Step 1

How to arrive at this step?

From the line 10 underground station “Cluny-La Sorbonne”, continue straight ahead toward the boulevard Saint-Michel and take on your left hand at the corner. Walk a few metres until you see three walls in bricks and white stones.

Riddle

Have you seen that the grounds of these three different areas (on the left and on the right of the space in front of you with the arches) are not at the same level? Do you know why?

• Grounds were at the same level but with destructions and archaeological excavations, they aren’t any more.
• The street is sloped, they were obliged to adapt their construction to have a flat floor
• These buildings were ancient thermal baths with different baths of different depths

These walls are effectively the old Roman thermal baths, built between the 2^nd and 3^rd century. You are seeing now walls in white stones and bricks but you have to imagine them covered by a coating and presenting a fine and very aesthetic decor. Brick was used to build less expensive constructions (ashlar are more expensive than brick) but was used here mainly for the brick thermal qualities. Indeed, three different baths formed these thermal baths: tepidarium (tepid water bath), caldarium (warm bath) and frigidarium (cold bath). Different temperatures but also different ways of bathing (totally immersed or not) so different levels of floors. Moreover, heating and water evacuation were located under the floor where a complex system was developed under each bath.
It’s quite hard to imagine how important for Romans and Romanized peoples were thermal baths: it was an open space (open to everyone, the entrance price cost almost 0,50€), where everyone came to work out body (sport in the gymnasium, before bathing) and mind (library inside the bath complex), where they had appointments and all these in a fine place: marble on walls or paintings and almost each time mosaics. Besides, there is still a mosaic from the Roman thermal baths showed in the Museum of Cluny, if you have time, this museum is worth really the visit!

• Thermal baths of Cluny (Wikipedia article)
• Musée du Moyen-Âge (official website)

--------------

[__/su_spoiler] [_/su_spoiler]

Step 2

How to arrive at this step?

Walk around the Museum (if you have time, walk through the medieval garden that is really nice) and reach the Cluny street (rue de Cluny) then the Boulevard saint-Germain, then the rue saint-Jacques, straight ahead toward the chevet of Saint-Severin church (extraordinary choir and ambulatory, a must see if you have time!). Then turn to your right hand toward the rue Galande then, left hand, on the rue saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. You are in front of the church; if it is open, enter to visit it. If not, go behind, in the square René Viviani.

Riddle

Why this square is famous for?

• This is the smallest square of Paris
• This is the only proper view from which to see Notre-Dame quietly and without any tourists
• It has the oldest tree of Paris

We are here in an area with very old stuff. Yes, this place is often the best area to see quietly Notre-Dame but it is also where the oldest tree of Paris is supposed to be: It is said to have been planted in 1601 by the botanist Jean Robin.

Near this tree, you can see a sculpture by Georges Jeanclos dedicated to local children dead during the deportation.

But if you are in this square it is also because of the Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre church, the oldest church of Paris, built in the 12^th century. At this time, you have to imagine that you were outside Paris; around you: only fields, monasteries, fishermen. In front of you, Notre-Dame has just started its current construction as you know it today and –so strange for us to imagine– several islands on the river Seine: not only the Cité island as we know it today, but three shorter ones.

• Notre-Dame (Wikipedia article)
• Saint-Severin church (Wikipedia article)
• Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre church (Wikipedia article)
• Jean Robin (article Wikipédia)
• Georges Jeanclos

--------------

[__/su_spoiler] [_/su_spoiler]

Step 3

How to arrive at this step?

Now, go toward Notre-Dame by the bridge just in front of you.

Riddle

During the French Revoluion, Parisians destroyed many church portals but on the Notre-Dame portals, one sculpture was left untouched, the one of sainte Geneviève (to see it, go to the left portal, left door, look at the right side of doorway, on the lower third). Why?

• They didn’t see her
• They were superstitious
• They did destroy it, the legend is wrong

Sainte Genevieve is the patron saint of the city of Paris and it seems that she was closely involved in the construction of the first church of Notre-Dame. She is also present in another part of Paris: on the saint Genevieve “mountain” where stands the Pantheon. During the French Revolution there was a lot of destruction but with the aim of breaking the hierarchy made of noble(wo)men (including, for the more extreme revolutionaries, the King) and clergy but not religion itself (it will be later and elsewhere). Saint Genevieve is not a symbol of the clergy but of the protection of the city and its independence (the mythological tale said that she threw on the besieging enemies a pig to tell them that the siege of the city can last longer as Parisians have more than enough to live, which was highly wrong of course. Certainly this tale is wrong but it is quite funny!).

