Arrondissement N4

Hôtel de Ville



The Hotel de Ville in Paris is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. It has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357. It serves multiple functions, housing the local administration, the Mayor of Paris.

Île de la Cité



The Ile de la Citê is the cradle of Parisian civilization. It was here when the Parisii tribe lived. The Romans, led by Caesar's lieutenant Labenius, conquered the Parisii in 52 AD and set up camp. The city was given the name Lutecia, from the Latin lutum meaning "mud". During the barbarian invasion, Lutecia's inhabitants, galvanized by the young Sainte Genevieve, took refuge on the easily defended Ile de la Citê. Clovis, king of the Francs and defeater of the Romans, made the island his capital. It stayed the area's center of activity throughout the Middle ages.

Source: www.pariserve.tm.fr

Île Saint-Louis

The island is named after King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis). The island is connected to the rest of Paris by bridges to both banks of the river and by the Pont Saint Louis to the Ile de la Cité. This island was formerly used for the grazing of market cattle and stocking wood. One of France's first examples of urban planning, it was mapped and built from end to end during the 17th-century reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII. The Île St-Louis remains a lovely place to walk around and admire the still standing mansions.

Notre Dame de Paris



Notre Dame de Paris, often known simply as Notre Dame in English, is a Gothic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in Paris, France, with its main entrance to the west. It is still used as a Roman Catholic cathedral and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. It was restored and saved from destruction by Viollet-le-Duc, one of France's most famous architects. Notre Dame translates as "Our Lady" from French.

Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first Gothic cathedrals, and its construction spanned the Gothic period. Its sculptures and stained glass show the heavy influence of naturalism, giving them a more secular look that was lacking from earlier Romanesque architecture.

Source: Wikipedia

Place Dauphine



The Place Dauphine, laid out in 1609 while Place des Vosges was still a-building and named for Louis XIII as Dauphin, was among the earliest city-planning projects of Henri IV. The space, a rectangle with two canted ends was made over to Achille du Harlay to construct thirty-two houses of regular plan. It is approached through a kind of gateway centred on the "downstream" end, formed by paired pavilions facing the equestrian statue of Henri IV on the far side of the Pont Neuf. They are built of brick with limestone quoins supported on arcaded stone ground floors and capped by steep slate roofs with dormers, very like the contemporaneous facades of Place des Vosges. Few visitors penetrate Place Dauphine that lies behind them, where all the other buildings have been raised in height, given new facades, rebuilt, or replaced with a heightened pastiches of the originals. The former enclosing east side was swept away to open the view to the monumental white marble Second Empire Palais de Justice (built 1857-68), like a glazed colonnade centered on the Place Dauphine, the remains of which now form a kind of forecourt to it.

Place du Parvis



Place du Parvis Notre Dame at the front of the cathedral is an epicentre of tourist activity – tour groups, caricaturists and the occasional skateboarder – but the gardens at the rear and to the south are comparatively calm. Walk all the way round to appreciate the flying buttresses and the cherry blossoms in spring. Since the early 19th century there has been a colourful and sweet-smelling Marche aux Fleurs (Flower Market) at place Louis-Lépine, towards the centre of the island. On Sundays the market also sells caged birds and small pets.