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Introduction

Musee Picasso

Musee Carnavalet

Musee Cognaq Jay and walk

Place des Vosges
Musee Victor Hugo

Jewish area-Rue des Rosiers

Carreau du Temple -market-Musee du Judaisme

Village Saint - Paul Hotel de Sens

Ile de la Cite
Cathedrale 
Notre Dame de Paris

Ile Saint-Louis

Place de l'Hotel de Ville

Paris-Place and Hotel de Ville

Paris dining world!!!!

Book a Paris hotel on line

Honoré de Balzac, the great French writer about the life and customs in Paris of the 19th century, had this ferocious description of the Parisian people in « La Fille aux Yeux d’Or » in 1834 : “Look at them, these Parisians! They scare the hell out of you…! Yes, the bourgeois look terrible: bony, meagre, scanty, yellow or burnt by the sun”. You can verify Balzac’s description every day in front of the centre Pompidou, still in renovation today (except the temporary exhibitions), where a motley crowd, composed by students, clochards, backpack tourists, fire-eaters, card fortune-tellers and other clear-sighted camp in front of the “steamship”. Let’s continue our walk in the 4^th arrondissement. Leaving the Marais but still staying in the 4^th take the rue Saint-Martin, the rue de Rivoli towards the place de L’HOTEL DE VILLE, a white 19th century building. 

Since Antiquity, the shores of the Seine were very swampy at this spot and soon the Parisians created a small harbour. It grew bigger and was known as the “Port de la Greve” in the 12^th and 13^th century. The adjacent square (the place de Greve, now place de l’hotel de ville). The place de Greve was the meeting place of all the unemployed (origin of the expression: faire la greve: to strike). Also a place for celebrations and executions. In 1357, the “prefet” Etienne Marcel built the first town hall of Paris on this square. He chose a house, enhanced with columns, and gave it a Renaissance style. Between 1310 and 1830, all outcasts, pariahs, thieves and bandits were attached at the pillory and severely beaten and tortured. Reread “Notre Dame de Paris “ by Victor Hugo: “”The place de Greve was a horrible dark place, and so was the sinister town hall. Death was always present here by the presence of the gallows in the middle of the square, a pillory, chains and scaffold. This square of Death had always a morbid attraction on people””””

During the French revolution it was one of the most important political centres. After the taking of the Bastille the mob stormed the building and murdered the prefect Flesselles.

This place was used for executions a long time before the guillotine was even invented. How many heads rolled down here in front of an enthusiastic but shivering public, which had no other distractions since soap TV was not invented yet! It’s here that Marat, Robespierre and Danton held their famous speeches. And the marquis de la Fayette, well known by the American revolutionaries, added the royal white to the blue and red colours, which created the French flag. The  hotel de ville, put on fire in 1871 by the “Commune de Paris” revolutionaries, was completely destroyed and a new one build, same style (Neo-Renaissance) but bigger. Renovated and cleaned thoroughly in 1982 it is shining again as in times long gone by. It is now the centre of cultural or sport manifestations like the giant Christmas crib, the winter ice-skating rink or the giant TV screen that was set up for the world soccer games in 1998 (that’s over now).Cross the pont “d’Arcole” to arrive at the cathedral Notre-Dame. But that’s for the next article….

Bibliography:

--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris, ed.Hervas (1985-1988) --Nouvelle Histoire de Paris, ed.Hachette --Le Pieton de Paris, by L.P.Fargue, ed.Gallimard 1997 --Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris, by A.Fierro, ed.Laffont, 1996 --Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, by J.Hillairet, ed.Minuit    --Dictionnaire des monuments de Paris, by J.Colson and M.C.Lauroa, ed.Hervas 1992 --Guide du Routard 1998-1999 (Ed.Hachette) --Paris, 2000 d'histoire, by J.Favier, ed.Fayard 1997 --Naissance de Paris, by M.Fleury, ed.Imprimerie Nationale 1997 --Paris 19eme siecle, l'immeuble et la rue, by F.Loyer, ed.Hazan, 1994 --Balzac, La Fille aux Yeux d’Or. --Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris.