If one looks closely, while wandering the streets of Paris, one can see the remains of the Medieval city. It's necessary to look closely, because unlike Americans who'd have capitalized on the money-making side of it by strategic placement of neon arrows and tacky billboards and an on-site gift shop featuring a line of plastic knights and damsels with every conceivable accessory (plus the requisite tee shirts), the French may or may not place a minute, discreet sign in the vicinity. The bottom picture in this set is a tower that was once part of a wall built by King Philippe-Auguste to protect the city in his absence during the Crusades of the 13th Century. If not for my Walks Through Lost Paris book (by Leonard Pitt, available on Amazon), I'd never have known it was there. Nor would I have known that the tower once housed a blacksmith shop. Now it's inside a restaurant in the passage that contains Marat's print shop and where Danton and Desmoulins used to live. The passage is where the moat used to be.
The two top photographs are of a section of the same fortification in another part of town. Elissa and Matt took me there. It looks like any other wall next to a school playground. Kids probably bounce basketballs off of it.
The third and fourth photographs in the above set are remains of the same Philippe-Auguste project; a fortress that was the original Louvre and is located under the current Louvre. It was discovered during excavations in the 1980's.
I realize this is more than anyone will want to know nor bother to read, but sometimes I simply can't stop writing.
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