What is that big ugly tower building that they are building near the river, down the street from the Louvre. It is going to be awful. How were they allowed to build a building that tall in that part of the city?
Rob
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Are you talking about the Tour St. Jacques, which is under renovation?
I can%26#39;t envision what you%26#39;re referring to...
Les
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That sounds right. Has that been there for a while? Maybe we just didn%26#39;t get down that street on our earlier trip.
To me you get very comfortable with the lower buildings and wide streets, then out of nowhere is this tower. Not my thing I guess.
Rob
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%26quot;That sounds right. Has that been there for a while?
Since 1523.
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When the %26quot;wrappings%26quot; come off, you will realize that this is in fact something that is very much in keeping with Paris (and, as the poster above noted, authentic and quite old). My recollection is that it was built to commemorate an event of some sort but I don%26#39;t recall what (if you look up Tour St Jacques in a guidebook, I would think you can find out about it).
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Oops, sorry.
Now I am curious to see what it looks like. My perception was apparently way off. It must have been the brain fog caused by shoe shopping with my wife.
Rob
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The Tour St. Jacques is where the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimiges depart. Pilgrims walk from the Tour all the way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It%26#39;s really rather important. But it%26#39;s been a work in progress (rather a renovation in progress) for a very long time, so a lot of people have no idea what is in there.
Thank goodness they are actually repairing it instead of just knocking it down!!
Les
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Hello
They are not building anything just repairing the Tour St Jacques--a very fragile tower which is the only rvestige of St Jacques de la Boucherie, a church built in the 16th C and destroyed at the very end of the 18th C.
Seen from the the North tower of Notre Dame with the famous %26quot;brooding devil%26#39; gargoyle in the fore- or middle-ground, the tower has become a symbol of Paris (used repeatedy in films, prints, even British anti-German propaganda during the First World War).
Another reason why it is so famous is because the famous alchemist Nicolas Flamel kept his manuscript shop and laboratory next to the medieval Church. He claimed he accomplished the Transmutation of mercury into gold on April 25, 1382. His followers are supposed to have represented the secrets of the Stone in the stone of the tour St. Jacques. Part of the myths of old Paris...
FW
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Here it what it looks like :
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Saint-Jacques
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Wow, was I off base. Thanks for the link.
Rob
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That%26#39;s okay - shoe shopping will do that!
One of the frustrating things about visiting any very old city is that at any given time at least some of the monuments will be under wraps for renovation (the first several times I was in Paris, some part of Notre Dame always seemed to be covered in scaffolding and/or canvas).
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