handsome square flanked by two vast theatres, with a view across the Seine to the Conciergerie on the south, the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli,
and a column and fountain in the centre to commemorate the conquest of Egypt.
In the Middle Ages, instead of package tours, people went
on pilgrimages. But they still mostly went to Spain, to the shrine of Santiago
de Compostela.
Sant’Iago = Saint-Jacques = Saint James. The pilgrims would start here, the
first of a string of St.James’ churches. The old road still leads straight as
an arrow across the island and away to the South. The pilgrims travelled in
groups for fear of robbers, and at intervals of a day’s journey there were
monasteries where they could stay the night. If you made it there and back, you
were allowed to wear a badge showing a cockleshell,
the medieval equivalent of an ‘I’ve been to Santiago’ T-shirt.
Why is there a tower and no church? Well,
during the Revolution the Town Council raised money by selling church
property. The church of
Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie was bought by a
manufacturer of lead shot, which you do by dripping molten lead down
the inside of a tower.
He demolished the church because it was in the
way, sold the materials to builders, and removed the various floors in the tower by the simple
expedient
of cutting the bells loose at the top. This must have
caused one of the finest sound-effects in history.
At the foot of the tower is a statue of Blaise
Pascal, scientist and philosopher. The statue was placed here because
it was known that Pascal did some
experiments on atmospheric pressure
on the tower of Saint-Jacques. It later turned out that he did them
at an entirely different Saint-Jacques,
but that’s life all
over.
Nowadays a mere shadow of itself, this street, Tannery Quay,
was always lined with plant shops and pet shops.
The latter, I remember, sold animals suitable for Paris life, like tiny rabbits
known as Lapins d'appartement.
The Paris Town Hall was a splendid medieval building which
unfortunately burned down during the suppression of the Commune in 1871.
Its replacement is still medieval in style, on an iron frame. The square in
front of it used to slope down to the river, and was called
Place de Grève – sandy beach square. This was where the unemployed used to
congregate in the hope of job offers, which why
a Frenchman on strike is said to be 'en grève'. Less pleasantly, it was also the
place of public executions of the more barbarous type.
Don't ask for details if you've eaten recently.
Saint-Roch
A rather ungainly classical-style church, which still bears
the scars of the moment when Napoleon,
not yet famous, put down a minor Paris uprising with 'a whiff of grapeshot'.
