Part One · Within Paris
The Islands, the Louvre and the Marais
1er, 2e, 3e and 4e arrondissements · fourteen churches · 42 recorded visits
The oldest part of Paris lies here: the Île de la Cité, where Notre-Dame stands. Beside it is the Île Saint-Louis, and on the Right Bank are the quarters of the Louvre, Les Halles and the Marais. Fourteen churches in the record stand within these four arrondissements, close enough together that the centuries change quickly as you walk.
They cover more than six centuries of building. The first stone of Notre-Dame was laid in 1163. Saint-Merry and Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs are Flamboyant Gothic, the last phase of Gothic, named for its flame-shaped stone tracery; Saint-Eustache sets Renaissance ornament on a Gothic frame; Saint-Gervais received a classical west front between 1616 and 1621. Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, facing the Louvre, was the parish of the kings of France. The most recent of the fourteen, Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement, was built between 1826 and 1835.
Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Notre-Dame, Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois and Saint-Eustache were all visited on 2 October 2018. Saint-Eustache has seven recorded visits in all, Saint-Merry five, and Saint-Gervais, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis and Saint-Louis-en-l’Île four each. Four of the fourteen were first visited in 2025 or 2026.
THE FOURTEEN CHURCHES OF THE 1er, 2e, 3e AND 4e
Numbers are catalogue numbers. Church positions from published coordinates; the Seine and the boundaries are simplified.
The churches, in the order of the book
Hoc est opus. Et satis est.