St. Paul etc...

I visited another area of Paris, hardly visited by tourists. It has anyhow its interest.

(The top picture is with a reference to Isabella who lives at a very nice place, Naples in Florida, although with a number of “gators” around, including on her golf course.)

We are just south of the more visited area of “le Marais” and the “Place des Vosges”, between Rue de Rivoli and the Seine River.

To start with there is the St.Paul-St.Louis Church, which is beautiful and has its own interest. Completed in 1641, under Louis XIII, as a Jesuit church, it was inspired by the Gesu Church in Rome. The first mess was held by Cardinal Richelieu. It was of course pillaged and partly destroyed during the 1789 revolution and some fantastic master pieces (Dürer etc.) disappeared.

What was once the church convent is today occupied by one of the most renowned Paris schools, Lycée Charlemagne.

Behind the church, you will find the largest remaining piece and some towers of the 12th century Philippe-August wall, which surrounded the then much smaller Paris.

A later king, Charles V chose to create a residence just outside the wall (1360). This area was later occupied by simple apartment houses, which were more or less restored during the last 30 years. Here you have today a quite a nice quarter going under the name of St.Paul Village. When I visited it this week, it was extremely calm (we are still in August and Paris is to a large extent “closed”), but the place is full of high quality antique shops (obviously also a “gator” for sale – see top picture), some bars and restaurants…. You enter by a number of arched passageways and all the small streets and yards are of course open only for pedestrians. Around the St.Paul Village, you have a number of narrow streets, some nice recently restored flats, a censored version of Manneken Pis…

I wish you all a nice weekend!

You can find the original photos on my other blog - "Peter - photos".