Mysteries of Old Paris: from the Grève to the Innocents: audio walk in Paris
The dark side of central Paris, with every legend in its place: the square of the gallows and the Midsummer bonfire, the poisoner Madame de Sévigné watched go by, a murderer dragged out of a church, Nicolas Flamel and his philosopher's stone, the warrior in golden boots, the Cemetery of the Innocents and the street where Henri the Fourth was killed.
1.25 km · ≈ 50 min · 12 stops · ES / EN
What this walk is about
You start in front of the Hôtel de Ville, on the old Place de Grève, where the city punished and celebrated in the same spot, where the Marquise de Brinvilliers met her end, and where a palace burned in 1871 only to rise again exactly as it was. At the Tour Saint-Jacques you'll hear why Nicolas Flamel's tomb was there, how he got his reputation as an immortal alchemist, and what Pascal climbed up to measure. At Saint-Merri, there's a murderer the heir to the throne dragged out of the church's sanctuary, a warrior buried in golden boots, and the barricade Victor Hugo made ring out in Les Misérables. Behind it, a fountain of moving figures sits on top of a laboratory of sound. You finish on the square of the Innocents, above ten centuries of dead moved away by night, and in the street where a traffic jam left Henri the Fourth at the mercy of his assassin.
- Start
- The river beach where the scaffold stood
- Finish
- A king killed in a traffic jam
- Who it is for
- A walk for anyone curious about mystery and legend. For anyone who wants an evening stroll.
- Languages
- Spanish and British English
- Underfoot
- The walk is mostly level.