| The Tour Saint-Jacques, all that remains of a church that burned down in the 1700's. The surrealist André Breton was especially fond of it because of the way it stands lost in time and space. When this picture was taken, construction of an RER station underneath it limited public access. Inside there is a statue of the French chemist Lavosier, who conducted some experiments here; from what I could see from behind the construction barricades, he has a lot of pigeon poop on his hat. Near this spot is one of the most important crossroads in antiquity, of a major north-south and east-west road. The Parisii, a Gallic tribe, lived on the readily fortified Ile de la Cité, in the Seine, just south of here. |