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| Arene de Lutece |
Outside the walls of the ancient town of Lutetia the Romans built an amphitheatre in the first to second century AD. Arenes de Lutece was a vast arena seating between 10,000 and 15,000 spectators who witnessed celebrations and gladiatorial contests. In 280 AD the amphitheatre was destroyed and the area was used as a cemetery until the 13th century when it was filled in. The site was was re-discovered during road building works carried out in the 1869 and is today partially restored with some of the original walls. It was a sunny crisp morning as we visited this site.
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| City Wall |
In our walk we passed a piece of the 1210 city walls built by King Phillipe Auguste before departing on the third Crusade
Nearby is the Eglise Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. This was built around an Abbey founded in 502 AD and was the resting place of of the Frankish King Clovis (c. 466 – c. 511) who united much of France and St Genevieve (d 512), the patron saint of Paris. The original Abbey was built over in the 18th century but during the Reign of Terror in the Revolution in 1793 the tomb of Genevieve was destroyed, her bones burned at the current site of Hotel de Ville and the ashes thrown into the Seine.
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| Mark & Murray on Pont de Sully with Notre Dame in background |
For lunch we had the best meal of the trip at a restaurant in the vicinity called Le Boussion Ardent with a good friend from Adelaide, Physicist Murray Hamilton. Le Buisson Ardent restaurant is located on the site of the Abbey of Saint Victor, which was destroyed during the French Revolution. Since the end of the Middle Ages there had been various establishments here called the Buisson Ardent, which in Biblical tradition symbolises the monotheistic God’s revelation to Moses.
We wandered back to the Isle St Louis and perused the shops on the right bank Marais area.
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