Paris in Layers

       Paris is an old city.  It has been established by many different empires, expanded upon, and rebuilt several times.  There is no real distinction from the past and present; they are woven together into one piece.  It is so interesting how far the history goes back in Paris.  It is much different than America, which in relativity is not a very old country at all.  Many of the sights here in Paris date back to very early times.  This walk took us through several layers of the city’s history and showed us how the city has been built upon through time. 

 It started out with the Hotel de Ville.  The original was built during the time of Francois I but destroyed during the Commune.  The one today was built in 1873 but is an imitation of the original.  Honestly, I think the building looked very authentic and wouldn’t have known that it wasn’t the original.  The building had a good amount of detail on the outside making it quite an elegant building.  In the square in front of the Hotel de Ville, numerous executions took place during the ancient regime.  Today, depending on the season, there are many family activities like ice skating in front of the building.  It is crazy to think that some time before people were being killed here and now people are skating around an ice skating rink without a thought about it.  This piece of land in Paris has a long history but yet has evolved and been rebuilt upon. 

Then we walked across the Seine River to head towards Notre Dame.  The bridges were old and as you looked to the river you could see water marks along the wall of the river.  These lines show some history as well depicting where the river once flowed.  It was also interesting to look at some of the apartments that were along the street and above the stores.  Some looked newer than others but for the most part they also seemed to have a history themselves.  This was no suburban string of homes that were only a century old like in America.  They had character and decoration that dated to other eras in time.   

At Notre Dame, we gazed at the cathedral and reflected on its history.  Our book explained how the cathedral is a collage made up of elements from almost every century since it was first constructed.  It was built on a site that once was where a Romanesque church stood and even before that there was a Roman temple.  The cathedral has been partially destroyed and rebuilt many times.  I noticed the ornate detail and sculpture design on the frontal portals.  The walk then took us to the Crypte du Parvis that shows more of the ancient layers of Paris.  Nineteenth-century foundations have been built over sixteenth-century which has been upon twelfth-century and third century.  I had never known about this deep layering of the city.  The city is definitely a collage of the past. 

Then the tour winded around the Palais du Justice and Conciergerie.  These buildings had past uses that have now evolved.  Part of the Conciegerie was under construction and so we were unable to see the oldest clock in Paris that has been ticking since 1370.  The Conciergerie was a royal residence during the middle ages but during the revolution it served as a prison.  At times it held over a thousand of prisoners that awaited execution, some of them being Marie-Antoinette and Charlotte Corday.  It was in the Conciergerie that they spent their last hours before being led to the guillotine at the Place de la Concorde.  Inside the building there was very interesting medieval architecture.  There were vaulted ribbed arches that were pointed.  The thick stone pillars helped hold the weight of the ceiling.  Today the building is used as a museum exhibit hall but as people walk through they can reflect on the long history that the building contains. 

The foundation of Paris has been built upon previous establishments, the architecture of the buildings date back to earlier times, but yet the places used today differ from what it used to be.  The history of Paris has not left the city; it continues to have a strong influence on the culture and people and is so noticeable by just looking at the buildings.  Parisians can’t tell a distinct break from the past and present because the two are so tightly combined and attached together.  Everything is still part of the city and on this walk we were able to peel through a few layers and see what the city really was made of.