them. On the walls of the Sorbonne are statues of things you can study. 

In May 1968 the student riots happened here. They fought for improvements to the quality of education, especially improvements to the buildings. The occupation lasted a few months and spread to offices and factories. HERE is a 2018 New York Times article about it. Change happened. 

Famous people associated with Sorbonne include Jackie Kennedy (who was a student), and Marie Curie, the first female professor.

We passed yet another shop called Au Vieux Campeurs (old campers). Marie counted 26 on this walk. Most of them are in this neighborhood. Some across the street from each other. They sell camping equipment. Marie finds it a bit

fishy. 

The Musee de Cluny is dedicated to the Middle Ages that was closed for many years. It is built on the former Roman Baths. I did not go inside, but was told they have a unicorn horn on display.

We all rubbed Montaigne's foot for good luck. So far nothing lucky has happened (unlike the quick turn around from when I rubbed the toe of

the statue in St. Petersburg), but nothing unlucky has happened, either. Speaking of good luck, wishing an actor beaucoup merde before a show is good luck. Back in the day only the wealthy could afford to go to the theater. They would arrive in horse drawn carriages. At the end of the night, the theater would be filled with horse shit (merde). Lots of merde meant lots of people went to the show. Up there with break a leg, because that means you bowed a lot after the performance.

Our tour guide then points to some street art that popped up over the summer as a tribute to the May 1968 uprisings. Bristol artist Bansky quietly created between 10 and 12 paintings on buildings, which were later confirmed by his social media account. 

We turned to look at the Pantheon. The word pantheon means to all the gods. Louis XV christened the Pantheon as the "mausoleum of France." It was built by Soufflot in 1742 and finished in 1790, after his death. The important people of France -- French Revolutionary War heroes, philosophers, Victor Hugo, and Rousseau are among the 76 slots taken. There are still 224 places for people to be buried. Six women (including Marie Curie) are buried there. Most of the other women there are because they are resting with their husbands. Last year Holocaust survivor Simone Veil (a major political figure) was interred at the Pantheon. Her husband Antoine, who passed away in 2013, was brought over to rest with her. Veil was the first woman representative of the European Union and fought for women's rights to abortions.

That is where the tour ended. Marie suggested we dine at Le Pipes, but I decided to press on to the Lumieres and Ateliers exhibit I read about the day before I left for Paris.