• Notre-Dame (Wikipedia article)
• Patron saint Genevieve (Wikipedia article)
• The French Revolution (Wikipedia article / BBC article)

--------------

[__/su_spoiler] [_/su_spoiler]

Step 4

How to arrive at this step

Walk around the cathedral and take the bridge, at the end of the island, Quai de l’Archevêché. Walk on the Seine River bank, in the opposite direction of the traffic and take the first double stairs you find on your left. Walk down the dock until the Arab World Institute (huge white rectangle building with pattern of musharabie) is above you and the park with several stairs in front of you.

Alternative route: in the square behind the cathedral, continue to the saint-Louis island, in front of you and wander through short streets and docks and finish by a Berthillon ice cream (31 rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Île) to give you energy for the end of this trail. Then take the Boulevard Henri IV (at the opposite end of the island from where you entered it) on your right hand and go down to the docks.

Riddle

How many sculptures are standing in this square?

• 37
• 25
• 13

You are here in the open-air sculpture museum of the Paris Council with its 37 sculptures, made between the 1950’s and the end of the 20^th century. (for more detail, see the links below)

• Arab World Institute
• Musée de la Sculpture en plein air (Wikipedia article / article Insecula)

--------------

[__/su_spoiler] [_/su_spoiler]

Step 5

How to arrive at this step

Follow the dock then walk up until the Jardin des Plantes (Plants Garden) gate. Enter. Wander through the park in the direction of the huge sculpture makes you back, in the middle lane, in front of the Museum façade.

Riddle

Who is represented by this statue?

• Buffon
• Cuvier
• Diderot

You are in the Jardin des Plantes (Plants garden), the first place where botanic, chemistry and anatomy were taught for free in Paris (since 1640). In 1739 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Earl of Buffon (1707-1788) was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi (name at this time of the Jardin des Plantes, it was, at this time, the private stock of medicinal plants for the king) and transformed it into a true scientific research centre. He wrote here also the 36 volumes of his main work, L'Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749–1788). In this statue, Buffon carries his watch on this place.

Get higher in this garden and keep following Buffon by finding the gloriette, after the greenhouses on the right side when facing the museum. A spiral footpath is waiting for you to bring you in this pavillon where it said that Buffon watched the sky. You will read “Horas non numero nisi serenas” on the fronton because it was used as sundial; you understand now why “I count only the hours without clouds”.

• Louis Buffon  (Wikipedia article)
• Muséum d’histoire naturelle (official website / Wikipedia article)
• Georges Cuvier  (Wikipedia article)
• Denis Diderot  (Wikipedia article)

--------------

[__/su_spoiler] [_/su_spoiler]

Step 6

How to arrive at this step

Walk out of the Jardin des Plantes by the Museum entrance and take on your left the Rue Daubenton then right, the Rue Georges Desplas. You are turning around the Mosque of Paris, our last step of this trail –the main gate is in front of you, 2bis Place du Puits de l’Ermite.

Riddle

Which year was inaugurated the Mosque of Paris?

• 1895
• 1926
• 1947

In 1895, a first Mosque project was planned on the Quai d’Orsay (where are the National Assembly or the Invalides) but the current Mosque was decided after the First World War in honour of the Muslim soldiers who fought for France. In 1922, the construction (wholly financed by the French government) began and finished by the inauguration on the 16^th July 1926. Architectural styles used are Tunisian (for the minaret) and Moroccan. The mosque comprises the large hall for prayers, one madrassa (school), a library, a conference hall, Arabic gardens and annex areas turned towards tourists and visitors. Because today, you can visit the mosque (except the Friday), bathe in the hammam or taste one of their Oriental pastries or Mint tee in the nice patio, like a jaunt in Morocco in the heart of Paris.

• Mosque of Paris (official website / Wikipedia article)
• Islamic architecture (Wikipedia article)

[__/su_spoiler][_/su_spoiler]