A Note on the Name

Ludovicus is the Latin name that became Louis in French and Luís in Portuguese, and it turns up on many of these doors. Saint-Louis-en-l’Île, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Saint-Louis-d’Antin, Saint-Louis-des-Invalides and the cathedral at Versailles all carry the name of Louis IX, who was king of France when several of the oldest churches in this book were already standing.

Hoc est opus, a body of work on practical discipline, judgment and deliberate living, is published under the name Ludovicus Aurelius. The walks recorded here began before that work took its present form, and were not undertaken to illustrate it. The attention they asked for is the same attention it describes.

The churches were not chosen for their name, and the connection was noticed late. It is a coincidence rather than a design. But a walker named Ludovicus entering a church named for Louis is the sort of small symmetry the city keeps offering, and it is better pointed at once than left unremarked.